My heartleapt - what if she wanted to surprise me withsomething?
I saw movement through the closed shutters and hurried awaydown the street and round a corner. I’d happily let her surprise meif she wanted.
The dooropened and I recognised the dress and hat as those ofKatherine’s.
Ididn’t, though, recognise the lady wearing them.
***
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Katherine
One
Thecrowds of people passing by on the street ignored me as they headedto see the remains of the downed Russian airship. That was fine byme as I was dirty and smelly from somehow surviving the airship’sdestruction and throwing up in the escape. But also because mythoughts were confused at what I’d just seen - Katherine, the ladyI loved, had disappeared. The clothes I recognised as hers werenow, somehow, being worn by a stranger.
Gradually the lady wearing Katherine’s hat and dress meltedaway into the crowds. What was going on? Why wasn’t Katherine inher own clothes?
Maybethe shock of killing two vampires and having a major hand in theRussian airship’s destruction made me stand and stare at the lastplace I saw the strange lady. Then something inside my mind gave alittle kick, unfortunately too late to be able to follow thestranger into the crowd, so I headed to the haberdashers from whereshe’d exited a short while ago.
Would Ibe able to gain entry and find an answer? There was but one way tofind out.
QuicklyI hurried back up the street and tried the door. Locked. Shieldingmy eyes I tried to make out any movement behind the blinds, but sawnothing. That wouldn’t stop me though, so I hurried back to thealley I’d used to spy on the person I thought was Katherine andwent through it to see if I could gain entry around theback.
Ientered chill shadow and shivered as if something had just walkedover my grave. Speeding up I dodged the accumulated smelly rubbishand exited the alley. The street this side was much quieter, almostas if it was in a different place and time.
Thinflower beds and window boxes containing bright flowers decoratedthe outside of neat little terraced houses. I hurried up the streetto where the rear of the haberdashers was and had a surprise, somuch so that I looked back to the alley to see if I’dmiscalculated. No, I was correct - the rear of the haberdashers wasMistress Velda’s Emporium of the Arcane Arts.
What wasgoing on? Had Katherine been visiting the haberdashers or MistressVelda?
Iapproached the small mullioned windows and peered in. This shopalso looked closed, but also possibly unused for quite a while ifthe skeleton hanging in the window was Mistress Velda, or one ofher staff.
Itouched the front door handle and jumped at a cry of “MissLovelady!”
Thesound of steps came from behind me and I turned to see Sir Percivaland a sooty and most dishevelled-looking Departmental Liaisonfollowing behind. For some reason I felt slightly better knowingthat we hadn’t killed him by destroying the airship, but alsothey’d back me up if I needed to enter Mistress Velda’s arcaneEmporium.
SirPercival came up close to me and whispered, “Best do what you needto do quickly; the Liaison is still quite shellshocked and may nottake in what you’re up to.”
I noddedmy thanks to him and turned back to the handle. Similarly to thehaberdasher’s, it was locked. Quickly I looked through the windows,peering past the skeletons of varying sizes, shrunken heads, books,and more candles than you could shake a chicken’s foot at. But Isaw no-one and nothing that spoke to me of Katherine.
Disheartened I turned back to Sir Percival and said, “We’dbest get back. There may be something among her belongings thatwould help solve this conundrum.”
Henodded his agreement and we each took one of the Liaison’s arms andhelped him back to the steam carriage.
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Two
Eveningwas falling as we arrived back at the Stately home that theDepartment owned. I didn’t realise how famished I was until mystomach protested most unbecomingly at the smell of dinner cooking.Heeding Sir Percival’s advice that we needed to clean ourselves upfirst or Mrs Miggins would refuse us entry to the dining room Iquickly washed and changed into far cleaner clothes.
Butbefore heading to the dining room I opened the drawer onKatherine’s side of the bed to begin my investigation.
At thebottom of the drawer underneath her masses of jewelleryknick-knacks (she so did love bright glittery things - I was sure Icould get the splinter of the Caspian Star cut and set intoearrings and a matching necklace, and perhaps even a ring) were twoenvelopes. Both addressed to Katherine at a town she’d neverbrought up in conversation. Though, to be honest, geography, apartfrom that of our bodies, was not our normal topic of conversation.Both were missing the letters they may have contained, but in bothwere rough pencil drawings of what appeared to be Da Vinci’sVitruvian man but inside a cog. I had no idea what that meant, ifanything. The postmark date on one was from three years ago and onthe other only a few days ago. Why the difference in dates? And whywere they empty?
Mythoughts were interrupted by the sound of the dinner gong. As thesound reverberated around the stately home I secreted them in apocket and planned to ask Sir Percival if he knew anything aboutthe town written on both.
MrsMiggins was forced to serve us herself as one of her staff wasalready absent due to a family issue, as well as the disappearanceof Katherine (who’d replaced one of her more recalcitrantstaff).
Thankfully the Departmental Liaison seldom ate at the sametable as us, perhaps feeling it was best to avoid over-familiarity.This evening though he’d also managed to cement himself into MrsMiggins’s bad books by arriving to dinner in
