Page 11 of Deadly Murder (Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe Murder Mystery #14)
Seven
“Mr. Brodie received a note a short while ago,” Mr. Cavendish informed me as our coach arrived back at the office on The Strand after our visit with my sister.
“It looked official, hand-carried by a gentleman’s man. Inspector Dooley came round earlier, and Mr. Munro is up at the office as well,” he added.
I tucked the artist’s tube with that charcoal drawing under my arm, and Lily and I headed for the lift.
Brodie looked up as we entered the office. Munro stood beside the cast iron stove where a fire glowed warmly. I did notice the frown on Munro’s face as he acknowledged both of us.
“Good that ye’re here,” Brodie greeted us. “Ye will want to read this.”
He handed me the note he had received with a royal crest on the accompanying envelope as I laid the tube with that drawing on his desk.
We were to meet with the Prince of Wales this very same evening at Marlborough House.
“Mr. Cavendish said that Mr. Dooley was here earlier?”
He nodded. “I tried to arrange for us to inspect the body of the young man. But it seems that the family has already claimed the body and made the necessary arrangements for burial.”
That seemed rather sudden. There was usually a lying-in period at the family residence that often went on for some time. Aunt Antonia had mentioned one of her peers being “presented” as she called it in the family residence for thirty days. I had always considered that to be excessive.
“Even with the poor thing full of embalming fluids, she swelled up like a bloated fish and smelled like one as well. Yet, I will admit that I had noticed that about her when she was still alive,” my great aunt had exclaimed at the time. “I say, put the poor thing in the ground and be done with it!”
I was inclined to agree and believe that had influenced her decision to go out in a Viking longboat set afire. A blaze of glory, as it were.
“Far more efficient,” she had declared at the time. “And quite exciting, don’t you think?”
My sister was not at all surprised when she heard of it afterward.
“Of course,” she had remarked. “I would expect no less. She has been quite unconventional all of her life. Perhaps she should put in an order for two, you are quite like her, you know.”
Yes, well…
“And we’re to meet at Marlborough House?” I asked, returning to the subject at hand, namely that note.
“It seems that after the incident last night with the police called out by one of the staff, all information is now to be directed to Sir Avery at the Agency.”
Of course, I thought. The Queen’s man was now to take the case.
“Yet His Highness still wants to meet with us?”
“I suppose that it would be to discuss any other information we’ve been able to learn.” He glanced down at the artist’s tube at his desk.
“And this?” he inquired.
“It’s the sketch Lady Lenore made from my description of the man I saw last night,” Lily explained.
“A sketch?” Munro commented. “And ye saw the man?”
“It was very brief,” Lily explained. “And then he was gone, but it could be helpful.”
Brodie opened the tube, pulled out the charcoal drawing, then unrolled the sketch and spread it across the desk. He looked up at Lily.
“This is the man ye saw?”
She nodded. “Miss Lenore had a go at it several times, but that is verra near wot he looks like.”
Brodie studied the sketch, then looked over at me. “Do ye recognize the man?”
I did not. Whoever he was, he was not among those I had seen that night; however with the number of people there, it was not surprising.
He nodded. “This could be useful. At least we know what the blighter looks like and with yer other details about him,” he looked over at Lily, “the authorities and Sir Avery’s people will know what to look for. Ye’ve done well,” he told her.
With that, we prepared to leave for that meeting the Prince of Wales.
“Ye’ll see the lass back to Sussex Square?” Brodie inquired of Munro.
He nodded. “Unless she has a notion to stop in the East End and take up the search for the man there?” he replied.
I exchanged a look with Brodie. That did seem a bit sharp.
“If ye dinna mind, Mr. Brodie, I would like to attend the meeting with ye. His Highness may have questions about the drawing,” Lily pointed out.
She had a very valid point, in spite of Munro’s comment. None of us had seen the man, and there might very well be questions about the drawing that we would not be able to answer.
I looked over at her. So many changes since she’d arrived from Edinburgh, along with that reminder from Brodie that she had matured a great deal since then.
She was extremely intelligent, self-confident, and was quite determined to have her own way in things.
The word there was stubborn. Not that I hadn’t heard that before about myself.
“Ye canna change her,” Brodie told me at the time. “Ye should well know that.”
