Wrede, Patricia C - Mairelon 01 (27 page)

           
"It
was your idea to get hold of that blasted platter!" Jasper said, ignoring
Stuggs. "The whole thing was your idea, start to finish!"

           
Mairelon
cleared his throat, which recalled the presence of an audience to the
combatants. Lady Granleigh closed her mouth on whatever she had planned to say,
and Jasper subsided on the hearth once more, holding his head. Mairelon smiled
blandly. "And how would Lady Granleigh's, er, acquiring the Saltash
Platter advance you with the Ministry, Lord Granleigh?"

           
Lord
Granleigh looked at Mairelon in surprise. "Good Lord, man, recovering the
Saltash Set and catching the thief would give anyone a boost! One of those
chaps down at the
Royal
College
came up with a gadget that said so, and the whole Ministry has been buzzing
ever since."

           
"A gadget?"
Mairelon frowned, distracted.
"Not one of Fotherington's crystals? He's been trying to get them to make
accurate predictions forever; do you mean to say he's finally succeeded?"

           
"As
it happens, yes," the Earl of Shoreham said. "You can discuss it with
him later."

           
"How
did he get it to
--
"

           
"
Later
, Richard.
Right now, we want your story,
and you must admit we've been very patient."

           
"Too
patient," Hunch said darkly.

           
"Oh, very well.
I think I have enough of the pieces to
put together a fairly good picture. It's a long tale, though; you'd best make
yourselves comfortable."

           
The Earl
suppressed another sigh and leaned against the door. Mr. Bramingham, looking
mildly puzzled, held a chair for Renee D'Auber, while the rest of the company
(with the exception of Stuggs and his prisoners) settled themselves around the
room. Watching Lady Granleigh and Jonathan Aberford vie for a chair, Kim was
glad she'd bagged the footstool before it had occurred to anyone else to sit down.

           
"The
story begins about five years ago," Mairelon said, and Kim smiled,
recognizing the familiar lecturing tone. "The Saltash Set, of which this
is part, was being displayed in the antechamber of the Royal College of
Wizards, to which I had recently been elected.

           
"Lord
St.
Clair"--Mairelon gave him an ironic
half-bow--"had for some time been attempting to obtain the Saltash Set
from the College, but for one reason or another, the College refused to sell.
So he decided to steal it. Having no experience with the finer points of theft,
he approached his illegitimate half brother, Daniel Laverham, for assistance.

           
"Laverham
sent St. Clair a young man named James Fenton, who I must suppose was both an
accomplished housebreaker and extremely loyal to Laverham. Laverham, you see,
disliked and distrusted St. Clair--"

           
"With reason!"
Dan Laverham interrupted, glaring
at Lord St. Clair.

           
"Quiet,
you," Stuggs said. "You'll 'ave your chance to talk later."

           
"St.
Clair arranged for Fenton to steal the Saltash Set," Mairelon continued.
"St. Clair must have taken care of the
Royal
College
's magical precautions
against theft, and Fenton did the rest, including dropping one or two items
he'd stolen from me in the antechamber to make it look as if I were the thief.
He had even timed things so that I'd be on my way home alone from my club when
the theft occurred, so he had no reason to worry about laying information at
Bow
Street
against me.

           
"Unfortunately
for St. Clair, things began going wrong at that point. I ran into Shoreham here
outside the club, and we got to arguing about the use of invocations in wards
and protective spells. We ended up at Renee's, experimenting with catnip and
powdered pearls until the watchmen made their morning rounds."

           
"Then
why didn't you say so?" Andrew burst out. "Why did you let everyone
believe
--
"

           
"At
first, because I didn't see the need," Mairelon said. "I didn't think
anyone would take the accusation seriously. And there was Renee's reputation to
consider."

           
"Which
was a great foolishness," Renee D'Auber said emphatically. "I am the
eccentric, me, and no one pays the least attention when I do odd things."

           
"Not
now
," Mairelon agreed. "But five years ago you were barely
eighteen, and it would not have done."

           
"Bah!"
said Renee, dismissing these imaginary terrors with a wave. "You are
altogether English, and very silly besides. Papa and I would have contrived
something."

           
"But
once you knew the Runners intended to arrest you--" Andrew said and
stopped, looking from Mairelon to Renee uncertainly.

           
"By
then I had asked them not to say anything," the Earl of Shore-ham said.
"It was the perfect excuse for Richard to fly the country and take up
residence on the Continent, and we needed someone like him to do just that.
Someone who could deal with any level of society, someone who
wouldn't look too suspicious, and above all, someone who knew magic.
Richard was perfect."

           
"So
Hunch and I fled to
France
,"
Mairelon resumed. "Meanwhile, Fenton took the Saltash Set to Laverham
instead of St. Clair. Since Laverham didn't know the set had magical
properties, he broke it up and sold it to spite his brother. By the time Fenton
learned that the set was more useful together than apart, it was too late. The
pieces were scattered, and practically impossible to trace."

           
Laverham
and St. Clair were looking at Mairelon as if he had suddenly acquired two
heads; the rest of the company was listening with rapt attention. Kim shook her
head in admiration. Mairelon had put it together so neatly that he might have
been eavesdropping on Laverham and St. Clair the whole time.

           
"One
of the pieces of the set, the bowl, was purchased by a German Baron,"
Mairelon said. "I got wind of it, and after the war I stayed on the
Continent to track it down. It took me nearly a year. Meanwhile, Laverham had
recovered two of the four spheres, and the platter had fallen into the innocent
hands of Mr. Aberford's little group."

           
Jonathan
Aberford scowled, and Kim wondered whether he was more annoyed by Mairelon's
reference to the druids as a "little group" or by his characterizing
them as innocent.

