“And in my future daughter-in-law,” Victoria said grimly.
Emma was startled to hear herself called a future daughter-in-law, but she decided this was not the time to question Victoria’s choice of words.
“Oh, yes.” Basil’s mouth twisted in irritation. “I’m afraid I do require her services. At least until I find another woman who responds to the elixir. Unfortunately, females who are susceptible to the potion are not very thick on the ground, as Miranda discovered. It took her months to find you, Miss Greyson.”
“How did you discover that Miranda possessed the recipe?” Emma asked.
“I have spent the past few years in America, but I have kept in touch with my contacts in the Vanzagarian Society. When I returned, I heard the rumors about the theft of the Book of Secrets, of course. However, I paid little attention to them because I was busy with my own project.”
“Hastening the death of your aunt?” Emma said grimly.
“My, you have been busy.” Basil chuckled. “You’re quite right. It was obvious she intended to take her own sweet time about the business of dying, so one night I took matters into my own hands. Or should I say I took a pillow into my hands?”
Emma took a deep breath. “And Sally Kent saw you do it. She then tried to blackmail you for it.”
He inclined his head in an approving fashion. “Very astute of you, Miss Greyson. I gave the little fool some money to keep her silent while I considered how best to get rid of her. And then I saw to it that she disappeared.”
“Why did you go after the recipe for the elixir?” Emma asked. “You had just come into an inheritance.”
“Unfortunately, I did not discover until after the old woman was dead that the Ware estate was very nearly bankrupt,” Basil admitted. “There was enough money to keep up appearances for a while, but not for long. I was forced to consider new measures.”
“I suppose you set out to find yourself a wealthy widow or an heiress,” Victoria said. “That is the usual means by which gentlemen repair their finances.”
“As it happens, I preferred a widow to an heiress. I did not want to be obliged to go through the negotiations and the business of settlements with a young lady’s father, you see. The truth about the state of my own finances might have surfaced.”
Emma suddenly understood. “You limited your search to widows and Miranda was on your list.”
“She appeared a likely prospect at first,” Basil agreed. “But I had no intention of becoming the victim of someone else who was playing the same game as myself. Naturally I conducted a discreet but extremely thorough investigation of her background.”
“And you turned up the fact that she was an adventuress,” Victoria said.
“I was about to strike her off my list when, quite by chance, I stumbled onto the fact that she had lived in Italy for a time and that she was now in the habit of serving a rather vile tea to her female acquaintances. I put that information together with the rumors about the theft of the Book of Secrets and the fire at Blue’s villa, and suddenly all was clear to me.”
“I must say it was very clever of Miranda to invent the identity of Lady Ames and move straight into Society,” Victoria remarked. “She must have stolen some valuables from this Farrell Blue person. Enough to cover the cost of at least one London Season.”
Basil smiled grimly. “But not for a second or a third. She had to find a way to make the elixir work. I thought it best to allow her to take the risk of conducting the experiments. It would have been vastly more difficult for me, a gentleman, to find a way to feed the potion to an endless string of unsuspecting females.”
Emma narrowed her eyes. “You killed Miranda, didn’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I did not.”
“You’re lying,” Emma said. “It must have been you.”
“I admit that I fully intended to get rid of her. I went to her house the other afternoon when I was informed that she had sent her servants away for the day. I suspected that she had begun to panic.”
“You knew that she had sent a message to me?” Emma asked.
“The person I employed to watch her house warned me that she had done so. I feared that she intended to tell you everything, perhaps even offer to make you a partner in her venture. I could not allow that. But when I got there, she was already quite dead. And the recipe was nowhere to be found.”
“I don’t understand.” Emma stared at him. “You must have been the one who killed her. There is no one else …”
“Ah, but there is, Miss Greyson. Your fiancé.”
Emma was incensed. “He did not kill Miranda.”
“Of course he did.” Basil’s eyes glittered. “What’s more, I believe he found the recipe. The library had been most thoroughly searched.”
There was no point arguing with him, Emma thought. “You believe that Edison will hand over the recipe for the elixir in exchange for Lady Exbridge and myself, don’t you?”
“Yes. I think he will-do precisely that. Unlike me, he is weakened by his notions of Vanza honor.”
Victoria stirred and tried to adjust her position on the small wooden stool. “No doubt Edison will blame me for allowing that despicable Basil Ware to kidnap you.”
“Ware kidnapped both of us, not just me.” Emma tested the strength of the knots that bound her wrists behind her back. “But you’re quite right. Edison will not be pleased. He does not like it when things do not go the way he intends.”
In the end it had been horribly simple for Ware, she thought. He had ordered two of his men to stun Victoria’s coachman and groom with blows to the head while they sat waiting for their mistress outside a fashionable address. When Victoria had finished with her visit, the villains, dressed in the Exbridge livery, had carried her off before she had even realized what had happened.
Basil Ware had held a pistol on her while the carriage was driven back through the mansion gates. When one of the grooms had failed to recognize the coachman, she had been instructed to inform him that it was none of his affair if she wished to employ a new man.
