“I had wondered,” she said slowly, “if you were going to tell me.”
Her confession astounded him. “You knew?”
“Really, John,”—she gave him a look that was somehow reproachful and yet very, very loving—“give me credit for having learned something about you in seven months of marriage.”
“But—how—?”
“You’ve always been quite open with me about your cases, even before we were married,” she reminded him. “True, you were with Bow Street then, but now that you’re acting independently, I should have thought you would be more inclined to take me into your confidence, not less. Then, too, I wasn’t aware of any callers asking for you, or any letters that might have come from a potential client. Note, if you will, that I am not so shabby an investigator myself, having learned from the best.”
He chose to let this undeserved praise pass, at least for the nonce. “And yet you said nothing!”
“There was always the chance that I was wrong, and you actually were pursuing an investigation. If that was the case, then I knew it must be a very delicate matter indeed, for you to be so secretive. Either way, I knew that, whatever you’ve been doing—”
“Killing time,” he put in bitterly.
“Whatever you’ve been doing,” she said again, putting the slightest emphasis on the words, “you would tell me about it in your own good time—and you see I was quite right. What I didn’t understand—what I still don’t understand—is why.”
Why? The question was simple enough, but he struggled to answer it nonetheless. Two days ago—no, two hours ago—it had seemed the most important thing in the world that Julia not know what a sad excuse for a man she’d married. But now, looking back, it was hard to remember what he’d made such a fuss about.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think this business is going to work,” he confessed. He glanced at the small table beside the door where that day’s issue of the Times lay, containing within its pages a carefully worded advertisement inviting those in need of “discreet private inquiries” to apply in person at number twenty-two Curzon Street and ask for Mr. Pickett.
“It hasn’t been very long,” she reminded him. “Perhaps you just haven’t given it enough time.”
“It’s been almost a month,” he pointed out.
He couldn’t justify the expense of continuing to run an advertisement that elicited no response. And so, the first thing Monday morning, he would set about obtaining a position—a counting-house clerk, perhaps, or a post office guard. Hardly genteel, but at least respectable. And he would do it with a smile on his face and never utter a word of complaint, for love of the lady who bore his name and would soon bear his child.
In the meantime, however, there was something else he had to do.
Epilogue
In Which a Piece of the Puzzle Falls into Place
“There it is!” As Julia bent over the church registry, the light streaming through the stained-glass window above the altar of St. Giles-in-the-Fields cast rainbow-hued reflections onto her face and hair.
Pickett, running his finger down the page of the parish register, stopped at the place she indicated. There, in slightly faded ink, was listed the marriage on 4 April, 1783, of John Pickett, servant, to Lydia Melrose, the latter written in a round schoolgirl hand.
“She must have been very young,” Julia said softly, watching his face as he traced the name with the tip of his finger, as if he might conjure the shade of the woman who had borne it.
“Yes. I believe she was.”
He wished he’d thought to ask her. He wished he’d thought to ask who she had been before her marriage, and how she’d met and married his father, and, finally, what had taken her from them.
No one lives on this earth, no matter how brief their stay, without leaving some trace of themselves behind...
No, he thought, remembering the words she had spoken, she had not been taken, at least not entirely. Some part of her lived on, in himself and in his child, growing unseen in the dark, secret places of Julia’s womb.
“But how did you know where to look for it?” Julia asked, after they had returned the book to the rector and departed the church. “The marriage record, I mean.”
He took her hand and pressed a quick kiss to the back of it before tucking it into the curve of his arm. “Just playing a hunch, I guess you could say.”
He would tell her, someday, what had happened to him while to everyone else he had appeared to be lying insensible on the pavement. Someday, certainly, but not just yet. Even after twenty-four hours, it was too new, too raw, to share with anyone, even the woman he loved with every fiber of his being.
And that was another thing: Julia—the Julia of his dream, or hallucination, or whatever it was—had been passively resigned to her fate, until he—a stranger, so far as she was concerned—had come under attack, whereupon she’d become a veritable tigress in his defense. Their love for each other, or at least the seeds of it, had been there, the one constant in a world run mad.