           
"That
was the situation some four weeks ago when I returned to
England
,"
Mairelon said, giving Jonathan a charming smile. "And things began to get
complicated. Naturally I couldn't return as myself; the Runners were still
after me, and I have a great deal of respect for their abilities." He and
Stuggs exchanged nods. "So I chose the role of a market performer. No one
expects a real magician to work for pennies and the occasional shilling in a
market, so I didn't expect anyone to look for me there. But I did send word to
Shoreham, and I presume he told you, Lord Granleigh."

           
Mairelon
paused and looked at Lord Granleigh expectantly. Lord Granleigh nodded.
"He did. We discussed the implications at some length." He glanced at
his wife and added, "In my study."

           
"That
will be how Lady Granleigh heard about it," Mairelon said with supreme
lack of tact. "She, ah, persuaded her brother to help her find me,
intending, I suppose, to collect me and as much of the Saltash
Set
as possible and present the lot to the
Royal
College
on behalf of her
husband."

           
"And
a proper mull 'e made of it," Stuggs put in, looking scornfully at Jasper
Marston. "Went around askin' this one an' that one, with no more sense
nor
a baby. Word was all over St. Giles before the day was
out."

           
"How
was I to know?" Jasper complained.
" 'Find
this Merrill person,' she said; well, how do you find one man in the whole of
London
without asking?"

           
"Which
explains how
Bow Street
heard of my return," Mairelon said, "and undoubtedly how Mr. Laverham
heard of it, as well." He glanced at Dan, who glared and said nothing.
"
Bow Street
arranged
for Mr. Stuggs here to keep an eye on Mr. Marston. At least, I presume it was
Bow
Street
." He threw a sidelong look at the Earl
of Shoreham.

           
The Earl
laughed. "Right again, Richard. Stuggs has done a job or two for me
before, though this wasn't one of them. How did you guess?"

           
"He
recognized you when you arrived just now," Mairelon answered. "And
only one of your people would call you 'sir' and not 'my lord.' "

           
Lady
Granleigh sniffed, but a look from her husband kept her from saying anything.

           
"Once
he found Mairelon the Magician, Mr. Marston hired Kim here to look through my
wagon for the Saltash Bowl. I, er, found her in process and persuaded her to
come with me after she completed her commission from Mr. Marston."

           
"Cloth-head,"
Kim muttered, not entirely sure whether she meant Marston or Mairelon.

           
"I
suspect it was Laverham's men we gave the slip to on our way out of
London
,"
Mairelon went on blandly. "It doesn't matter, though. Shore-ham told us
where the platter was, and we came here to recover it. I'm not sure how Renee
found out where we were headed--"

           
"Lord
Shoreham told me," Renee said. "And since Monsieur Andrew Merrill was
of an unhappiness, and had besides heard some of the rumors, and since I also
heard that the Bow Street Runners were of an interest, I thought, me, that it
would be best to come here and arrange matters myself."

           
"Renee!"
Shoreham looked horrified.

           
"Oh,
I was very discreet," Renee assured him. "No one knew I was not in
London
,
except of course Madame Bramingham and her guests, and Monsieur Andrew stayed
at the inn in that town with the dreadful name I cannot remember."

           
"Swafflton?"
Mairelon murmured.

           
"Yes,
that is it," Renee said. "And it has all turned out well, so there is
no reason for you to pull your mouth down, so, and make faces as if you have
the stomachache."

           
"You
should have left matters to me," Shoreham said, shaking his head.

           
Renee
opened her eyes very wide.
"Truly?
But it does
not seem to me that you have done very much."

           
"It
wasn't necessary," Mairelon said. "Any more than it was necessary for
you to come."

           
"Well,
but it might have been," Renee replied, unperturbed. "And it is
better to be too ready, is it not? Also, I do not see that you would explain
anything at all to me if I had stayed in
London
,
and I do not wish to perish of the curiosity. So I am glad I came, and I do not
care if you look very sour about it."

           
Mairelon
rolled his eyes, and Kim laughed. She was beginning to like Renee in spite of
herself.

           
"I
don't know whether Lady Granleigh knew that the Saltash Platter was in Ranton
Hill when she came down to Mrs. Bramingham's house party," Mairelon went
on after a moment, "but I rather think not. It didn't take her long to
discover it and send for her brother, though, and the roads and weather being
as they've
been,
both of them were settled in before
we arrived.

           
"Laverham
must have known the platter's whereabouts for several months, at least, but he
was being very cautious. He arranged for James Fenton to take a job as footman
to Freddy Meredith, intending to have Fenton steal the platter for him later.
Fenton had other ideas."

           
Dan
Laverham muttered something under his breath and glared at Mairelon. Mairelon
smiled, and Kim shook her head. He was enjoying this altogether too much, she
thought.

           
"Fenton's
family was respectable, and his brother was a silversmith. Fenton persuaded him
to copy the Saltash Platter exactly. Perhaps the original idea was to cover up
the theft of the platter for as long as possible, but he must have realized
fairly soon that he could make a tidy sum selling copies of the platter to each
of the, er, interested parties. Since he wasn't a magician himself, he didn't
know that the forgeries would be childishly easy to spot.

           
"When
the copies were finished, Fenton replaced the real platter with a copy and hid
it in the druid's lodge." Mairelon waved at the gaping hole in the floor
in front of the hearth. "But he was stretching his luck; making the copies
had taken a long time, and Laverham was beginning to worry, particularly since
by then he'd heard that I was back.
So Laverham sent Jack
Stower there down to Ranton Hill to check on Fenton."