Page 16 of Betrayal from Beyond
“Then you’ll be right here in the neighborhood, won’t you?” She brightened. “Actually, you might wish to take my little chaise. You and Mrs. Canning can drive out. That seems…” She glanced at Harold and stopped herself before she saidsafer.They were still doing their best not to alarm him. “…better? Doesn’t it?” she finished.
“Perhaps I should just stick close to Bluefield,” Turner said.
“Well, you are always welcome to invite Mrs. Canning to spend the afternoon here.” Well aware of the rivalry between Turner’s love interest and her own housekeeper, she doubted he would agree to that suggestion.
He pursed his lips. “Perhaps you are right. A drive might be just the thing. Thank you, Your Grace.”
“Just keep alert, will you?” she asked with a raise of a brow.
“Of course.”
After luncheon, Harold went to prepare for his mathematics lesson while Kara settled into the ivory sitting room, at thedrafting desk in the corner. She set to work sketching out the mechanism that would unfurl the kite on the picnic automaton. It was the most complex part of the piece. She had done something similar before, but on a much larger scale. Adjustments would have to be made.
Time passed, but she scarcely noticed, she’d become so lost in the connections and their mechanics. She jumped when a footman knocked upon the door and thrust it open at the same time.
“Your Grace! Can you come? One of the guards says there is a woman at the gates. They will not let her through, and she is in a lather!”
Kara’s belly clenched. A woman? Surely it was not Petra Scot? But who, then?
She stood. “Is Mr. Welk still here?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” She strode out into the passage. “Make sure he stays upstairs and keeps Harold occupied. Take him aside to explain, if you must.”
Tom was waiting for her in the entry hall. “I’m going with you,” the underbutler declared. “Please don’t try to stop me, Your Grace. You know it’s what Turner and the duke would both insist on.”
“Thank you, Tom,” she said, grateful for an ally. The young man had proven useful in the past.
She rushed out and followed the drive down to the gate. As they drew near, Tom positioned himself in front of her. She craned her neck to see around him. She could hear men talking loudly and feminine…sobbing?
She stepped around Tom, then rushed to the gate. “Open it! Open it!” she called. “Mrs. Canning?” Dread threatened to choke her as the disheveled housekeeper fell into her arms. “Are you all right? Where is Turner?”
“Oh, Your Grace! Thank the heavens above! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell these men. Please, tell them to come! Turner has been hurt!”
*
It had beena frustrating trip for Niall. Wooten had been unable to provide any new information about Petra or her whereabouts.
“We thought we’d found William Barnstaple, but it turned out to beBillyBarnstaple, a fifty-year-old manager in a tannery in Bermondsey.” The inspector shook his head. “Either she’s left England again or she’s tucked herself well away in a hidey-hole.”
“She must be up to something nefarious. Surely she did not come back only to harass Kara and me.”
“Oh, I’m sure she has something else up her sleeve. I just haven’t figured out what it is. Yet.” Wooten cast a sidelong glance his way. “We have interviewed the educators who raised her. They were no more thrilled than you to hear she is back, but they haven’t seen her or heard from her.”
“She already ruined them,” Niall said. “She confessed as much to Kara. It was one of the first acts she pursued, along with her fellow founding members of the League of Dissolution. No. She’s a planner, that one. I’d wager she’s got some new scheme in mind. She’s likely just playing with us in the meantime.”
“Not everything burned in that fire in Seven Dials, you know. We recovered some of the League’s files. They were investing.” Wooten consulted his notebook. “In railways, metal plating for ships, and something called the Submarine Telegraph Company.”
“Yes,” Niall said bitterly. “That was their aim. Start a war and profit from it. She admitted it without compunction.”
“Companies like that are no strangers to their large investors,” Wooten said. “I have men talking to each of them, hoping there might have been some contact.”
“Investments will likely lead you to Barnstaple. He was the one who was good with numbers and strategy.”
“I strongly feel that finding him will lead to her,” said Wooten. He sounded confident.
“I hope you are right.”
