A Wedding In Springtime(63)

The party began to break up and some of the men took their leave. The coats were requested, and Genie followed her aunt and uncle into the entryway of the grand Marchford house. The rest of the potential husbands prepared to leave, with Mr. Blakely bowing over her hand.

“Perhaps we can meet again soon and you can show me this contraband guidebook,” said Blakely in an undertone.

“I’d like that,” she whispered back. “I shall have to smuggle it out of my room somehow.”

“Perhaps a secret rendezvous?” he suggested.

“Yes, let’s!” Genie agreed.

Lady Bremerton drifted closer, making the sharing of confidences impossible, so Blakely took his leave.

“Made a new friend?” asked Grant with a slight edge to his voice Genie was unaccustomed to hearing.

Genie chose to ignore the comment and replied in an undertone, “I am sorry you were stuck playing whist with my aunt.”

“It was my best game of whist in years,” declared Grant, but Genie was unsure it was a compliment. “Did you have a good evening?” Mr. Grant met her eye.

“I had a most respectable time,” said Genie, and then realized she had chosen the wrong word. She meant to say lovely or entertaining or pleasant, not “respectable.”

Grant laughed, and in the confusion brought by the arrival of their coats, he whispered, “How dreadful. You have my full sympathy.”

“I meant to say it was a pleasant evening,” Genie whispered back.

“Now I know what you truly mean if you ever use that word. I do hope you will never describe me as ‘pleasant.’” With a wicked wink, Grant escorted her to the door. She left but not without leaving a few slivers of her heart behind.

***

“How was it Mr. Blakely found you?” asked Marchford after all the guests had left.

“Entered the study saying he was looking for the dining room,” said Grant.

“A ruse?”

Grant shrugged. “You have a big house. He’s unfamiliar with it. Get lost myself sometimes.”

The men returned to the study where Lord Thornton was reading a book in a chair, his back to the wall and the entire study within view. A loaded revolver sat on an end table next to him. The broken window had been boarded up, giving the normally sophisticated study a shanty feel.

Thornton snapped the book closed when the men entered. “What’s the plan?”

“To catch a thief,” stated Marchford, producing a black bag and proceeding to pull out tools.

Grant picked up a handsaw and a gimlet. “Exactly what do you intend to do with this thief? Seems a bloody mess.”

“These are for some renovations,” said Marchford.

“What do ye plan to do?” asked Thornton.

“I intend to make some modifications, and I am hoping you both will prove to be able tradesmen to do it,” said Marchford.

“What?!” cried Grant. “Too far, my friend! Remind me why I am here standing guard over this thing?”

“Because there is no one else I trust,” said Marchford simply. He rolled out a scroll with some roughly drawn plans. “This is the plan. Do you think it possible?” he asked Thornton who was looking over his shoulder.

“Aye, ’tis possible, but it will ruin the paneling.”

“Grandma won’t like it,” stated Grant.

“That is nothing new,” muttered Marchford. “I will leave this project in your capable hands.”

“Leave? Where are you going?” demanded Grant.

“I have a date with an opera singer.”





Twenty





Jem crept through the dark alley, though the night was black as pitch. It was not his first time finding the door in the dark. He entered the cellar through a gap in a boarded window. A single candle burned on an old table, a small point of light that seemed to be swallowed whole by the dark surroundings.

“So you finally decided to join us,” said the man with the burned hands.

“Sorry. I had to wait till that housekeeper went to sleep. She’s a cunning one.”

“The lads had to wait for you to return to be fed,” said the Candyman with deceptive mildness. He gestured to a row of five-foot square cages along the wall. Locked inside were skinny children, their eyes reflecting the single flame of the candle. They were unnaturally silent.

“Tell me what you have learned, and I will tell you if they have earned any bread today,” said the man.