The Baffling Burglaries of Bath

by Leighann Dobbs

  Pru added, “There’s his mother’s earring as well. Why would he bring an heirloom such as that to Bath?”

  Katherine had forgotten about the earring, but she found it highly suspicious as well. She nodded.

  Fiddling with her teacup, Harriet looked acutely uncomfortable. She glanced toward the staircase. “Perhaps Emma needs a walk.”

  Katherine pinned Harriet’s hand to the table with her own. She took comfort from the presence of her closest friend, even if it was highly irregular for a maid to sit at the same table with her mistress and drink tea. “I need your thoughts on this. Please stay.”

  Harriet made a face. “I know you won’t like what I have to say.”

  “Humor me.”

  After she heaved a long sigh, Harriet tore her bun to shreds as she suggested, “I know Mr. and Mrs. Julien seem like good people, but they have strong motive. I heard today that they had to turn out their maid because they could no longer afford her. They’re a whisper away from landing in debtor’s prison. They need the blunt.”

  Katherine shook her head. “It cannot be them.” When Harriet looked ready to chide her, she added, “I’m not saying that because of personal sentiment. Neither could climb into Mrs. Quicke’s window—”

  “If the thief entered by that way,” Lyle injected.

  Katherine glared at him as she continued. “Not to mention they weren’t even in Bath at the time of Mrs. Oliver’s theft. They were in Bradford-on-Avon, south of here. Though I did notice clay on Mr. Julien’s boot when Mrs. Quicke’s jewels were taken…” How had he come by that? He’d been strolling with his wife and grandson, though the theft had occurred at least an hour before Katherine arrived on the scene.

  Pru raised her voice a fraction and spoke over Katherine. “No, they weren’t.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You must be mistaken. I saw Mr. and Mrs. Julien climb into a carriage while Lord Annandale was showing me his horses, shortly before Mrs. Oliver discovered her jewels missing.”

  “Yes.” Katherine nodded slowly, but her stomach sank with every word she spoke. “The public coach stopping in Bradford-on-Avon.”

  “No, a private carriage with ornate metalwork along the sides. A landau, I think, though the hood was drawn. It looked expensive, but Annandale was arguing with me about how best to encourage speed from his horses, and I wasn’t paying as close attention as I might have done. In fact, if not for the beautiful matched team of four pulling the carriage, I might not have noticed at all.” Her cheeks turned a curious shade of plum. “Forgive me. Didn’t I tell you this the other day?”

  Katherine slowly shook her head. “You did not… but I didn’t think to ask. I was more concerned with whether or not the pair were in the baths at the time of the theft.” Which, obviously, they had not been.

  Mr. and Mrs. Julien had looked her in the eye and lied to her! How could they have done so? Katherine didn’t want to contemplate their motives, which she feared began and ended with Scott. They would do anything for their grandson — perhaps even steal.

  Desperate to consider someone else, Katherine blurted, “The thief might be Mr. Salmon.”

  The other three at the table laughed. Even Harriet giggled behind her hand. “He’s much too stupid, my lady.”

  Katherine gritted her teeth. “It might be an act. Although he acts inept, he might have been able to climb up to Mrs. Quicke’s window.”

  Lyle raised his eyebrows. “Do you truly think he’s pretending at being such an imbecile?”

  “No.” She blew out a breath. “We’ve known him through the Society for far too long.”

  Pru leaned forward with interest. “The Society?”

  “The Royal Society for Investigative Techniques,” Lyle answered.

  She turned to Katherine. “They accept women as members?”

  Katherine nodded. “I’m not the only woman who happens to be a member. The Duchess of Tenwick, for instance, is a personal friend and a key member.”

  Lyle turned a curious shade of magenta. He esteemed Philomena Graylocke greatly, even if he had yet to be able to speak in her presence without stuttering. “Her, I imagine they welcomed due to her sheer brilliance.” She, like Lyle, was an inventor and supplied her inventions readily to detectives in need.

  Pru rested her elbows on the table and tapped her chin. “What does one need to do in order to be accepted into the Society?”

