Chapter 27
Alone
All the overpowering, blinding, bewildering, first effects of strong surprise were over with her.
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Wallace had taken a discreet set of rooms over the Venetian, a coffeehouse in the heart of Bath. When Sylvia reached its busy street, she was footsore and famished, but not so far gone that she didn’t remember to be cautious.
Like all streets in the town, this one sported a population of loafers of various ages and types. Sylvia picked out a scrawny lad with a gleam in his eye that was either desperation or intelligence.
“Here.” She slipped a penny into his hand. “And another when you come back. There’s a man up the stairs of the coffee house, door number three. You tell him Miss Smith is waiting for him in the mews, and bring back his answer, all right?”
The penny vanished in a flash and the barefoot child was already pelting across the cobbles, dodging the morning crowds without once breaking stride.
Sylvia didn’t wait. She took herself around to the mews behind the Venetian, and stationed herself so that she had a wall at her back and an alley immediately to her left.
She could see Wallace’s window from here, which meant she could also be seen.
She was not, however, so close that her face could be easily made out, and the alley offered a quick retreat should she need it.
While she waited, Sylvia busied herself with examining her shawl, as if she’d caught it on something. After all, one never knew who might be watching.
She’d just rewrapped her shawl about her shoulders when her urchin came dashing around the corner.
“Said I was to give you this.” He held up a—now much wrinkled and dirt smeared—letter, and held out his other hand for the penny.
Sylvia surrendered the coin, and the urchin surrendered the letter, and immediately took himself off.
Sylvia held her breath and turned the letter over. And saw at once the X cut across the seal.
She didn’t bother to open it. There wouldn’t be anything inside. The seal was the message. It meant: Time to up stakes. It’s not safe. All is lost.
It meant she was alone after all.
Sylvia picked up her bag and started walking.