With Victoria forced to give the orders, Basil Ware had had no difficulty entering the house.
Emma gave up struggling. The rope that one of Ware’s men had used to secure her was stout and firmly knotted. She looked at Victoria.
“Is there any slack in your bonds, madam?”
“There is some give because that dreadful man left my gloves on when he tied my hands.” Victoria paused to twist against her restraints. “They are not so tight as to make my fingers go numb but I do not think that I can free myself.”
Emma surveyed their surroundings. Ware’s men had kept both women under guard in a room above a dingy shop until nightfall. Then they had driven them in an anonymous hackney to the docks. A short while ago they had finally been deposited and left alone on the second floor of an abandoned warehouse.
Large crates and several barrels loomed in the shadows around Emma. Coils of thick rope sat on the floor like so many plump snakes. A layer of dust cloaked the lot. The grime on the windows was so thick it blotted up the fitful moonlight.
Emma was uncertain of the time but she knew that she and Victoria had been gone from the Exbridge mansion for several hours.
“I wonder why he brought us to the docks?” Emma mused as she inched her way closer to Victoria.
“Perhaps because he intends to sail as soon as he has the recipe in his hands. He appears to be convinced that Edison possesses it.”
“I cannot believe that Ware actually thinks Edison murdered Miranda in order to get his hands on some silly bit of occult lore.”
“It does raise the issue of who really did kill Miranda.” Victoria paused. “What on earth are you doing?”
“Trying to get behind you so that you can reach into the pockets beneath my skirt.”
“What have you got in your pockets?”
“The knife from your desk drawer is in one of them. We may be able to use it to cut through these ropes
.”
“Astonishing,” Victoria said. “What in heaven’s name made you think to bring along a penknife?”
“The notion came to me when I heard Basil’s voice in the hall.”
“I wish ye’d sit yerself down,” One-Eared Harry said. “Yer makin’ me dizzy with all that prowlin’ back and forth. Yer like some great caged beast waitin’ to be fed. Here, ’ave some ale. That’ll settle ye.”
Edison ignored him. He came to a halt at the narrow window and looked down into the pinched lane. He and Harry had been waiting in the small, dark room above the Red Demon for hours. One of Harry’s men had finally returned to the tavern with a useful rumor an hour ago.
Still, Edison had waited. The Strategy of Timing taught that the more impatient one was, the longer one should delay before making the attack. But he dared not hesitate too long. The message from Ware had been very specific. The recipe was to be left in the appointed alley on the other side of town within the hour.
Ware would have men watching the location, which meant there would be few guards left to keep an eye on his prisoners.
“’Ow many men d’ye think he’ll have with ’im?” Harry asked conversationally.
“Only one or two at the most. He’s far too arrogant to concern himself with a couple of women.” Edison smiled grimly. “The fool will not have the good sense to realize what he is dealing with when it comes to Emma and my grandmother.”
“Difficult, are they?”
“You do not know the half of it. But that is one of the reasons we must get to them while Ware is distracted by his anticipation of acquiring the recipe. If we wait too long, Emma and Victoria are quite likely to take matters into their own hands.”
“I’m ready whenever ye say. The sooner the better, far as I’m concerned.”
Edison pulled his watch out of his pocket and flipped it open. “It’s time.”
“Thank the lord.” Harry banged down his mug and surged to his feet. “No offense, but I don’t think I could’ve stayed in the same room with ye for much longer. Yer startin’ to make me right edgy.”
Edison closed the watch and started toward the door. He took his pistols out of his greatcoat pockets to check them one last time. Both were loaded. The powder was dry.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Emma felt the last strands of the rope part. Euphoria.
“You did it, madam. I am free.”
“Thank heavens. I thought I would never get through those bonds.”
Emma stretched her arms cautiously. Then she rubbed them briskly. She was stiff and sore from having been confined for so long, but she could manage. She turned quickly and picked up the knife.
“I’ll have you out of these ropes in a moment.”
“No doubt,” Victoria said dryly. “But have you given any thought to what we should do after that? The only way out of this room is back down the stairs. Ware and his men will be waiting for us.”
“There is another way out.” Emma sawed the small blade across the thick strands. “The window.”
“You intend to climb down to the street?”
“There is a great quantity of rope lying about on the floor. We can use it to descend to the pavement.”
“I am not at all certain that I can manage such a feat. But even if we both succeed in escaping, we are in one of the most dangerous sections of London. Two women wandering around the docks at night could well meet with an extremely nasty fate.”
“Have you any other suggestions?”
“No,” Victoria said. “But there is one thing—”
“Yes?”
“My grandson is well known around these parts,” Victoria said quietly. “He does a great deal of business here.”
“Yes, of course.” Emma’s spirits lifted immediately. “We shall invoke his name if we are accosted. And the name of his friend One-Eared Harry too.”
Victoria gave a long-suffering sigh. “What can Edison be thinking of to associate himself with men who bear names such as One-Eared Harry? If only I had taken that boy into my care all those years ago. Tell me the truth, Emma. Do you think I would have ruined him the way I ruined Wesley?”