He was right, of course, and I had become very aware in the past year that she was determined to make her own way, no matter what I or anyone thought or said. That shoe was now on the other foot, as the saying went…
“Of course you should accompany us,” I replied, much to Munro’s obvious disapproval, though he did not say it. However, a Scottish sound was worth a hundred words.
“I’ll go with ye as well,” he announced. “Then I can escort the chit back to Sussex Square.”
I caught Lily’s reaction at being thought of as no more than a wayward child— that sudden lift of a dark brow, and the set of her chin. There was most definitely trouble there between the two.
Much like that previous evening at Marlborough House, the grounds and the mansion itself were well lit.
There were now substantially more guards at the entrance to the park surrounding the formal residence that also served as the formal office of the Prince of Wales.
Another set of guards waited at the entrance to the courtyard, with still more royal guards at the main entrance. I was not the only one to notice the increased presence.
“I’ve never seen so many,” Lily commented.
Brodie had brought the sketch my sister made from Lily’s description of the man she saw and chased that previous evening. And I had brought my notebook along with that note that was found on the young man’s body, along with the first note that was found on the body of the son of Lord Salisbery.
We had discussed what we knew before leaving the office, along with several aspects that we could only speculate on.
There were now two deaths of sons of prominent members of the peerage, and three notes, one left on each of the bodies, and the last one with that cryptic message.
“And then there were two…”
We were met by Sir Knollys, the Prince of Wales personal secretary, at the main entrance to Marlborough House.
“Am I supposed to bow or curtsy?” Lily whispered as we followed him to the library that also served as the office for His Highness, where he conducted official business of the Crown, and on behalf of the Queen.
The walls were covered with portraits, including one of Prince Albert, his father, and another of the Queen hanging on the wall between those two arches. His desk was enormous, although it was difficult to see much detail because of the mountain of papers that covered it.
Over the hearth was a portrait of His Highness in a naval uniform from his earlier years with the Royal Navy, while about the room, on a side table below a set of windows and at shelves that lined the other walls, was a collection of artifacts from places he had traveled.
We were greeted first by a scruffy terrier that leaped up and charged over to greet us as we entered the library.
“There now, Ulysses,” His Highness called out.
The name did seem a bit misplaced for one so small.
The dog was far more obedient than Rupert, the hound who occupied the alcove below our office. It was obvious that Ulysses was immediately taken with Lily.
She reached down and scratched the dog’s ears and told him what a good boy he was. When he’d received the attention he was after, Ulysses returned to sit by the desk of the Prince of Wales who stood as we arrived.
“Lady Forsythe and Mr. Brodie, I do appreciate you meeting with me this time in the evening.”
Brodie nodded. “Aye, yer note explained the circumstance, sir.”
“Please, be seated,” His Highness said then. “We are past any formalities in this matter.”
We sat before the hearth, Lily as well, although Munro chose to remain just outside the study.
Sir Knollys had one of the servants provide coffee, then left at a nod from His Highness.
“The past twenty-four hours have been…exceedingly difficult, as you may imagine,” Prince Edward said as he set his cup aside.
“It has been most upsetting for my family and that of Sir Huntingdon. There are many questions, and I have requested this meeting due to a recent development that I had hoped to avoid.
“However, it seems that is not to be…particularly now with the Agency asked to make inquiries on behalf of the Queen. You should know that it was not of my choosing, as you have provided most excellent results in past matters.”
“Sir,” Brodie politely interrupted. “There are things we have been able to learn and would make that information available to Sir Avery.”
“You perhaps misunderstand my intentions, Mr. Brodie,” the Prince of Wales interjected.
“In spite of this ‘development’,” he added with no effort to disguise his displeasure, “I am not ending our arrangement.”
I was surprised at his announcement as was Brodie.
It was no secret that there was a certain “estrangement” between the Queen and the Prince of Wales. It was rumored they rarely spoke.
According to my great aunt, he had been quite rebellious in his youth, something I understood well.
“Quite the contrary,” he continued now. “I want you to continue. There will be the usual sensationalized publicity. There is no preventing that now. I am requesting that you both continue.”
“Is Sir Avery aware of the notes that were received?” Brodie inquired.
I caught the hesitation on the part of His Highness.