He hailed a passing hackney and handed Julia inside, but just before he climbed into the carriage after her, his attention was caught by a woman some little distance down the street, a short, stout woman pushing a wheeled cart. He froze, unsure whether to snatch Julia out of the vehicle and chase the woman down, or climb inside and pretend he’d never seen her at all. In the split second in which he wrestled with indecision, the apple seller put her finger to her lips, gave him a wink, and disappeared into the crowd.
“Well?” prompted the hackney driver. “Where to, guv’nor?”
Pickett stared for a long moment down the street, where no trace of the woman remained, and gave his head a shake. Perhaps he would never fully understand; perhaps he didn’t have to. Whatever had happened that day, it was surely no more incredible than this, his real life.
“Home,” he told the driver. “Curzon Street, Number twenty-two.”
Then, seizing the doorframe, he hoisted himself up onto the step and into the carriage where Julia waited.
READ ALL THE AWARD-WINNING JOHN PICKETT MYSTERIES:
PICKPOCKET’S APPRENTICE
“Subtle humor and clever wordplay add to this fascinating tale as Pickett thrives and grows.”
—Audiofile Magazine
THIS PREQUEL NOVELLA shows how it all began! When fourteen-year-old John Pickett is arrested for stealing an apple from a Covent Garden costermonger, he never dreams his life is about to undergo a drastic change. But instead of binding him over for trial, the Bow Street magistrate arranges for him to be apprenticed to a coal merchant. For the next five years, young John Pickett hauls coal in exchange for room and board. The work is dirty and hard, but the drudgery is lightened by the merchant’s pert daughter Sophy, with whom Pickett, now sixteen, tumbles headlong into love.
And then one day nineteen-year-old John Pickett stumbles by accident into a criminal investigation that will bring him once again to the attention of Bow Street, and will change the course of his life...
IN MILADY’S CHAMBER
“[A] lively historical romp.” —Library Journal
ESTRANGED FROM HER aristocratic husband through her failure to produce an heir, Lady Fieldhurst resolves to repay his neglect by taking a lover. Fate intervenes when she and her paramour enter her bedchamber and find Lord Fieldhurst on the floor—with her nail scissors protruding from his neck.
Idealistic young Bow Street Runner John Pickett has spent most of his brief career chasing petty thieves. Nothing has prepared him for low dealings in high society...or for the beautiful young widow who is the chief suspect.
The newspapers expect a quick arrest, while Pickett’s magistrate questions his handling of the case, given his unprofessional interest in the lady.
Under increasing pressure from without and within, Pickett must uncover the truth if he is to save an innocent woman from the gallows.
A DEAD BORE
“A meringue of a mystery: light [and] pleasant.” —Kirkus Reviews
&
nbsp; EAGER TO ESCAPE THE scandal of her husband's death, Lady Fieldhurst accepts an invitation to a house party in Yorkshire. When a dinner party ends with the death of the vicar—a kindly old soul whose only sin appears to be the authorship of a dull local history—she suspects murder and sends for John Pickett, with one stipulation: since she is a guest in the house, Pickett must keep his connection to Bow Street a secret.
Pickett obliges by presenting himself as her footman, complete with livery and powdered hair. But he soon has his white-gloved hands full sifting through old secrets, uncovering hidden passions, and dealing with a demanding housekeeper. Then there is the problem of Lady Fieldhurst, at once an able assistant and an all-too-pleasant distraction.
FAMILY PLOT
“The jaw-dropping conclusion will have new readers scurrying to catch up on Pickett’s previous adventures and eagerly anticipating the next installment.” —Publishers Weekly
THE THIRD INSTALLMENT of the John Pickett series of humorous Regency mysteries finds Bow Street runner Pickett in Scotland investigating a woman found unconscious on the beach—a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the local laird’s daughter, a girl missing and presumed dead for the last fifteen years.
