Rendezvous (41 page)

Harry glanced around, curious in spite of himself. He had visited Sally frequently, but she had never entertained him here in the drawing room after it had been turned into Pompeia’s. The club was for women only, she had said. She could not violate the rules, even after hours.

“Gives a man an odd feeling, doesn’t it?” Peter kept his voice down as he came to a halt next to Harry. “I was never allowed past the threshold, you know. But I always felt a little uncomfortable when I got a good look inside from the door.”

“I see what you mean.” Harry studied the shadowed pictures on the wall. He recognized many of them at once. They were all women who had managed to survive in myth and legend in spite of what Augusta called the general historical bias against females. Harry was beginning to wonder just how much history had been lost because it had pertained to women and had therefore been deemed unimportant.

“Makes a man curious about what females get up to and what they actually talk about when they are on their own together with no men around,” Peter observed quietly. “Sally always said I’d be surprised if I knew.”

“She used to tell me I’d be shocked,” Harry admitted wryly.

He watched the black velvet cloak swirl around Augusta as she walked over to a Greek pedestal. There was a large, leather-bound volume lying on top.

“This is the notorious betting book?” Harry walked across the room to join Augusta.

“Yes. And it is closed. Just as she said I might someday find it.” Augusta opened the volume slowly and started turning the pages. “I do not know what I am searching for.”

Harry glanced at some of the entries, all in feminine handwriting.

“Good God,” Harry muttered. “So much for a man thinking he has some privacy.”

“The ladies of Pompeia’s are very fond of wagers, my lord.” Augusta sniffed again. “The club will close now, I suppose. I shall miss it. It was a home to me. Nothing will ever be the same here.”

Harry was about to remind Augusta that she did not need Pompeia’s because she had a home of her own when a piece of notepaper fluttered between two pages of the book.
“Let me see that.” He snatched it up and examined the list of names.

Peter came forward to peer over his shoulder while Augusta craned her head to get a peek.

“Well?” Peter demanded.

“It’s a list of names, all right. No doubt a partial membership list of the Saber Club. This is Sally’s writing.”

Peter scowled at the list. “I do not recognize any of those names.”

“Hardly surprising.” Harry pulled the lamp closer and studied the list more closely. “It’s in the old code Sally was accustomed to use for her messages to me.”

“How long will it take you to decode all those names?” Peter asked. “There must be at least ten there.”

“Not long. But after we know who the members were, it will take some time to determine which ones could possibly be the Spider.” Harry folded the paper and stuck it safely into his pocket. “Let us be off. We have much to do before dawn.”

“What do you want me to do?” Augusta asked quickly.

Harry smiled grimly and readied himself for the battle ahead. “You must go home and awaken the household. Then you will see that you and Meredith are packed and ready to leave for Dorset by seven o’clock.”

She stared up at him. “Seven o’clock this morning? But Harry, I do not want to leave town now that we are so close to finding Sally’s killer and the identity of the Spider. You must let me stay.”

“There is not a chance of me allowing you to stay. Not now that the Spider is aware of this list and will stop at nothing to get it.” Harry took her arm and hauled her toward the door. “Peter, perhaps your fiancée would enjoy a short stay in Dorset?”

“I think that would be an excellent notion,” Peter replied. “God knows I would just as soon she was out of town until we find the Spider, and I am certain Augusta would like the company.”

“I do wish the two of you would cease making plans for me as though I were not able to think for myself,” Augusta said loudly. “I do not want to go to Dorset.”

“But you will,” Harry said calmly.

“Harry, please—”

He thought fast, searching for the most effective lever to use in this argument. When he found it, he applied it mercilessly. “It is not just your own pretty neck I am worried about, Augusta. There is Meredith to consider. I must be certain my daughter is safe. We are dealing with a monster and we do not know to what depths he will sink.”

Augusta was clearly thunderstruck by the implications.

“You believe he might threaten Meredith? But why would he do that, my lord?”

