Chapter Four
FOUR
I return to Lady Adler, at the other end of the table.
“Thank you so much for your time, Lady Adler,” I say.
“Thank you for bringing this situation to Dr. Gray’s attention.
He will be sure to speak to his friend at the police office and let him know to be on the watch for any report of a young woman’s body being discovered.
We will also take a description of her for him.
I can assure you she will not be left, unnamed, in a police dead room.
When she is found, an investigation will begin and I am certain Dr. Gray will be consulted. ”
Gray finally steps forward. “Miss Mitchell is correct. Detective McCreadie will alert the police offices to Nellie’s disappearance and reported demise, and when she is found, I will make myself fully available to them.
I will also offer to serve as liaison between you and the police, as you might find that most comfortable. ”
There. Problem solved, and cleverly done, if I do say so myself. We will take Nellie’s description and have the police dead rooms—the morgues—checked for unclaimed bodies of young women. If Nellie turns up dead, of course we’ll help. But until then, we’re off the hook.
“I expected better of you, Dr. Gray,” Lady Adler says, her tone cooling.
“Ma’am?” he says.
“Now, now, my dear,” Lord Adler says. “You cannot expect the lad to drop everything to investigate the disappearance of a mere housemaid.”
“Mere housemaid?” Lady Adler’s voice rises in indignation.
“That is not the problem at all,” Gray says smoothly. “Housemaid or highborn lady, it is all the same to me, and as I have said, once her body is found—”
“What if it is not found?” she says. “Do killers always leave their victims lying about? What if he has hidden her? Are you simply going to stand around when we have told you that a girl—little more than a child—has been murdered?”
Her husband tries again to soothe her, which goes about as well as any instance where a man tells a strong-willed woman that she’s overreacting.
The problem here is that Lord Adler—like us—doesn’t believe any ghost has been contacted. He likely does not believe such a thing is possible, and so, yes, his wife’s outrage seems unfounded. But Lady Adler clearly believes it, and so to her, Gray’s lack of urgency is unconscionable.
As she said, she expected better of him.
Damn it.
“You realize I am offering to pay you, yes?” she says. “I would never expect you to do this for free. It will interfere with your regular business. I understand that. Nellie was my employee. I take responsibility for what has happened. I should have been more concerned when she disappeared.”
Her husband tuts and tries to soothe and reassure her, but she ignores him, all her focus on Gray. “I need to know what happened to Nellie. I need to put her spirit to rest. I owe her that. Please, Dr. Gray.”
Gray rubs his mouth. He doesn’t want this non-case.
Whether he’s busy or not is immaterial. Free time for him means an opportunity to pursue his science, not chase down missing maids with zero proof any harm has come to them.
But now he has a distraught woman asking for his help, a woman who is also—let’s not forget—a valued patron.
Gray’s business runs primarily on the clientele his father established.
Because of the patronage and regard of people like the Adlers, Gray has the luxury of not needing to shill for new clients, which lets him pursue his passion, pioneering work that will benefit law enforcement but doesn’t pay the bills.
“Sir?” I say to Gray. “May I make a suggestion?”
“Of course,” he says, with obvious relief.
“May I begin the investigation for you? I can conduct the simple information gathering, which you can process, as you will do with what I gathered tonight.” I turn to Lady Adler and curtsy.
“Begging your pardon for being so bold, ma’am, but I have done this before.
Dr. Gray is teaching me to be a proper assistant, which is more than following him about and taking notes.
He needs someone to do the work that does not yet require his particular talent in the forensic sciences. I believe he trusts me to do that.”
“Of course,” Gray says. “Miss Mitchell is a first-rate detective, and I trust her implicitly.”
“Thank you, sir.” I turn back to Lady Adler. “Naturally, the cost for my services would be less, as I am still an apprentice, but I can assure you that Dr. Gray will oversee my work every step of the way.”
Gray’s mouth opens. Then shuts. Oh, he’s not objecting to overseeing my work.
He’s well aware that one of us is a professional detective and that “one” is not him.
He’s reacting because he just realized what he’s implicitly agreed to.
In his rush to assure Lady Adler that I’m competent—and avoid insulting me with any hesitation there—he seems to have agreed to let me take the case.
Which I will. The problem is … Well, we’ll get to that.
For now, the point is that I am willing to fall on my sword here and do the work on my own, as pointless as this case might be.
I have the time. I have the skills. I want to genuinely help Gray out.
And, hell, I’ll always take a few extra shillings in my pocket.
Saves my boss from sneaking them in there, as he’s wont to do.
I’m being paid a more than fair wage, but I don’t mind extra when I earn it fairly from others.
“Does that sound acceptable, ma’am?” I ask.
Lady Adler’s face softens. “Very acceptable. I can see why Dr. Gray hired you. And I apologize, Dr. Gray, if I was snappish. I am only concerned, and it was selfish of me to expect you to drop everything and investigate.”
“Not at all,” he says. “Thank you for allowing Miss Mitchell to help. Now, as the hour grows late, I will leave you all to your evening, and we will return tomorrow for more information.”
“‘We’?” Lady Adler frowns. “You mean Miss Mitchell. Does she require an escort?”
