milliners using the plait. It came from a small Buckinghamshire village and cost double the price of the more common patterns, he reported. Armed with Marcus’s description of Miss Smith, one of the Hawkins daughters had penetrated the workrooms of each, pretending to be seeking employment, and had reported back that a young woman answering to that description was working for Madame Elizabeth’s establishment in the City.
He had been there since four, the carriage drawn up off Poultry in St Mildred Court, as if waiting for someone to come out of the church. Ladies had gone in and out of the shop, deliveries had been made, a few girls had run out to the pie seller and scurried back, but there had been no sign of the thin girl with hazel-green eyes.
Now—he checked his watch as the bells of the City’s churches began to chime—it was six and the fog was dark and dirty, full of smoke, swirling in the wake of the carriages, turning the torches and flares a sickly yellow.
Blinking to try to maintain focus, Marcus missed the door opening for a moment, then half a dozen young women spilled out onto the street, pulling shawls tight around their shoulders, chattering as they split up and began to make their way home.
‘John!’ The coachman leaned down from the box. ‘The taller one heading up past the Mansion House. Don’t let her see us.’
She looked tired, Marcus thought with a flash of compassion, wondering how early she had arrived at the shop and how it must be to sit bent over fine work all day. As the carriage pulled out into the traffic, he saw her pause on the corner of Charlotte Row to let a coal heaver’s cart past. She put her hand to the small of her back and stretched, then set her shoulders as though bracing herself. After the cart passed, she darted across, zigzagging to avoid the worst of the waste and the puddles. With a glance at her drab skirts, the crossing boy turned away and began to sweep assiduously for a waiting lawyer, bands fluttering, wig box in hand, a likely prospect for a tip.
Yes, she was certainly a working woman. That much at least had been true. Marcus quenched the glimmer of sympathy with the memory of his father’s face that morning, grey and strained, although he had protested he had slept well and had managed a smile for Lady Narborough.
But Marcus had not been able to rouse his father’s enthusiasm to give a personal message to Hal, and the earl had waved away an attempt to interest him in plans to plant new coppices at Stanegate Hall. He was sinking into one of his melancholy fits and, in the absence of the mysterious dark man, Marcus had only one person to blame for that.
She was hurrying up Threadneedle Street now, deeper into the City. John was doing well, keeping the horses to a slow walk, ignoring the jibes and shouts aimed at him for holding up the traffic. In the evening crush there seemed little chance she would notice them. Then she turned north into Bishopsgate Street, walking with her head down, hands clasped together in front of her, maintaining the steady pace of someone who is tired, but is pushing on to a destination despite that.
Just when Marcus was beginning to think she was going to walk all the way to Shoreditch, she turned right into a lane. It took John a moment or two to get across the traffic. Widegate Street, Marcus read as the carriage lurched over the kerb into the narrow entrance. Named by someone with a sense of humour. He dropped the window right down and leaned out. The street was almost deserted. Ahead, Miss Smith was still keeping the same pace, not looking back. Then one of the pair shied at a banging shutter, John swore, and she glanced back over her shoulder. Marcus caught a glimpse of the pale oval of her face below her dark hat brim. He saw her stiffen, then walk on.
‘Steady, man,’ he ordered softly as the coachman cursed again, under his breath this time. Ahead, the lane was narrowing into an alley, too tight for the carriage that was already glaringly out of place in the maze of back streets. ‘Stop.’ He got out as he spoke, pulling up his collar against the raw air. ‘Can you turn? Wait for me here.’
‘Aye, my lord.’
Marcus glanced up as he entered the narrow way. Smock Alley. He tried to get his bearings. They were heading for Spitalfields Church, he thought, his eyes fixed on the figure ahead, keeping in the shadows as much as possible as he padded in her wake.
His heel struck a bottle in the gutter and it spun away and shattered. She turned, stared back into the shadows, then took to her heels. Marcus abandoned stealth and ran too, his long legs gaining easily on the fleeing figure with its hampering skirts. Then his ankle twisted as he trod on a greasy cobble; he slid and came up hard against the wall, splitting the leather of his glove as he threw out a hand to save himself. When he reached the spot where he had last seen her, she was gone.
Marcus looked around. He could see the dark entrances to at least five streets and alleys from where he stood. Impossible to search them all. He walked slowly back to the carriage, cursing softly.
Nell flattened herself against the wall of the stinking privy in Dolphin Court, her ears straining as the sharp footsteps grew fainter. Finally, when the stench became too much, she crept out and studied what she could see beyond the narrow entrance. Nothing and no one. He had gone, for now.
Who had it been? Not Lord Stanegate; he at least could not know what she did or where she worked. Mr Salterton, wanting to know what had happened—or worse, intent upon silencing the messenger? Or was it as simple as some amorous rake bent on bothering a woman alone or perhaps a thief after her meagre purse?
Only, thieves did not drive in handsome, shiny carriages. Which left Salterton or a predatory rake. Shivering, Nell decided she would rather take her chances with the rake; she doubted that a well-directed knee would deter Mr Salterton.
When she reached Dorset Street she walked to the end, past her own door to the corner and watched for almost ten minutes, but no one at all suspicious came into sight.
It was an effort of will to force her legs up the three flights of stairs to the top of the house and even more of one not to simply fall onto the bed, pull the covers over her head and hide. Nell made herself build up the fire, fill the kettle from the tub of water the shared maid of all work had left on the landing and take off her pelisse and bonnet before collapsing into her chair.
A woman on her own was so defenceless, she thought, her fingers curling into claws at the thought of the men who preyed on those weaker than themselves in the crowded London streets. Or behind the anonymous walls in little rooms like this. Her vision blurred for a moment and her stomach swooped sickeningly. She would not think of that.
For the first time in her life she felt a treacherous yearning for a man to shelter her. Someone powerful and strong. Someone like Viscount Stanegate. She closed her eyes and indulged in a fantasy of standing behind his broad back while he skewered the dark man on the point of an expertly wielded rapier or shot him down like a dog for daring to threaten her.
In reality, that would probably be a horrible experience, she told herself, getting up to make some tea. The last thing she wanted was to witness violence, and the viscount was hardly going to act the knight errant for her in any case. But the vision of a handgun stayed with her. Somewhere, there was the little pistol that Mama had always carried in her reticule. Mama had never had to threaten anyone with it, and it probably wasn’t even loaded, of course. But the sight of a weapon might give some randy buck pause.
Nell found the pistol after a prolonged search. She peered down the barrel, wondering how one told if it had shot in it. Eventually she opened a window, pointed it out over the rooftops and pulled the trigger, braced for a bang. Nothing happened; she could not even pull the trigger back properly. So it was at least safe to carry.
Despite that, her snug eyrie in the roof no longer felt quite so secure. Nell turned the key and wedged a chair under the door handle. Was it time to move again?
