Page 85 of Betrayal from Beyond
“I’m afraid I’m here to see Mr. Preston, please. It seems our business is not quite finished.” She smiled at the man. “But I promise not to take up too much of his time.”
He frowned. “Stars above, but the man has had a stream of visitors, hasn’t he? I’m sorry to disappoint you, Your Grace, butMr. Preston is not here at the moment. He got word from one of the quarries and had to go straight out.” He shook his head. “It seems as if there is trouble with the type of stone they are using in the royal entrance hall of the tower. I hope it doesn’t put them too far behind schedule.”
“Oh dear. How distressing for Mr. Preston.” Tilting her head at the man, she gave him a smile. “Did he happen to mention what time he would be back?”
“Oh, no. He wouldn’t keep me informed of his comings and goings, ma’am.”
Kara allowed herself to look dismayed. “I beg your pardon if I misspoke.”
“No, ma’am. Not at all. Not at all.” The porter blinked. “Oh, but I did hear Mr. Preston tell one of the masons that it would be late this evening before he made it back, if at all. The mason had concerns about the calculations for the stone needed for the storage room floors. There will be ever so many of them, ma’am, for the King’s Tower will eventually house all of the Parliamentary records, stretching all the way back for years and years.”
“How interesting,” Kara told him. “Oh well. I suppose I will have to come back, if Mr. Preston does not mean to return until late.”
“If at all, miss. We might not see him until morning.”
“I suppose it cannot be helped.” Kara started to turn away, but stopped to face the porter again. “You said that Mr. Preston has had several visitors recently?”
“Aye, miss. You and the duke were the first, but there has been a steady stream of them since. Sir Charles Barry himself come around to speak to him, ma’am. I admitted him myself and heard him complimenting our progress.”
“How gratifying,” Kara said with approval. “If I might ask…” She pulled Sculley’s sketch of Petra from her bag. “Was this lady one of Mr. Preston’s visitors?”
The porter’s eyes narrowed. “She was, at that.”
“When did she visit, if you can recall?”
“Oh, I won’t soon forget her. She came yesterday, and let me tell you, she had no encouraging words for any of us. Insistent, she was, and more than a bit nasty with it.”
“Sounds right,” Dalton muttered.
“Thank you. You’ve been so helpful,” Kara said warmly to the porter. “I’ll be sure to mention it to Mr. Preston.”
The man brightened. “Thank you, ma’am! I would like to get a better assignment. Assistant foreman, or something like. I’m sure I could do a decent job of it, and a good word can’t hurt.”
“Good day to you.”
Dalton offered his arm. Kara took it, her mind whirling while they walked away. “So Petra leaves Chiswick for London yesterday morning. She stops in here to see Preston, then goes back to ‘tie up loose ends.’”
Dalton snorted. “A nice way of saying she meant to kill me.”
“Last evening, she told the Russian that she took care of obtaining the missing piece to their device and—punished an old enemy at the same time.” She stopped walking. “She must have tasked Preston with obtaining whatever they are missing. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Dalton gestured to the massive construction going on behind the wall. “An engineer, in charge of a project like that? He could likely obtain all manner of odd or dangerous things.”
Kara started walking again. “But one of the first things Preston does is visit Tom Hawkins, who promptly leaves his hiding spot.”
“Scared away?” Dalton asked. “Or forced away?”
“Niall was right. Petra must have threatened Tom.” She started striding faster. “Come, we have to tell him. There’s no use hanging around here waiting for Preston if he doesn’t mean to return until late.”
“We are going to the duke, then?”
“It’s not far,” Kara told him. “It will be faster to walk. Let’s go.”
*
No one answeredwhen Niall knocked on the door of Preston’s rooms. He waited a moment and knocked again. “Preston?” he called.
All lay quiet.