  “I’ll explain the steps another time,” Katherine answered. “For now, I need your attention on the thefts, if you please. Mr. Salmon may well be an imbecile, but he is also highly suspicious. Why would he have insisted that the cloaked figure is his primary suspect when it is obvious he hasn’t so much as noticed the lurker?” She shook her head. “And his insistence upon being with the Marquess of Bath during the time of Mrs. Oliver’s robbery, despite the fact that Lyle and Captain Wayland have both confirmed that the Marquess was not with him at the time, is highly irregular. If he is not the thief, I cannot guess his game.”

  “What of this lurker?” Pru added. “I spotted someone, cloaked as you described, during my drive yesterday morning. I wasn’t close enough to espy too many details, and given the chill this September, I didn’t think it particularly noteworthy to have seen a person so bundled against the cold, but the figure appeared to be lurking on Sydney Place when I embarked. Do you think they might be the thief?”

  Biting her lower lip, Katherine nodded. “I spotted such a figure outside Mrs. Quicke’s townhouse while I was searching for clues as well. Now that I have seen them for both thefts, I fear that the lurker might indeed be the Burglar of Bath. However, that brings me no closer to identifying them. They have proven wily thus far.”

  “The figure seemed tall to me,” answered Pru. “Your height to be certain. Most men fit that description, but there are few women who do as well.”

  Softly, Harriet added, “Mrs. Julien is one of those women.”

  She was. But how could an old woman have outrun her? Katherine didn’t participate in foot races, but she would like to think that she was more agile than a seventy-year-old woman.

  Could the lurker have been Mr. Salmon all along? No… Katherine recalled seeing him at the Assembly Rooms, bungling his investigation, mere moments before she caught sight of the cloaked figure through the doorway. However, Mrs. Julien… or perhaps Sir Hugh… Katherine couldn’t recall if she’d seen either in proximity to the lurker. As loath as she was to admit it, she had to consider Mrs. Julien again. Why had such a kind old woman lied to her?

  Katherine chewed on her thumbnail. “I haven’t found traces of silver on Mrs. Julien to match the sliver I found.”

  Harriet raised her eyebrows. “Nor have you on anyone else.”

  If Katherine had, this mystery might be much more easily solved.

  As she opened her mouth to answer, the group of matrons at the nearest table burst into raucous distain. “This is a disgrace.” The speaker, Mrs. Oliver, sounded as though she’d stepped in animal droppings. She cast a news rag down upon the table. Katherine caught no more than the date — yesterday’s issue of The Daily Scandal, a lewd pamphlet that did nothing more than tear down the reputations of the most esteemed men and women in polite society. Katherine never read it.

  However, as Lady Dalhousie leaned over to read the article with glee, Katherine paid the conversation some mind. She held up a hand to stall Lyle from speaking as he started.

  The biddy crowed, “Oh dear. Lady Carleton was spotted wearing that hideous emerald ring her husband gave her for their marriage anniversary. Wasn’t she shaking the rafters last month with her shouts of being the thief’s latest victim? I knew her ring wasn’t comely enough to have warranted his attention.”

  At Lady Dalhousie’s pointed glare, Mrs. Oliver gasped in affront. “I did not exaggerate my theft, I assure you! My necklace was missing. Everyone in the King’s Bath saw as much.”

  “You might have hidden it,” Lady Dalhousie accused her.

&nbs
p; “Where? That heinous investigator, Mr. Salmon, shook out my clothing for all to see. Unless you think I stuffed my pearls down my shift and somehow didn’t leave a bulge…”

  A third woman chimed in, “We aren’t accusing you, Mrs. Oliver. Nor Lady Carleton — she is getting to an age where she might be going senile. She likely forgot where she put her ring and found it again when she returned to London.”

  “Senile,” Lady Dalhousie scoffed. “She was ready to turn out her maid, certain that the poor chit had taken it from her!”

  “As I said, senile. It happens to a lot of women her age. Why, Mrs. Tatton thought her diamond-and-sapphire earrings were taken in July, but she wore them to the Duke of Tenwick’s ball just before the Season closed. Women that age start to lose their memories, don’t you know…” The third woman drew out her words as she raked Lady Dalhousie with a long look, implying that she would be next.

  Katherine blew out a breath. She hated these sorts of backbiting machinations. She returned her attention to Lyle. “Forgive me, what were you about to say?”

