Page 20 of Empire of Shadows

She raised her eyes to the clock beside her bed. One of the hands clicked forward.

The time was precisely twenty-two minutes past five.

Her plan fell neatly into place.

It was mad. It would be by far the most rash and irresponsible thing that Ellie had ever done—and that included chaining herself to the gates of Parliament.

It could also work… so long as she could refrain from being assaulted for exactly eight minutes.

What was the alternative? Leaving her map to a well-spoken criminal?

Ellie slammed shut the book and yanked a battered valise from the bottom of her wardrobe, dropping it onto her bed. She began tossing things into it as she spoke.

“I need you to take this to Canonbury Station and buy a ticket for the West India Docks,” Ellie ordered.

“The docks!” Constance exclaimed as two practical changes of clothes and a bundle of flannels landed in the suitcase. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

Ellie added a hairbrush and four pairs of spare stockings to the pile.

“I have analyzed the alternatives and—”

Constance cut her off, leaping into action.

“This is marvelous!” she declared. She grabbed a bottle of face cream and a silk scarf from Ellie’s dressing table and threw them in as well. “But I don’t see why you’re running. I can confront the fellow with my jiu jitsu.”

“Absolutely not,” Ellie shot back as she packed a pair of nail scissors and a still-wrapped bar of soap. “The man is a villain. Your jiu jitsu is most useful when evading capture or restraint, but you cannot expect it to allow you to overcome a person twice your weight.”

“But Sensei Tani taught me an excellent maneuver that I have been dying to try out,” Constance cut in as she tossed an entirely impractical blue silk dressing gown onto the growing stack of items.

“That will not be necessary,” Ellie asserted, snatching up a blank notebook and pen from her writing desk. “This fiend cannot know Canonbury nearly as well as I do. I will lead him on a chase and then double back to meet you.”

Not for the first time, Ellie wished that ladies could don a pair of trousers without the garment being seen as an invitation to ridicule or harassment. Thankfully, she at least made a habit of dressing practically. Her boots were sturdy, and her plain tweed skirt wouldn’t hamper her movements too badly once she had hiked it up over her shins.

Exquisitely conscious of her limited time, Ellie fought to get the suitcase closed. Constance added her muscle to the effort and finally hopped up to sit on the lid, which allowed Ellie to fix the latch.

Ellie pushed the suitcase at her friend.

“Be ready,” she warned. “If I do not succeed in losing him first, I will be cutting this rather fine.”

“You may count on me, of course,” Constance returned stoutly.

Ellie shoved open the window facing the side of the house and swung a leg over the sill.

“Thank you. You are a true friend, Connie,” she said meaningfully.

She grasped hold of the wisteria trellis, setting her boot to one of the sturdy rungs. Casting one final glance back into her bedroom, she took note of the time on the clock as its most slender hand ticked neatly forward.

Five minutes and forty seconds, Ellie calculated.

She swung out onto the wisteria. It took her only a moment to descend the vine, landing solidly between her house and the semi-detached next door. She hurried up the narrow path and emerged into the street.

Constance hadn’t been entirely wrong about the man on her doorstep. An idle passer-by might have found him reasonably good-looking. His pale skin and dark hair complemented his lean build and regular features—but his gaze was cool and flat in a manner that reminded Ellie of the unhurried danger in the tones she had overheard from Mr. Henbury’s office.

Florence was oblivious to the threat. Based on her pose in the doorway, Ellie’s stepmother was mildly flirting as she assessed whether the fellow was a reasonable candidate for a new son-in-law.

A neighbor at the next house was out front watering his garden. A few scattered people strolled down the road. Ellie felt certain that only their presence had prevented the stranger on her threshold from shoving past Florence to get inside.

Thankfully, the neighbors were not an impediment to Ellie’s plan.

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