Page 46 of Enlightened
They took the stairs up to the next floor, the dining rooms. These were bustling with patrons partaking of the roast beef, which looked to be rather dry, and the “excellent syllabub”, which was, in fact, alarmingly grey. The diners seemed happy enough to wolf their dinners down, though. They weren’t here for the food, after all, but for the drink and the cards and, most of all, the company.
David and Murdo looked in each of the three dining rooms but saw no sign of Kinnell. When they came out of the last one, Murdo said, “Let’s try the card rooms. It’s rather early, but we may as well look.”
It was early. The hard gaming that came later and that would have scores of gentlemen crowding round the tables wouldn’t begin for a while. Only a small number of older gentlemen were sitting around, enjoying a few hands of cards for what appeared to be modest stakes. And again, there was no sign of Kinnell.
“He must have decided to stay at home this evening, with Elizabeth,” David said. The thought made him shiver. What would Kinnell do to her? What about when he discovered she was with child? He pushed that thought away determinedly. Enough time to think about that later when he lay sleepless in bed, as he knew he would tonight.
“Probably,” Murdo said. “Let’s get back and see whether Liddle’s found out any more for us. We have to do something before he gets her out of London.”
They made their way back down to the ground floor, wending their way through the maze of rooms. Murdo wanted to avoid the room he’d seen his father and Hartley in earlier, so he slipped a coin to a footman who took them down a service corridor that bypassed it, leading them straight into the largest and quietest of the lounges, where members could read their newspapers in peace while they drank their port.
At the same moment that David and Murdo entered the lounge, another pair of gentlemen strolled through the door on the opposite side of the room.
One of them was Kinnell.
He was pink-cheeked from the cold, and he was smiling—grinning, in fact—bright-eyed and pleased with himself, seeming well disposed towards his fellow men.
“Bring us your best brandy,” he told the same servant who had greeted David and Murdo earlier. “I’m celebrating.”
His companion—short, tubby and balding—laughed. “I wish you’d tell me what this celebration is about!”
But Kinnell’s glee was already fading. He had seen Murdo, and David, and he was observing their approach. His thin, hawkish features were taut with bristling anger that was kept in check by what David suspected was a touch of fear.
“Yes, do tell, Kinnell,” Murdo said with the bland, easy smile he wore when he was masking his thoughts. “What are you celebrating? Or perhaps I should take a guess?”
Kinnell went to walk past Murdo—to cut him entirely—but Murdo put out a hand, easily detaining him. Hetsked. “Come now, you aren’t going to ignore me, are you?” he said. “I do so hate to be ignored!”
Kinnell wasn’t a small man, but Murdo topped him by a couple of inches and his broad shoulders dwarfed the other man’s thinner frame.
“Let me by,” Kinnell gritted out. “We are not friends, but at least let us not make a scene.”
Murdo laughed, and his expression was not pleasant. “Ah, but perhaps I want to make a scene,” he said, not lowering his voice in the slightest, his big hand still on Kinnell’s shoulder. A few heads turned and newspapers were lowered as the encounter began to attract attention.
Once again, Kinnell tried to shrug him off and walk away, but Murdo wouldn’t let him. He stepped closer, crowding Kinnell till the other man was forced to take a step back.
“Steady on there!” the tubby man protested weakly.
Murdo turned his head and smiled at him, his geniality oddly unnerving. “Do you want to participate in this conversation? Or are you going to be a good chap and keep your trap shut?”
The tubby man’s face burned, and he slunk back, leaving Kinnell alone.
Murdo turned his attention back to Kinnell. “You were looking ever so pleased with yourself when you came in here,” he said. “I think you must have been reunited with your lovely young wife. Am I right?”
David caught a flurry of movement at the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see a few more men entering the room. They filed in and leaned against the back wall, blatantly watching the drama. Now it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
“Well?” Murdo prompted.
“And what if I have?” Kinnell bit out, a faint sneer of triumph lifting his thin upper lip.
“No, it can’t just be that,” Murdo mused, tapping his chin with his forefinger. “You look far too happy for merely that. Oh, wait, I have it! Did you give her a sound thrashing before you came out? Nowthat’dput a smile on your face, wouldn’t it? You do enjoy handing out a thrashing. Especially to someone smaller and weaker than you.”
There were a few gasps at that, and Kinnell went white.
“How dare you!” he hissed.
Murdo’s gaze bored into him. “Tell me I’m wrong,” he said. “I’d love to be wrong, believe me. But I fear Elizabeth is probably tending her injuries as we speak.”
“Do not callmy wifeby her given name!” Kinnell shouted, pushing Murdo’s arm away. He managed it this time, but his voice shook with what sounded like real fear when Murdo stepped into his path to stop him passing, making him halt in his tracks.