“Is it not obvious? If the Spider reasons I am the one trying to find him, he could use Meredith to get at me.”

“Oh, yes. I see what you mean. Your daughter is your one great weakness. He might know that.”

You are wrong about that, Augusta. I have two great weaknesses. You are the other
, Harry thought. He said nothing aloud, however. Let her think his chief concern was Meredith and that he was depending on her to take care of his daughter. It was her nature to go to the rescue and defend the innocent. “Please, Augusta. I need your help. I must know Meredith is safely out of the city before I can concentrate on finding the Spider.”

“Yes, of course.” She looked at him, her eyes grave with the acknowledgment of her responsibility. “I will guard her with my life, Harry.”

Harry touched her cheek gently. “And you will take excellent care of yourself, too, hmmm?”

“Certainly.”

“You and Meredith shall have a little help,” Harry said. “I am sending you down to Dorset with an armed escort. The men will stay with you at Graystone until I get down there myself.”

“An armed escort. Whatever does that mean, Harry?” Augusta was clearly startled.

“Less exciting than it sounds. I shall send a couple of grooms with you who have been in my service a long while. They both will be armed and they will know what to do if there is any trouble.”

“She’ll be safe enough at Graystone,” Peter said. “In the country everyone knows everyone else and a stranger in the district will be noticed immediately. And then there are the dogs. No stranger will be able to get into the house without the dogs sounding an alarm.”

“Exactly.” Harry looked at Augusta. “And you will have Claudia for company.”

Augusta smiled slightly. “I would not count on that. I seriously doubt that my cousin can be ready to travel by seven o’clock this morning.”

“She will be ready,” Peter vowed softly. “I want her out of Town as badly as Harry wants you out.”

Augusta eyed him thoughtfully. “I see. I am certain Claudia will find the experience of being sent off at a moment’s notice extremely interesting.”

Peter shrugged, apparently unconcerned by the notion of a recalcitrant Claudia.

By seven o’clock the next morning, all was in readiness. Harry stood on the steps of the town house and said good-bye first to his daughter. Meredith was disappointed at having to leave the city and all its entertainments, but her father had explained there were matters at the estate which required Augusta’s attention. She accepted that explanation, but nevertheless reminded him that she had not yet seen Vauxhall Gardens.

“You shall return shortly and I will take you there myself,” he promised her.

Meredith nodded, satisfied. She hugged him fiercely. “That will be nice, Papa. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye, Meredith.”

Harry put his daughter into the big black traveling coach and then turned to meet Augusta, who was just coming down the steps. He smiled at her elegant dark green carriage dress and frivolous high-crowned bonnet. Trust Augusta to look stylish even when she was being hurriedly packed off to the country at seven in the morning.

“Is all well, then?” she asked as she came to a halt in front of him. She fixed him with a steady look, her eyes serious in the shadow of the bonnet.

“Yes. Your cousin will be waiting for you at her house. You shall all be on your way shortly. You will spend the night at an inn and be at Graystone tomorrow afternoon.” Harry paused. “I shall miss you, Augusta.”

She smiled tremulously. “And I shall miss you, my lord. We shall be awaiting your arrival down in Dorset. Please be very, very careful, Harry.”

“I will.”

She nodded and then, without any warning, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him full on the mouth right there in front of Meredith and the cluster of servants milling about the carriage. Harry started to fold her close, but it was too late. She was already pulling away.

“I love you, Harry,” Augusta said.

“
Augusta
.” Harry instinctively reached out for her, but she had already turned and stepped into the waiting coach.

Harry stood watching as the black and silver coach rumbled out into the street. For a long while he simply stood there, repeating Augusta’s parting words over and over again in his mind.
I love you, Harry
.

It was, he realized, the first time she had ever actually said the words aloud. He knew now that a part of him had been waiting to hear them for a very long while.

I love you, Harry
. The locked door hidden deep inside him opened wide and what lay behind it no longer appeared so bleak.

