Chapter 14 #2
He crossed the lobby. As he reached the concierge desk, the woman he’d met earlier stepped from behind a column.
“Monsieur Smith.”
She had told him she would leave a message, but she had obviously waited for him. As she stepped from the shadow of the column he saw the mark on her cheek.
She brushed her gloved fingers across the faint color that would be a dark bruise by morning.
His stomach tightened. Not that he hadn’t seen bruises before, but this appeared to have been particularly cruel. There were also bruises on her neck.
“Are ye all right?”
She laughed, a bitter sound. “No one else would ask. It is not the first time. There is a price to be paid for everything. Is that not so?”
He knew it well enough. Still...
“Walk with me, Monsieur Smith.”
He accompanied her out of the hotel and onto the walkway by the street, pushing back the anger.
“He did this to you?” he asked with a look over at her.
“It is his way, which I know from past...encounters. It is the way of some men, est-ce que tu comprends?” she commented. She spoke then in English. “You understand?”
They continued to walk along the street, Brodie with a watchful eye.
“The one you are looking for is not in the same place more than once. It took a while for my friend to find him.”
“And now?” Brodie inquired.
“A friend is with him, someone I trust. He likes variety,” she added. “The bruises will be gone in a few days and the information will hopefully provide a means for those in London to put an end to Heinrich.”
He hoped the fee she would earn from Sir Ridley for this night was worth the price.
“You were able to learn something from him?”
She nodded. “With a great deal of cognac and a particular ‘medicine’ that I was given for such things. He will be poor company for my friend.”
They stopped at a carriage park where women solicited passengers as they arrived, and others who departed for other parts across the city.
“I would know yer name,” Brodie told her.
She was more than someone who sold herself. She had a child she would do these things for. She was honest and resourceful.
“For most people it is Celine.”
That was as much as she was willing to tell him. For her safety and that of her child. He understood that need to protect.
She laid a hand on his arm.
“He met with a man while we were...together. He stepped away from the room to meet with him. But I listened to their conversation through the door. The man arrived yesterday from Switzerland. They have done business before.” She placed a silk scarf around her head, the edge of it concealing that red mark on her cheek.
“The man spoke of an arrangement that would soon be complete,” she continued. “As you said, it is to take place tomorrow night, the 18th, when the man they are to meet will be arriving from London. Heinrich assured the man that everything was in place.”
“I need a name,” Brodie replied. “Who was Caspian to meet in London?”
She removed a piece of paper from the sleeve of her gown and handed it to him. It was a note written in French. Even though he didn’t speak the language, he recognized a name. Ellsworth!
Sir Anthony Ellsworth? The surviving grandson of Lady Ellsworth, who had asked Mikaela to make inquiries into the murder of his brother? And the partner and owner, along with his father, of Crofts Bank?
What the devil did Ellsworth have to do with Heinrich and an arrangement with someone in Switzerland?
She translated the rest of the note, a time and place—Celeste Marie, London docks, 18 October.
“There is more,” Celine added. “Men are often...” she searched for the words to explain. “With the cognac and other things, they often speak of things they should not. He boasted that he would soon come into a great amount of money,” Celine continued with what she had learned.
Money? He took that next step, thinking through everything she had learned.
Ellsworth controlled a great deal of money. Now, arrangements had been made for him to leave London.
Was this the connection to Heinrich that Sir Ridley’s people had learned about months before? And Ellsworth was involved?
A need for money to further Heinrich’s anarchist schemes as Sir Ridley believed. If so, how was it to be done?
Gold?
That had been attempted, years before. It ended when the thieves were caught attempting to move over one hundred gold bars that weighed almost thirty pounds each.
A common wagon loaded with coal that no one thought twice about with the gold bars hidden under. The wagon broke down because of the excessive weight and spilled the contents—gold with the coal, and those involved were caught.
According to that note, Ellsworth was to meet a boat at the London docks. Just as it was impossible to move the gold with a wagon, it would be verra near impossible to move gold bars through the city to the docks without being found out.
Large amounts of currency would have to be exchanged, raising curiosity and alarm among those involved. Or perhaps not with a man like Heinrich.
Did it have something to do with the inquiries Mikaela was making regarding the brother’s death?
He silently cursed. He needed to get back to London!
“Will ye be all right?” he asked Celine.
She nodded. “I have a place where I can go. He doesn’t know about it, and I have money. Perhaps it is time to disappear.”
That place where her son was safe.
She had said that she was well paid for the work she did for Sir Ridley.
He took her hand. It was undoubtedly small by comparison as he placed the one hundred pound note he still carried in her hand and wrapped her fingers around it.
“There is no need,” she objected.
“For your son,” he told her, knowing they might never meet again.
She smiled then kissed him, lingering for a moment before stepping back.
“I think that whoever she is, the woman is most fortunate. Farewell, Mr. Smith.”
She turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowd on the street.
Brodie turned as well, quickly found a driver, and gave him instructions for the rail station.
At the station he sent two telegrams. The first was to Sir Ridley providing the additional information he’d learned from Celine. The second telegram was to Mikaela.
Until he knew what this was about and precisely how it involved Ellsworth, he needed for her to stop any inquiries she was making. It could be dangerous.
Urgent ye stop yer inquiries.
Too dangerous. Wait for my return.
B.