CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I followed, feeling some of the tension leave my shoulders. Somehow it felt as though everything would be all right now. I realized that, after only a brief acquaintance, I had absolute faith that Mrs Finch could fix any problem.
Upstairs, a handful of women were making use of the salon, and – had the circumstances been different – I would have wanted to linger, wanted to watch the furious chess match taking place in one corner, to listen in on the raucous story being told by the elegant woman in the dinner suit that reduced the group around her to hopeless laughter. I would have wanted to stay and hear the jaunty jangle of the piano, to drink one of the glasses of fine-looking brandy that had been handed around.
Here, it was easy to forget why I had sneaked out in the middle of the night, and I felt myself drawn to the thing I had been craving all along, a place where my awkward edges would fit perfectly, where I wouldn’t have to try to be anything other than exactly myself.
With a longing backwards glance, I followed Izzy up the second flight of stairs towards Mrs Finch’s office. The woman herself waited inside, poring over a map spread out across her desk, with Sylla beside her.
“Did you—” Mrs Finch started to say, and then her eyes fell on me, and a flicker of surprise showed. “Lady Felicity,” she said softly, any small loss of composure immediately smoothed away. She sighed. “It’s Edward Laing, I suppose?”
“You seem to know all about it already,” I replied.
Sylla frowned. “Only that he waylaid you in the park.”
“Waylaid me is right.” I slumped into a nearby armchair. “He asked me to marry him.”
For the first time, I got to see Mrs Finch look truly startled.
“He did what?” Izzy asked.
“Well, he told me that he intends to marry me, so I suppose it adds up to the same thing,” I said with a bravado I didn’t exactly feel. “I thought Sylla might have told you.”
“At the time we spoke, you seemed unsure whether or not a proposal had actually taken place,” Sylla said, flicking an invisible fleck of dust from her sleeve. “I simply told them that he had expressed an uncomfortable interest in you. Besides which” – she pinned me with a sharp glare – “I thought we had agreed that you were going to leave the situation alone.”
“I can’t believe Laing proposed to you.” Izzy worried at her bottom lip.
“And then he sent an entire greenhouse worth of flowers to the house,” I told them. “Wheeler has been practically bringing them in by the barrow load all day. Mother is in fits of delight. I, however, have developed a twitch every time the doorbell rings.” I narrowed my eyes. “Something else has happened, hasn’t it? That’s why you’re all up here.”
Izzy rubbed her forehead, a crinkle of concern marring her brow. “It seems that the bomb the Aviary received last week was no isolated threat. There has been another attempt, and only this evening we managed to trace the evidence back to one person…”
“Edward Laing.” I exhaled deeply.
Mrs Finch went on. “We were lucky that it was found in time for Winnie to deal with it. It was hidden in a delivery for the shop. There’s every chance it could have detonated downstairs.”
Another bomb. No wonder Izzy hadn’t been home.
“But no one was hurt?” I asked quickly.
“No.” Sylla turned to look out of the window and on to the darkened street below. “And as Winnie was able to defuse it this time, she could pull it apart and examine the pieces. It’s how we managed to find the maker, and through him, Laing.”
The shivery feeling that had haunted me since my conversation with the man intensified, and I rubbed my arms. It was true then, what everyone had suspected: Edward Laing was a dangerous man. I’d already known it, of course, but here was proof, incontrovertible.
“So Laing knows about the Aviary,” I said hollowly.
Izzy nodded, clearly upset. Sylla and Mrs Finch were much harder to read, though Sylla’s fingers had curled into a fist at her side.
“But do you think Laing knows about my connection to you?” I asked. “Does this explain his interest in me?”
“I don’t know,” Izzy said. “I keep thinking – it wasn’t as hard as it could have been to trace the bomb back to him. What if he wanted us to know? What if he’s letting us know he’s on to us. Playing with us.”
“What did he say to you, Felicity?” Mrs Finch sat in the chair behind her desk and pulled out a notepad and pen. “Let’s hear it from the beginning.”
I told them. I was fairly sure I remembered every word that we had exchanged, because it had felt so uncomfortable, so charged with meaning.
“He seemed … predatory,” I said in the end. “It was as if he had decided he was going to have me and therefore that was what was going to happen.”
“He may be genuinely taken with you,” Mrs Finch said slowly. “A man like Laing, perhaps there is something appealing about that wonderful mind of yours. He sees you as something rare, someone who can match him intellectually.”
“Like a brain in a jar?” I asked.
“Like a brain in a pretty package,” Mrs Finch said.
“I think he’s been watching the house,” I admitted.
“What?” Izzy snapped.
I explained my suspicions and the fact that Laing had turned up at my location several times.
“The man is a threat.” Izzy’s voice was clipped. “Even more of a threat than I thought. He knows about the Aviary; he knows we’re on to him. And now he’s taken an interest in Felicity.” She looked worried. “He realized that you played cards against him at the Penny. He’s sending things to the house. Whether he knows of your connection to the Aviary or not, it’s too much.” She gnawed her lip. “We should get you out of London.”
“I can’t leave London!” I exclaimed. “How on earth would we explain that to Mother?”
“Perhaps we could say you’re unwell,” Izzy mused.
“If you wish to leave London, it can be arranged without any need to concern your mother,” Mrs Finch said calmly. It was a fact, simply stated, and I believed it completely. I knew that somehow this capable woman would have my mother believing it was all her own idea that I’d abandoned both her and my long-awaited season.
“But shouldn’t I … help?” I asked. “I might be able to assist you in collecting more information about Laing.”
Sylla began to reply, but Mrs Finch stood and came towards me, taking my hand in hers.
“Right now it’s not your job to tackle Laing. It’s your job to protect yourself from him.”
“I’ll consider it,” I said reluctantly.
“You do that,” Mrs Finch said. “And remember: the Aviary is here to assist you. We take care of our own.”
“Thank—” I started to say, but a furious hammering on the door stopped me short.
The door flew open, almost off its hinges, and Maud tumbled in.
“Something going on in Whitechapel,” she said breathlessly, taking in my presence with no sign of surprise. “I was watching that empty warehouse Laing bought and there’s finally been some activity. Men delivering boxes. One of ’em was open and I saw a distillation bottle like Win has. It’s gone quiet now, but I don’t know how long that will last. If you want to have a look, it had better be tonight.”
Sylla was already pulling on a pair of dark gloves. Izzy had lifted a ring from a hook on the wall that held a set of lock picks, then tucked it away into her pocket.
“Should have worn my breeches,” she muttered.
“There’s a change of clothes for you in the store cupboard,” Mrs Finch told her. “We have time to wait if you hurry.”
Izzy left the room without another word.
“You should take me with you,” I blurted.
“Felicity,” Mrs Finch said gently.
“I take it you haven’t got time to reach Winnie?” I asked.
Maud shook her head. “It would take too long to sneak her out at this time of night.”
“And Maud saw a distillation bottle,” I pointed out, feeling my determination harden. “I’m not Win, but if there’s scientific equipment in there, I’ll at least be able to make a guess at what it means.”
The words hung in the air for a moment. Mrs Finch nodded. “Felicity is right,” she said to the others.
Izzy hurried back into the room, dressed in boy’s clothes.
“Felicity is coming with us.” Sylla spoke the words flatly, clearly anticipating – as I had done – that Izzy would protest.
Izzy’s eyes flickered to me, and then she nodded. “Good,” she replied, and I had the sudden urge to throw my arms around her, despite the whole life-or-death situation. All four of them hummed with energy, and it was clear that they were relieved to have something tangible to do. I understood; I felt the same.
“Well, ladies.” Mrs Finch’s eyes gleamed. “Shall we go?”