Page 86 of A Treacherous Trade
“Startling your postman, apparently.” He offered me the stack of letters, and I took them, walking my fingers though each one, searching only for red ink and the slanted, angry script of the Ripper’s.
Finding none, I abandoned the post to the tray on a table beside the door. I gathered my umbrella in case the threatening sky should pour its contents on my new hunter-green frock coat with the brown fox-fur collar.
“You look—smart,” he commented. “Going somewhere important?”
I didn’t want to answer that, so I deflected. “Are you here to share any news gleaned from Scotland Yard’s investigation on M Division?”
“Fiona Ina Muerinn Mahoney, that is no way to greet a gentleman caller.” Aunt Nola descended the stairs with the regality of the Queen, though I was chagrined to note that neither she nor Mary had tidied her hair.
It was early yet, but if one wanted a show of hownotto greet a gentleman caller, it would be looking like a woman who’d been blown off a widow’s walk during a sea gale.
“I’ve an appointment, Aunt Nola. It wouldn’t do to be late,” I said over my shoulder, pulling the door as close as I could to block her from view. “Inspector Croft and I are just discussing some business and will be on our way now. I’ll see you and Mary for tea.”
“No, you won’t be home for tea,” she predicted, peeking over my shoulder like an obstinate child and shoving her way between my body and the door to get a better view of the goings-on.
“Go back inside, Aunt Nola, until Mary can arrange your hair,” I urged, prodding her toward the kitchens by way of the black squares. “She’s laid out breakfast and coffee on the sideboard.”
“Is he here to inform you about the betrayal?” She clung to the door, squinting at Croft with a lack of recognition, though they’d met briefly before.
He wasn’t a man one easily forgot. But neither was she of sound mind.
“No, he is not,” I insisted, doing my best to gently pry her fingers from the doorlatch. “He’s simply—” I paused. I still didn’t know the reason for his arrival.
“What betrayal is that, Ms. Mahoney?” Croft addressed my aunt in a velvety voice I hadn’t known he possessed. One meant for speaking to babies and praising animals rather than barking at criminals and antagonizing me.
Nola narrowed her eyes on Croft, inspected him from teeth to toes. “The cards. The guides, man. They promised treachery, betrayal, ruin, deceit, a break of trust, and an unseen enemy. Someone beloved will be disloyal.” She pointed a gnarled finger at Croft. “Or maybe whoyoulove? In any case,someonewill be in love, and then…treachery. Treachery will tear those who love asunder. Forever.”
“Dear me,” Croft said, placing a hand over his heart, still treating my enfeebled aunt with rare good humor. “I certainly hope not.”
“It’s already happened, Nola,” I said, attempting to assuage her. “Your guides were right. Alys Hywell and Jane Sheffield were in love. And they were both killed, likely betrayed by someone they knew.”
She shook her head. “Then why aren’t they silent?”
Theywere never silent.
Desperate to get to my appointment, and hear what Croft was doing all the way in Chelsea when he was stationed in Whitechapel, I patted her on the arm. “Perhaps you could pull more cards? Might they clear things up?”
She put up a finger. “I’d have to clip some angelica from the garden first and set out a quartz.”
“Then by all means.”
Giving one last look to Croft, she pointed at him, but said nothing as she turned away and did a strange little hopscotch toward the back of the house.
“She’s harmless,” I said, stepping outside and closing the door firmly.
He didn’t move away, and we crowded each other on the landing.
His scent.
I really wished he smelled like anything else. It was so pleasant. So comforting. So… so everything he wasn’t.
It was I who made the retreat, nearly flying down the stairs to find a hackney. “You’ll have to be quick, Inspector, as my appointment is in about twenty minutes.”
“I’ve nothing I can divulge to you right now.” He caught up to me easily and offered me his arm. “I thought I’d accompany you to the coroner so Dr. Phillips could update the both of us.”
I gaped at him. “How did you find out I was going to see Dr. Phillips?”
“Ihappento be a detective, you know.” He tapped on his temple. “Finding things out is more or less what I do.”