  “Have you looked for traces of silver on Mr. Salmon? You seem adamant that he might be at fault…”

  Her mouth gaped as she realized that she hadn’t thought to search Mr. Salmon for something that might connect him to her one clue. He had stomped about rather conspicuously, in a manner that, had she not retrieved the sliver of silver beforehand, might have damaged the evidence. Perhaps he had known it was there because he had left it!

  Perhaps all Katherine had to do in order to prove that Mrs. Julien hadn’t committed the thefts was find that bit of silver on Mr. Salmon! “No, I haven’t. Lyle, that’s brilliant. I could kiss you!”

  He turned such a brilliant shade of ruby that his cheeks almost resembled jewels on their own.

  Chapter Thirteen

  For a man bumbling his way through an investigation that ought to make him visible in Bath, Mr. Salmon was a difficult man to find. After a night and a day spent searching for a man she would have preferred to avoid under ordinary circumstances, Katherine accepted an invitation from the Marquess of Bath in the hopes that his hired detective would also be in attendance.

  Lord Bath invited several vacationers, including the recently robbed Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Quicke, to have dinner at his manor a short drive from the town. He even sent his ornate, silver-scrolled, black barouche for anyone who didn’t have a carriage of their own. Since Grandma Bath had extended the invitation to the inventors in town, Katherine had the pleasure of escorting Lyle to the gathering.

  He, on the other hand, was much less pleased with the arrangement. “I don’t see why I have to be here,” he grumbled from his position in the corner of Lord Bath’s sitting room. The room was decorated in scarlet and gold, with flowers painted on the wallpaper, and tassels adorning every cushion.

  Grandma Bath, thankfully, was seated in a red armchair near the mantel and hadn’t yet noticed Katherine’s arrival. The old woman had been deep in conversation with Wayland when she had arrived, and Katherine hoped to keep it that way for the duration of the gathering. The very last thing she needed was for Grandma Bath to try to push her and Lord Bath together. She was here to investigate!

  “I’m trying to locate Mr. Salmon.”

  “Which you can do perfectly well without me,” Lyle insisted. He shifted his position, shouldering closer to the wall and putting her body squarely between him and the gathering at large.

  “Mr. Murphy!” Grandma Bath shouted, a wide smile on her face. “Come, sit by me and tell me how your invention is faring thus far.”

  Looking like a skittish dog, Lyle cautiously slinked forward. Katherine smirked — until Grandma Bath turned her attention to the corner of the sitting room.

  “Lady Katherine, is that you? Come here, dear. There’s plenty of room. I haven’t seen you in days!”

  Apparently, Grandma Bath hadn’t realized that Katherine’s avoidance had been by design. Reluctantly, she accompanied Lyle closer, searching the room for an excuse not to linger. That arrived in the form of Pru, scowling behind the chair as she stood on her own.

  “Nice to see you again…” Katherine fought a grimace as she recalled the name Grandma Bath had asked to be called. After a moment’s pause, she forced out, “Grandmama.” Katherine had a living grandmother, one every bit as puckish as Grandma Bath seemed to be. She didn’t need another, most certainly because this one would involve marrying Lord Bath. “If you’ll excuse me, I believe Miss Burwick requires my attention.”

  “Coward,” Lyle muttered as Katherine stepped between the chair and the divan in order to reach Pru.

  As she did, Pru’s scowl deepened. “I do not require your attention.”

  “Anything that takes me away from Grandma Bath’s side before she can call over her grandson requires my attention.” Katherine muttered the retort under her breath.

  Pru snickered.

  “Speaking of matchmaking…” Katherine darted a glance across the room, where Wayland now stood in conversation with Lord Annandale. “Have you adequately rebuffed a certain Scottish laird’s attentions?”

  Pru glanced down at the weak champagne in her hand. “He hasn’t ventured over to greet me, so I would say I have.”

  She didn’t sound nearly as triumphant over the notion as she had in the past. I knew it! Katherine buried her surge of satisfaction over the glum way Pru traced the rim of her glass before taking another sip. She had developed feelings of some kind for Lord Annandale, and if Katherine had to hazard a guess, she would venture that they were not feelings of loathing. Although Katherine didn’t want to be cornered into life as a matchmaker, particularly because it would curtail her investigations, she had helped her sisters find matches and knew when a woman was falling in love.