Pickett is surprised and gratified to discover that the woman was found by none other than Lady Fieldhurst and her three young nephews—and that her ladyship has registered at the seaside inn as Mrs. Julia Pickett.
When old Angus Kirkbride dies only hours after announcing his intention of changing his will in his daughter’s favor, “Mr. and Mrs. Pickett” must join forces to discover the truth about a family reunion suddenly turned deadly.
DINNER MOST DEADLY
“An attempt at matchmaking takes a wrong turn into murder...this fourth frothy whodunit for Pickett has a satisfying surprise or two and a duo who really are made for each other.” —Kirkus Reviews
WHEN JULIA, LADY FIELDHURST returns from Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily Dunnington plans a select dinner party with half a dozen male guests from whom Julia may choose a lover. But Emily’s dinner ends in disaster when one of her guests, Sir Reginald Montague, is shot dead.
Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily’s house, where he is faced with the awkward task of informing Lady Fieldhurst that their recent masquerade as a married couple (Family Plot) has resulted in their being legally wed.
Beset by distractions—including the humiliating annulment procedure and the flattering attentions of Lady Dunnington’s pretty young housemaid—Pickett must find the killer of a man whom everyone has reason to want dead.
WAITING GAME
BOW STREET RUNNER JOHN Pickett and Julia, Lady Fieldhurst have arrived at an impasse as they wait for the annulment of their accidental marriage to come before the ecclesiastical court. In the meantime, Pickett is summoned to investigate the theft of almost two hundred pounds from a linen-draper’s shop—but finds no sign that either the shop or the safe where the money was kept has been forced open. Given the lack of evidence, he can only assume that the money was taken by someone inside. With a host of suspects and a hostile hound named Brutus impeding his progress, Pickett must resort to the tricks of his former trade in order to catch a thief in the act.
TOO HOT TO HANDEL
“John Pickett [is] a little young, but wholly delectable.” —All About Romance
THE FIFTH INSTALLMENT of the series finds Bow Street Runner John Pickett incognito as a gentleman attending Drury Lane Theatre, where a rash of jewel thefts has taken place. Pickett’s magistrate, Mr. Colquhoun, suggests an aristocratic female companion might prevent him from making any glaring faux pas. But the only lady of Pickett’s acquaintance is Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, to whom he is accidentally married and with whom he is hopelessly in love.
Then the theatre catches fire, and Pickett and Julia must escape their box via a harrowing descent down a makeshift rope. When Pickett is struck in the head and left unconscious, it is up to Julia not only to nurse him back to health, but to discover his attacker as well.
FOR DEADER OR WORSE
THE SIXTH INSTALLMENT in the series finds John Pickett and his bride Julia departing London for a wedding trip to Somersetshire, where Pickett faces his greatest challenge yet: meeting his in-laws.
Sir Thaddeus and Lady Runyon are unimpressed with their new son-in-law, but the squire asks for his help nevertheless. Lady Runyon believes the house is haunted by the ghost of her elder daughter Claudia, who disappeared thirteen years earlier and whose body was never found.
When Sir Thaddeus’s groom is discovered with his throat slit, Pickett asks the Justice of the Peace (who happens to be Claudia’s widower) for permission to investigate on his father-in-law’s behalf. When Claudia’s childhood sweetheart takes a hand, it appears the distant past is not so distant, after all.
MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY
“Series fans will be pleased.” —Publishers Weekly
BACK IN LONDON FOLLOWING his honeymoon, Bow Street Runner John Pickett discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia, his aristocratic bride. When he is summoned to the home of Lady Washbourn, Pickett finds they have something in common: like himself, Lady Washbourn has married above her station and finds herself adrift in a world to which she does not truly belong. Now she believes her husband is trying to kill her—and when one of her maids dies during her masquerade ball, it appears she may be right.
Then a coroner’s jury brings in a verdict of death by natural causes, and Pickett stakes his professional reputation on proving the maid was murdered with a poison intended for her mistress. And with a reward of fifty pounds sterling riding on his successful resolution of the case, the marriage Pickett saves just might be his own.