“He meant I will be back,” I say. “On my own. What time tomorrow might I call on you?”
“If you say that I tricked you, I will get out of this coach and walk home,” I say as I take my seat across from Gray.
His brows rise. “If it is to be a punishment, should you not threaten to make me walk?”
“No, because you wouldn’t mind walking. However, you will mind me walking alone at this hour.
Just as you mind me taking this case alone.
And so you may be inclined to grumble that I tricked you because I know you will insist on joining the investigation anyway.
However, since I absolutely can work it alone, the problem is ultimately yours. ”
He glowers. “That is unfair.”
“What’s unfair? That I called you out before you had the chance to grumble?”
“Am I not still your employer? Do I not still have the right to unfairly hold you responsible for any and all work-adjacent problems? Pray tell, what is the point of having subordinates if you cannot lay all blame on them?”
I raise a slow middle finger.
“Too bad I do not know what that means,” he says. “I am certain, though, that it expresses your agreement with my point.”
I shake my head. He absolutely does know what the very old gesture means; he just likes to needle me by pretending otherwise.
“Okay, fine. I’m sorry if you really didn’t want me taking this case, but I think I edged into it carefully enough that you could have stopped me.
You’re a man. No one’s going to think twice if you put me in my place. ”
He gives me a hard look for that. Then he sighs and says, “I know I could have stopped you. I saw the opening and chose not to, and so I was not going to blame you.” He pauses. “Overmuch.”
“You think it’s a pointless case. I agree.”
“But you took it for my sake, because if I refused, I would lose Lady Adler’s patronage, and I am too reliant on such things.
I have not properly tended to my business, merely coasting along in the wake of the ship my father launched.
” He plucks at his trouser leg, as if picking off a piece of lint, his gaze down. “That is irresponsible of me.”
“Yes,” I say. “Horribly irresponsible to have taken over a business you hate because your brother screwed off for…” I flutter my hands. “Wherever.”
“I do not blame Lachlan, and I do not hate the business. It may not have been my choice, but the fact I am barred from medicine is my own fault.”
“For an impetuous, youthful mistake in the service of truth.” I lift my hands against his protest. “Can we not argue about this, Duncan? You know my opinion. Your talents are better spent in research. If that means occasionally needing to grovel over a powerful patron…” I shrug. “So be it.”
“But you are the one groveling. Because I got, as you would say, cranky.”
I lean back in my seat. “Nah, not cranky. Obstinate. Because the case isn’t just a waste of time—it makes you uncomfortable. Even if you took it on, you’d eventually say something that made your opinion of spiritualism very clear.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “That should not matter. A girl is missing, and I am a brute for not wanting to find her.”
“A girl left her job. Of her own accord. She took her belongings. There is no evidence she’s come to harm. However, there’s also no harm in me doing a little missing-persons work and making sure she’s okay. I have the time.”
“We have the time. And therefore there is no harm in us doing the work, and it was wrong of me to dig in my heels. I was not merely being obstinate. I consider this case beneath me, and so I refused out of arrogance when, as you say, it is easily done.”
I waggle a hand. “Eighty percent obstinacy. The rest isn’t arrogance. It’s a proper regard for the value of your time and talent, both of which are wasted on this case.” I look over, my expression going serious. “I can handle this, Duncan.”
“I know but—”
“I am capable of investigating this, and I will do so safely. You don’t need to help.”
“Yes, I know. But if you are working a case…” He meets my gaze. “I want to be with you.”
I have never been more grateful for the lack of lights in coaches.
Darkness has fallen, and we are in shadow, and so Gray cannot see the blush that scorches my face.
I know he doesn’t mean it “like that.” He has been working on speaking his feelings more freely, having often confessed he envies the ease with which I can say that I care about him.
But when he makes the effort to repay my openness, he doesn’t throw it off lightly, the way I would.
He leans forward, eyes locked on mine, speaking with such intensity that it sounds as if he’s trying to convey some deeper meaning, even when I know he’s not.
So, yep, I blush like a schoolgirl, and I cringe at myself for it.
Then I repay that confession by saying, “I’m always happy to have you along, Duncan.
Of course I’d rather investigate with you.
But the point is that I can do it alone, and if you feel guilty because I was concerned about you losing a valuable patron?
” I shrug. “I’m your assistant. You joked that my role is to take the blame, but it’s actually to protect your business and your time. That’s what I’m doing. My job.”
He sits back and regards me. “This is not the first time you have insisted on working a case for my benefit. The last time, you could not even use the excuse of protecting my business. It was personal.”
“Because you are my very dear friend, and I like to do things for you.”
He glances away, as if his own color is rising.
When he speaks, his voice is thick. “I appreciate that, Mallory. Your consideration is … appreciated.” He makes a face.
“It is late, and apparently, words have deserted me. You know what I mean, though. But if you fear I am offering to help because I feel guilty, I hope you know better.”
“I do. You never feel guilty.”
His lips twitch. “Certainly not. I am, as you always say, a Victorian man.”
I lift a finger. “A well-to-do Victorian man. That is the difference.”
“I am going to work this case with you because I wish to work this case with you. That is the entirety of it.”
“All right then.” I smile over at him. “I’ll be happy to have you along.”