  Whether or not she wanted to admit it, Pru was falling in love with Lord Annandale. The question was, had her efforts succeeded in rebuffing him, or was there still a chance for Pru to find her happy ending? And would Pru even realize that was what she wanted?

  “He doesn’t seem like such a bad prospect,” Katherine mused as she moved to stand next to her charge and face Annandale. The men remained oblivious that they had become the topic of conversation. “Respectful, wealthy, perhaps a bit unconventional, but that might be for the better seeing as you aren’t the conventional lady, either. If you had to marry, he wouldn’t be the worst choice.”

  Pru made a face and gulped down her champagne. “Don’t tell me you agree with my mother.”

  “Your mother chose a name based on a title. You’ve seen the man. You tell me — is he more than his title?”

  Pru blushed as she stared into her empty glass. “Of course. Aren’t we all?”

  Katherine nodded. The silence stretched between them as Pru glanced coyly toward Annandale. She averted her gaze the moment he turned to look in their direction. Wayland, noticing where the women’s attention had strayed, raised his eyebrows as if he meant to communicate from across the room.

  Are you talking about me?

  Katherine gave him a bemused smirk and a subtle shake of the head. In your wildest dreams.

  She turned to Pru, who looked a bit out of sorts. “You know, marriage isn’t the worst fate a woman can have. My sisters have proven to be very happy in their wedded bliss.”

  With a dubious look, Pru mumbled, “Men are odd. They have strange likes and dislikes. It’s impossible to gauge their moods sometimes.”

  Katherine laughed. “Men are simple. They aren’t so complicated as you’d like to believe.”

  Pru hiked up her chin. “Very well. Tell me about Mr. Murphy. What drives him?”

  “His intelligence, mostly. Even when he’s talking to you, he’s always thinking about his next invention or a puzzle he’s in the midst of solving. He’s also got an honorable streak, for he could have decided to become a thieftaker for hire and earn twice the pay he makes serving under Sir John. He solves more crime and keeps the streets safer as he is. And loath though he would be to
admit it, he is as weak to a pretty face as they all are, especially if that face is paired with an intelligent mind.”

  Pru huffed, clearly unhappy with Katherine’s analysis. “You only know that because of your longtime association with him.”

  Shaking her head, Katherine offered, “Very well. Choose someone else, then.”

  She half expected Pru to choose Lord Annandale. Instead, she was surprised when the woman said, “Lord Bath.”

  Katherine mulled over her words for a moment before speaking. “The marquess is responsible and extremely attached to his tenants. He serves in Parliament willingly and eagerly, to give his people a voice. While here, he dotes on them as well. However, as you’ve seen with the way he dotes on his grandmother, he has a specific idea of how all women must be. He assumes that we are also simple creatures when the truth is the very opposite.” Katherine offered Pru a smile, hoping to share it, but she got little response.

  Instead, Pru’s gaze strayed back to Lord Annandale. A smile curved her lips, but it appeared more devious than friendly. “And Captain Wayland?”

  Tarnation! Why did she have to ask that? Katherine’s gaze strayed to the man in question, who she found looking at her for a moment while he answered Lord Annandale. Her stomach suddenly aflutter, Katherine was forced to admit, “Him, I cannot begin to comprehend. He is an enigma.”

  She didn’t care to be proven wrong, and Pru had chosen the one man in the room that Katherine couldn’t read. She still couldn’t fathom why he was in Bath. And that near-kiss in the alley yesterday… had that been her imagination?

  She forcibly turned her back to Wayland, not wanting to face the questions he raised. Trying to regain control of the conversation, she informed Pru, “My point is that, Wayland aside, men are simple. You can point to any one of them, pauper or prince, and have a reasonable idea of what they want from you.”

  Pru smirked. “Oh, I think Captain Wayland is fairly easy to read as well. You simply don’t care to admit it. And princes?” Pru snorted. “They’re the easiest. It’s obvious Prince Karl, for instance, is interested in a woman who doesn’t hang off his every word. I batted my eyelashes at him yesterday and complimented him on his frankly abysmal card playing, and I haven’t had to contend with him since.”