PERIL BY POST
“John Pickett is a great character who has overcome so many obstacles...
This is a great addition to the series.” —Flippin’ Pages
SUMMONED TO ENGLAND’S scenic Lake District by an anonymous letter, Bow Street Runner John Pickett poses as a honeymooning tourist along with his wife. Julia. But Pickett’s contact is murdered before he can disclose the reason for the summons. And since Julia saw it happen, it appears she might be next on the killer’s list.
Amidst a quirky cast of characters including a host of holiday-makers, a bucolic love triangle, an aspiring poet in the Romantic vein, and a pair of rival innkeepers, Pickett must discover the secret behind that urgent summons before a second, and far more personal, murder is committed.
INTO THIN EIRE
“Impeccably researched and written, with compelling characters
and a change of scenery from the usual locations.” —Flippin’ Pages
STILL HAUNTED BY MEMORIES of his last case, in which an innocent woman was accidentally killed, Bow Street Runner John Pickett welcomes the challenge of a new assignment in the West Country. Unfortunately, this time he’ll have to leave his beloved wife, Julia, behind; instead, he’ll be traveling in company with Harry Carson, a member of the Horse Patrol whose swaggering self-confidence is an uneasy fit with Pickett’s reserve.
After three days of trying without success to make contact with the man who sent for him, Pickett receives word from Bow Street that Julia has been abducted. Suddenly his current case takes on much more ominous implications. And if the man behind it all is the one Pickett fears it is, then Julia is in mortal danger...
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A CRIME?
“The excitement doesn’t let up from the first page to the last.” —Flippin’ Pages
WHEN ONE OF HIS COLLEAGUES witnesses a robbery in which one of the participants, a child, bears a striking resemblance to a certain Bow Street Runner, John Pickett realizes he has a young half-brother who has been “apprenticed” to a criminal gang. The brutal murder of the pursuing constable makes the crime far more serious that a simple robbery would be—and ten-year-old Kit is linked to the crime by the toy soldier he dropped while fleeing th
e scene.
The boy will certainly hang unless Pickett can extricate him before fellow Bow Street Runner Robert Maxwell solves the case, and so Pickett is obliged to work against one of his fellows in order to reach Kit first. The investigation will take Pickett back to the rookeries of London where his own childhood was spent. But can he return to his old haunts without being pulled back into his old way of life?
NOWHERE MAN
“You can’t go wrong with this delightful novella.” —Flippin’ Pages
HAVING RESIGNED HIS position at Bow Street, John Pickett waits in vain for someone—anyone!—to engage his services as a private inquiry agent. As weeks go by with no responses to his newspaper advertisement, he has taken to spending his days wandering idly about London rather than admit his failure to his beloved wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst.
One day, while loitering amidst the crowds thronging the Covent Garden market, he wonders morosely if it might have been better had he not been born at all. Then he sees one of his former colleagues and, in an attempt to make a discreet exit, contrives instead to knock himself unconscious.
He awakens to discover that his Bow Street colleague doesn’t seem to remember him, and discovers someone else living in the house where he lived with Julia. But still greater surprises are in store as he attempts to navigate his way through a world in which he never existed...
With a wink and a nod to Frank Capra’s classic film It’s a Wonderful Life, Nowhere Man offers an alternate version of many of the earlier entries in the John Pickett mystery series.
Other Regency Novels by
Sheri Cobb South:
The Weaver Series
THE WEAVER TAKES A WIFE
(Weaver #1)
“An unexpected treasure...a diamond that shines among the pearls.” —All About Romance
HAUGHTY LADY HELEN Radney is one of Regency London’s most beautiful women and the daughter of a duke, but her sharp tongue has frightened away most of her suitors. When her father gambles away his fortune, the duke’s only chance for recouping his losses lies in marrying off Lady Helen to any man wealthy enough to take a bride with nothing to recommend her but a lovely face and an eight-hundred-year-old pedigree.
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