Page 54 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
“Can we look anyway?”
“Please,” Alex added with a warm smile.
The landlady gave in and led the way. She stood in the doorway while we gave the room a thorough inspection. The bed had been stripped, so it made it easier to check the mattress and pillow. Aside from a nightstand by the bed, and a small table with one hardback chair, the only other piece of furniture was an old armchair upholstered in dark green velvet. There wasn’t even a portable stove to boil a kettle on.
Alex slowly paced the floor, using his weight to test each board to find any loose ones. Willie got down on her knees and checked the small cast-iron fireplace before peering under the dresser. I contemplated unpicking the seams of the mattress and pillow but decided to look for wall cavities first.
The landlady frowned as I knocked on the panels. “Do you think your cousin hid something in here?”
“He was a secretive man,” I told her.
I hadn’t got far when Willie declared she’d found something. She brandished a small envelope as she stood. “Found this at the back under the dresser. It’s addressed to Alcott.”
Alex peered over her shoulder. “Who is it from?”
She turned the envelope over. “There’s no return address.”
“What’s inside?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s empty.”
“Then it’s useless.” I heard the bleak tone in my voice but couldn’t help it. The hopelessness that had been creeping ever closer as the day wore on now washed over me. We had a suspect, but without a forwarding address, we were no closer to getting Gabe back.
Our search yielded no results and we returned to the motorcar. The drive back to Park Street gave us time to discuss our next move. Unfortunately, we had no ideas. Aside from alerting Scotland Yard to Frank Alcott’s involvement, there was nothing more we could do. There was nothing the police could do either, if the former orderly had gone underground. If a man didn’t want to be found in London, he could disappear with ease. Thurlow would be hiding, too, after his failed attempt to kidnap me, as would Ivy and Mrs. Hobson.
It seemed Alex’s mind had turned to them, too. “Jakes is right about the Hobson women. They’ll reveal themselves soon. A life in hiding, out of the social spotlight, is not the life they want to live. The moment they’re found, we’re going to grill them about hiring Alcott. It must have been them. It’s too much of a coincidence that Bertie was a patient at the same hospital where Alcott worked.”
Willie turned in the front seat so she could see both Alex and me. “What if we underestimated Bertie?”
Alex shook his head. “He’s not smart enough or brave enough to orchestrate something like this.”
“He might be desperate enough, though.”
Alex adjusted his hands on the steering wheel. His silence was telling. He thought her theory had merit.
The timing didn’t match, however. “Bertie was with me when Gabe was abducted. He couldn’t be in two places at once. The same as Ivy, Mrs. Hobson, and Thurlow.”
Willie’s jaw set hard, and her eyes flashed. “Was Bertie with youallthat time, or just when you escaped?” Before I could answer, she added, “He didn’t need to personally abduct Gabe anyway. He could have hired a second man to work with Alcott. Bertie’s a weedy little runt, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he gottwothugs to do his dirty work.”
“At least he’s currently incarcerated. I handed him over to Jakes.” Even as I said it, I worried that he could have been released.
A dark pit opened inside me. Had I helped the mastermind behind Gabe’s abduction escape? I pressed my fingers to my lips as bile rose up my throat. Willie’s glare left me in no doubt that she blamed me.
Alex came to my rescue. “It’s more likely that Ivy and her mother are behind it, not Bertie. They’re ruthless and smart, and Bertie’s mother is more desperate than either of her children to save the family business. Now that her husband has gone, they need to find a leather magician willing to work for them without getting any acknowledgment as the magician. Even if they found one who didn’t work for his own business, he won’t want to sit in the shadows for long. He’ll want a slice of the company, perhaps a large one. She wouldn’t like to go down that route.”
“How will studying Gabe’s magic help solve that problem?” I asked. “When Bertie was admitted to Rosebank Gardens, they thought his magic could be extracted, but everyone now knows that’s not possible. Abducting Gabe won’t help Bertie or the company.”
“Maybe this ain’t about studying Gabe’s magic,” Willie said. “Maybe it’s about punishing him for not publicly supportingthe Hobson family when they needed it. And for ending his engagement to Ivy.” Her glare turned even colder.
Part of me thought she was being unfair. But there was a part of me that agreed with her. Gabe was an honorable man. Even if he realized he didn’t love Ivy, he might have gone through with the wedding if he’d never learned what it meant to truly fall in love. He may never have known what he was missing.
Just as I may never have known what I was missing if he hadn’t entered my life. Now I knew what passionate, selfless, all-consuming love felt like. It was deeply fulfilling, uplifting and powerful.
At the moment, my fear for his safety made love feel like sheer torment.
Tears welled and my chin shuddered as I tried desperately not to cry. In the end, I couldn’t control the tears and they slipped down my cheeks. I looked away.
To my amazement, Willie reached out and rubbed my knee. When I risked looking at her again, her anger had vanished. Her own eyes welled with tears, too.
