Where Serpents Sleep

Chapter 28

Luke O’Brian kept rooms in a well-tended stone house not far from the ancient pitched slate roofs and towering chimneys of St. Katherine’s Hospital below the Tower.

A few simple inquiries in the area brought Sebastian to a small eating house squeezed in between a ship’s chandler and a biscuit baker, for this was a part of the city that made its living from the docks and the river that linked London with the sea and the world beyond. The eating house was simple but wholesome, the air filled with the smell of sizzling bacon and fresh bread and boisterous conversations rising up from tables filled with ships’ officers, customs men, and clerks. Luke O’Brian sat by himself at a small table near the front window. Sebastian nodded to a middle-aged woman with rosy cheeks and an apron tied over her expansive middle, and went to slide into the seat opposite the agent.

“I understand congratulations are in order,” said Sebastian, keeping his voice low. “That was quite a successful enterprise you managed to pull off.”

O’Brian glanced up from his plate and frowned. “Do I know you?”

“We’ve met.”

O’Brian gave Sebastian a hard look, then grunted. “So we have. You’ve lost twenty years and a good two stone in twenty-four hours. Quite a feat.”

Sebastian smiled. “It turns out that neither one of us is exactly what we first portrayed ourselves to be. You, for instance, are not just a purchasing agent.”

O’Brian carefully cut a piece of bacon. “And I take it you’re not really a Bow Street Runner.”

“No.” Sebastian paused while the apple-cheeked woman bustled up to take his order. “Just tea, please,” he told her with a smile. After she’d gone, he brought his gaze back to the agent and said quietly, “Nor am I interested in what happened to a certain warehouse full of Russian sables.”

O’Brian chewed slowly, and swallowed. “So what are you interested in?”

“The death of a young woman.”

“We went over all that.”

“Did we? I’ve learned a few things since then. For instance, did you know Rose was really Rachel Fairchild, daughter of Basil, Lord Fairchild?”

The man’s face gave nothing away. “Who told you that?”

“This,” said Sebastian, laying the silver bracelet on the table. “Have you ever seen it?”

O’Brian’s fork clattered against the side of his plate. He stared at the bracelet a moment, then lifted his gaze to Sebastian’s. “You obviously know it’s hers. Where did you get it?”

“From one of the whores at the Academy. It used to belong to Rose?”

“Yes.” Picking up the bracelet, O’Brian studied the medallion with its crested helm and three eagle heads. “You say she was a Fairchild?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No.”

If the man was lying, he was bloody good at it. But then, of course, he was good at it. His life depended upon it. Sebastian said, “I understand Russian sables are very valuable.”

O’Brian gave a slow smile. “So they say.”

“A man with that much to lose could be dangerous,” said Sebastian, “if someone found out about his plans.” He paused while the plump-faced woman put his tea on the table before him. O’Brian said nothing.

“If he realized a woman knew what he did for a living, such a man might well intimidate her—bully her—just to keep her quiet. Except, I can see a woman like Rachel—or Rose—getting scared. So scared she ran away. In which case then, she’d really be a threat. A threat that needed to be tracked down and silenced before she ruined everything.”

O’Brian tore off a piece of bread and used it to wipe up the egg yolk on his plate. “A man doesn’t stay in this business long if he doesn’t learn to keep his mouth shut. I’m not that careless.” He popped the bread in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “If I was, I’d be in Botany Bay. Or dead.”

“Mistakes happen.”

“Not if you’re careful. I’m very careful. I’m also not a violent man. Ask around the docks; anyone will tell you. Sure, I have a temper. My father was Irish, after all.” He leaned forward. “But a body’d have to be sick to kill all those women.”

“Or very afraid.”

O’Brian met Sebastian’s gaze, and held it. “There’s nothing I’m that afraid of.”

Sebastian took a long sip of his tea. “Kane tells me you wanted to buy Rose out of the house, but she refused.”

“He said that?”

“Are you saying it’s not true?”

“Are you kidding? Of course she was willing. She hated Kane, and she hated that house.”

“Do you think that’s why she ran away? Because of Kane?”

“What would be the sense in that? I was getting her out of there.” O’Brian leaned his elbows on the table, his linked hands coming up to tap against his chin. “The only thing I can figure is something must have happened. Something that scared her. She just bolted.”

“So why didn’t she bolt to you?”

“Maybe she figured she’d be too easy to trace.” A wry smile tightened the flesh beside his eyes. “Didn’t take you long to find me, now did it?”

Sebastian studied the agent’s dark, handsome face. “Ian Kane says her departure meant nothing to him. That she was easily replaced.”

O’Brian huffed a humorless laugh. “What do you think? I was about to pay him two hundred pounds for her.” He leaned forward. He was no longer smiling. “It sets a bad example for the other girls, now doesn’t it? Her taking off like that. I don’t know what he told you. But the truth is, he was livid when he found out she’d run away. Said if he ever got his hands on her again, he’d kill her.”