The pain that lay beneath the simple question wrung Emma’s heart. She chose her words with the same care she would have used to handle a fragile blossom.
“My grandmother was a very wise woman. She told me once that parents can take neither all of the blame nor all of the glory for how their offspring turn out. In the end, she said, all of us must take responsibility for ourselves.”
“Edison did that very well, did he not?”
“Yes,” Emma said. “He did.”
The thud of footsteps on the stairs came just as Emma finished cutting through the ties that bound Victoria.
“There is someone coming,” Victoria whispered. “He will likely check our bonds and see that we are free.”
Emma turned on her heel and scooped up the heavy stool upon which she had been recently perched. “Stay where you are, madam. If he opens the door, try to distract him for a moment.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Have no fear. I am really very good at this sort of thing, although I am more accustomed to using a bed-warmer than a stool.”
She hurried across the room, her soft kid shoes making only the slightest patter on the heavily timbered floor. She reached the door just as the footsteps halted on the other side. Taking a deep breath, she raised the stool high over her head and waited.
The door opened abruptly. A candle flared.
Victoria spoke sharply from out of the shadows, her voice as imperious as though she berated a servant. “It is about time you got here. I trust you have brought us something to eat. We have been without food or water for hours.”
“Be bloody glad you’re still alive.” The man stalked into the room and raised the candle. “Where the devil is the other one?”
Emma slammed the stool down onto his head with all her might. The villain did not even cry out. He simply fell to the floor with a heavy thump. The candle flew from his hand and rolled in the dust.
“Emma, the candle.” Victoria started forward.
“I’ve got it.” Emma picked up the taper and blew out the flame. “We must hurry now. Someone will come looking for him.”
“Yes.” Victoria had seized a coil of rope and was already dragging it to the window. “But I do not know if I can manage to climb down a length of rope.”
“We shall tie some knots in it. Our gloves will protect our hands. We are only one floor above the ground, Victoria. We can do it. I will go first so that if you slip I can help break your fall.”
“Very well.” Victoria jerked open the window and tossed out one end of the rope. “We can but try. I see no one down below. I suppose that is a good sign.”
“A very good sign,” Emma said. “I was afraid Ware might have posted more guards.”
She tied two large knots in the heavy rope, but she dared not take the time to fashion more. She secured one end of the rope around a heavy barrel.
When she was ready, she hoisted her skirts, swung one leg over the windowsill, gripped the rope in both of her gloved hands, and prepared to descend into the narrow street. It struck her that the lane below appeared much farther away than one would have expected.
“Be careful, my dear,” Victoria whispered urgently.
“Yes,” Edison said quietly from somewhere above Emma’s head. “Be very careful. I have not gone to all this trouble just to have you break your ankle at this point in the game.”
Emma barely managed to stifle a small shriek of surprise. She looked up swiftly. There was nothing overhead except the night sky. Then she realized that there was a shadow dangling just above her.
“My God. Edison.”
“Hush. Go back inside. There’s no point doing this the hard way if we can avoid it.”
“Yes, of course.”
Emma scrambled back off the windowsill and turned to watch him follow. If she had
not known he was there, it would have been impossible to see him, she thought.
Garbed entirely in black, he was only a dark shape against the night. The length of rope he had used to lower himself from the roof dangled in the opening behind him.
Emma rushed toward him and threw her arms around his waist. “It’s about time you got here, sir.”
“Sorry for the delay. It could not be avoided.” He hugged her briefly.
Victoria gazed at him in astonishment. “Ho;w did you find us?”
“It’s a long story. Suffice it to say that one of the least practical aspects of Vanza is that if one has studied the Strategies and then stepped back outside the Circle, one can generally predict what another student of the arts is likely to do. Ware assumed that I would conclude this was the last neighborhood in London he would select for a hiding place.”
Emma frowned. “I would have thought that Ware would have anticipated the possibility that you would second-guess him.”
“Just to be on the safe side,” Edison said dryly, “I put out the word that I was willing to pay a good deal of blunt for information regarding his whereabouts or the whereabouts of his henchmen. Nothing speaks as loudly as money in this section of the city.”
“Yes, of course. Very shrewd, sir, if I may say so.”
“Thank you.” Edison looked at the man lying On the floor in a patch of moonlight. “I see you have been up to your old tricks, Emma.”
“Victoria and I made a good team.” Emma glanced toward the door. “I am awfully glad to see you, Edison, but we really should be getting out of here.”
“I agree. But I think it would be easier for all of us to depart by the stairs, rather than by ropes.” Edison crossed the floor to the door. “Wait here. I will only be a moment.”
“Edison, you mustn’t,” Emma said.
“It’s all right,” Edison said. “Ware is at the moment, a victim of the Strategy of Distraction. He is unable to concentrate on everything at once. From what I was able to discern earlier, he kept only two men here with him. You ladies have taken excellent care of one of theirs My friend Harry and I dealt with the other earlier. The rest of Ware’s henchmen are on the other side of the city, waiting forme.”