A mix of confusion at seeing us and disgust at our state waswrit large upon his smooth, shiny face. I knew he was mentallycataloguing the smallest detail of our dirty, dusty, wind-blownselves.
“Sir Percival, Miss Lovelady, delighted to see you again. Um,is the er… Liaison, not accompanying you?”
I shareda glance with Sir Percival.
“We seem to have become separated,” Sir Percivalreplied.
I felt it usually best to leave Mr Twocock to Sir Percival asthey seemed to be Birds of a Feather, as it were.
“Oh?”
I couldsee him mentally make a note to pass to his superiors concerningthe matter.
“Yes, were on our way to see if we can locate him but need totemporarily store some items here first.”
“And how was your visit to the Russian stateairship?”
“Um, oh fine… fine.”
Hesmiled at Sir Percival to begin the process of wheedling the truthfrom him. I wanted to avoid giving him any information at all, andalso I wanted to get back to Katherine. So I butted into theirpoliteness with, “We’ll bring it in, you tell us where to put itfor safe keeping and we’ll be back when we determine the Liaison’swhereabouts.” For all we knew he was spread over centralLondon.
“Is it dangerous?”
SirPercival and I shared another look.
“Possibly.”
Heturned to the bell pulls and, without looking, pulled the one tothe far left. I heard no sound but knew that somewhere, deep withinthe building a bell had just sounded to summon someone. I bet itwouldn’t be the grey man again.
He rosesmoothly from behind the walnut desk and walked past us in a cloudof gentleman’s scent to open the front door, making sure not toaccidentally brush against us and dirty his ownclothing.
Regarding the steam cab he said, “You seem to have leftWilkins behind as well.”
How muchdid we dare tell him?
SirPercival took the easy option and said, “Yes.”
“Then it’s just as well he came here.”
“He’s here?” I blurted out.
Hesmoothly turned to me. “Yes, Miss Lovelady. Do you wish to partakeof his services?”
“Please.”
Thecabbie we’d had to borrow was fine as far as he went. But what Iwas really after was Mrs Miggins’ hamper under the seat. I wasutterly famished!
Mr Twocock moved on with “How large are the items, SirPercival?”
Sir Percival did things with his arms to demonstrate and MrTwocock said over his shoulder, “Room two, and let Wilkins knowhe’s required, Jenkins.”
Startled, I turned to see the possible twin of the Liaisonbehind us, though he was much wider, had hair, and wore a blacksuit. How such a large gentleman got there without me hearing himwas quite unnerving.
Jenkinspolitely nodded at us, squeezed through the doorway and headed downthe steps to the cab. Opening the door he reached in, slid themisshapen device out and carried it up the stairs. I made sure tostand well clear as he passed us and walked through the open doorhe’d entered from. After placing the device somewhere he repeatedthe process with the deconstructed flying V.
“They shall be available for when you get back, Sir Percival.Miss Lovelady,” Mr Twocock smoothly advised us.
I joined Sir Percival in exiting the building. I could havewaited inside but always felt peculiarly ‘lubricated’ after dealingwith Mr Twocock. While Sir Percival paid the cabbie I enjoyed thefeeling of firm ground under my feet waiting for Wilkins, and thehamper, to arrive.
Shortlythe same cab we’d left in so very early that morning drove roundthe corner and up to us. My heart lifted at seeing the familiarface of Wilkins in the driving seat, and nearly exploded at seeingthe hamper untouched under the rear seat.
Eleven
The steam cab headed towards the cloud of smoke rising highinto the sky. What would we find? What would the Department do ifthe Liaison was dead? Give us someone even sneakier? In this caseit really was ‘the Devil you know’ being better than a new one. Andwould Sir Percival leave enough cheese sandwiches for me? These,and many other thoughts, crossed my mind as we drewcloser.
Similarly to this morning, pedestrians seemed to begravitating to where we were heading. After a short time the cabhad to slow down to avoid hitting people.
A hatchopened and Wilkins looked in at us. Luckily we were between bites.“Can’t go no further, Guv. Miss. You wanna get outhere?”
Thecrowds of spectators we saw through the windows made it obvious wewere as far as we could get by cab. We exited and accompanied thecrowds in their excited trek. We couldn’t help overhearing hearsayand rumour concerning what had happened. Apparently the airshipeither blew up by itself – possibly some aether miscalculation, orthe Russians had done it themselves to discredit Queen Victoria, orsome madman had his hand in it. I listened in vain for someonementioning vampires, or two people escaping from it in a foolhardyexploit. Apparently there were survivors though. I hoped theLiaison would be one of them.
“Miss Lovelady?”
“Yes, Sir Percival?”
“Did your er… Miss Katherine give a reason for being inLondon?”
What was he talking about? I’d left Katherine back in bed.Somewhere I was most eager to discover her when we finally got backfrom this misadventure. Perhaps she could also aid me with amost thorough bath beforehand?
“Why do you ask?”
“She’s just entered the shop over there.”
He pointed towards a haberdashery to our left. Was he sure itwas her? I knew his eyesight was excellent and, although his minddid gloss over the fact that Katherine and I were female, he didmanage to differentiate between us. Should I go over there and sayhello or continue on and discover if the Liaison was stillalive?
SirPercival caught my torn look.
“I know you and she have er…things to talk about. Ishall continue on to see if the Liaison is still in the land of theliving.”
Was he finally understanding the ways of women? Or was it acase of ‘out of sight, out of mind’? Whatever the reason I hurriedthrough the crowds of people. Most of them when seeing the state Iwas in must
