Her Majesty's Necromancer (The Ministry of Curiosities #2)(32)

"Will you take one of the men with you?" I asked.

"Seth is still out and Gus can't stay awake."

Gus grunted and sat up straight. "I'm awake!"

Cook snorted.

"Besides, I don't wish to alert Mr. Lee to my interest," Lincoln said. "A single gentleman whom he already knows can make discreet inquiries. An entourage will raise questions and shackles."

"Why have you been to Mr. Lee's before?"

"Why does anyone go to Lee's? Don't wait up for me. I'll probably be out all night."

I blinked at his back as he walked away. Once he'd left the kitchen, I turned to Gus. "Did you know he'd been to an opium den before?"

"No, but nothing about him surprises me," Gus said, settling back down into the chair.

"Aye," Cook chimed in from where he sat beside me. "Best not to think about all the places our leader has been. He be a worldly sort."

Worldly was one thing, but frequenting an opium house was quite another. There was only one reason to go to a place like Lee's—to smoke opium.

I returned to the mending, wondering if I would get any sleep at all as I alternately pondered this new piece of information and worried about him. One thing would help me rest easier, however—he seemed to have calmed down and forgiven Cook for the knife-throwing incident.

***

Cook informed me over breakfast that Lincoln had not yet returned. I tried not to look worried, since he didn't seem to be. Gus had relieved Seth at the cemetery a few hours earlier and the latter was now asleep upstairs in his attic room.

"Cheer up," Cook said as he handed me a boiled egg in a cup. "There be sponge cake later."

"Delicious! Are we expecting guests?"

"Don't think so. Fitzroy asked me to bake it."

"But he hardly ever eats cake. Why would he ask for it specifically if he's not expecting guests?"

His hairless eyebrows lifted. "You can't guess?"

"No."

"He knows it be your favorite."

I scoffed. "I doubt that's it."

He smirked but said nothing further. Perhaps he was right and the cake was a peace offering for his bad temper. Since it wasn't something he actually had to bake himself, it was hardly a very convincing one.

I cracked the top of my egg open with a spoon and peeled off some of the shell. "He's rather hot and cold lately. Have you noticed that?"

Cook sat with me, two boiled eggs in front of him as well as a slice of toast. "He been that way ever since you moved in."

"That's not a comfort. Indeed, I feel rather guilty now, thank you."

He held up his hands. "I just be tellin' it as I see it."

I couldn't know if he was right or not, but I felt Lincoln's bad humor had increased recently—since he'd learned that I'd asked Lady Harcourt about Gurry. I hated to think that my prying had put a wedge between us that might never be fully removed, but I wasn't completely sorry. How else was I meant to learn more about him?

Seth finally awoke late morning, about the same time that Lincoln returned, along with Gus. The latter had deep blue-black circles under his eyes and a spider web of red lines on his eyelids. He pounced on the soup Cook placed on the kitchen table in front of him and devoured it in a few gulps.

Lincoln set a large rectangular box on the table and took a seat. A blue silk ribbon was wrapped around the box, tied up in a bow. Silk ribbons were expensive. Seth, Gus, Cook and I all exchanged glances, but if Lincoln noticed, he didn't say. He merely sat at the table and accepted the bowl of soup Cook placed in front of him. He ate with less greed than Gus, but asked for more when he'd finished.

"Don't spoil your appetite for cake," I told them.

"There's cake?" Gus asked.

"Sponge. I believe we have you to thank for it, Mr. Fitzroy."

Lincoln's gaze slid to Cook and turned frosty. "We haven't had one in a while. I thought it was time."

"Actually, we had one only last week."

"I forgot."

"Is that so? And here I thought you forget nothing." I thought it best not to tease him too much, since he was trying to broker peace. Poking the bear would be unwise. "Sponge cake will go nicely with a cup of tea later."

He accepted the second bowl of soup from Cook and gave me a somewhat hesitant nod.

"Do you want me to return to the cemetery?" Seth asked from where he was leaning against the doorframe.

"Not yet," Lincoln said. "There's been no sign of the captain so far, and I suspect he'll be hesitant to return there. He's unlikely to risk trying to retrieve them."

I removed my apron and joined him at the table. "That will set him back, if he was specifically after those bodies."

"I'd say he was. He picked them for a reason. I questioned Mr. Tucker this morning and he claims three of them are from his cemetery, the first one taken and the last two."

"Gordon Thackery being the very last."

"The first was the one you witnessed, Charlie. His name was Lieutenant Martin Jolly, and another was Captain John Marshall. Mr. Tucker also spent yesterday traveling to the other London cemeteries. He discovered the second body to be dug up came from Kensal Green."