Dear God, but I love you, too, Augusta. I had not realized until this moment how much a part of me you have become
.

Harry waited until the black coach was out of sight and then he went on up the steps and into his library. He sat down behind his desk and unfolded the list of names Sally had found. It did not take him long to decode them.

When he was done, he studied the eleven names. Some of the men on the list he knew had died in the war. Some he knew simply did not have the intelligence or temperament to have been the Spider. A few of the names he did not know at all. Peter no doubt would recognize them.

But it was the last name on the list that caught and held his attention.

He was still sitting there, staring at the last name, when Peter was shown into the library.

“Well, they’re off, safe and sound,” Peter announced as he sprawled in a chair. “I just came from putting Claudia into your coach. Meredith said to say good-bye to you again and to remember that in addition to Vauxhall, she would very much like to go back to Astley’s.”

“And Augusta?” Harry tried to keep his tone cool and restrained. “Did she have any further words for me?”

“Said to tell you again that she would take care of your daughter for you.”

“She is very loyal,” Harry said softly. “She is a woman a man can trust with his life or his honor or his child.”

“Yes, she certainly is,” Peter said with a knowing look. He leaned forward. “What have you found? Anyone interesting on that list?”

Without a word, Harry turned the decoded list of names around so that Peter could read them. He saw Peter’s mouth thin as he reached the last one.

“
Lovejoy
.” Peter looked up quickly. “Good God. It fits, doesn’t it? No family, no past, no close friends. He has realized we are making inquiries. He tried to deflect us by making it appear Richard Ballinger was the Spider.”

“Yes. He must have discovered that the list of members of the Saber Club had fallen into Sally’s hands.”

“He went to search for it. She was awake, waiting for us, and no doubt surprised him. So he killed her.” Peter’s hand closed into a fist. “The bastard.” Peter sat back. “Well, sir? What is our first step?”

“It is past time I paid that second late-night visit to Lovejoy’s library.”

Peter cocked a brow. “I shall go with you. Tonight?”

“If possible.”

But it was not possible. Lovejoy spent the evening entertaining male friends at home. Harry and Peter kept watch from a darkened carriage as the lights in Lovejoy’s library stayed on until nearly dawn.

The next night, however, Lovejoy went out to his club. Harry and Peter entered the library through the window shortly before midnight.

“Ah, there is the globe safe you mentioned,” Peter murmured, starting toward it.

“I think we can forget the globe.” Harry peeled back the edge of the carpet. “Lovejoy made no secret of it when I came here to speak to him the morning after Augusta and I discovered her vowels in it. He probably uses it chiefly as a convenient storage place for minor valuables and perhaps as a decoy. The Spider will doubtless have a second, better-hidden treasure chest.”

“I see what you mean. Nothing much in here.” Peter had gotten the globe open and was peering inside. He closed it again and began systematically going over the paneling at the far end of the room.

Twenty minutes later, Harry found what he was searching for when he tripped the hidden lock mechanism in a floorboard.

“I think this is what we want, Sheldrake.” Harry lifted a small metal box out of the flooring. He went still, as a footstep in the hall announced a servant who was probably
sneaking in late after a visit to a tavern. “We had best examine this elsewhere.”

“Agreed.” Peter was already halfway out the window.

An hour later, sitting comfortably in his own library, Harry got the metal box open. The first thing that caught his eye when he looked inside was the glitter of gems.

“The Spider appears to have taken his traitor’s pay in jewels,” Peter mused.

“Yes.” Harry fished impatiently through the heap of precious stones that littered the bottom of the box. His fingers closed around a packet of papers and he lifted it out.

He flipped through them quickly and paused when a small notebook fell into his hand. He opened it and saw that for the most part there were only a few short, cryptic entries for dates and times that could have meant anything or nothing. The last note, however, was far more interesting. And far more disturbing.

“What have you got there?” Peter leaned forward for a closer look.