by Affair (lit)
Amanda Quick
I
righted themselves and paid the coachman. When they turned 1,
stagger up the steps, he fell in behind them. They never noticed
he went through the door in their wake.
The dim, firelit interior of The Green Table was thronged. Without his spectacles, the scene had an unfocused quality that seemed remarkably appropriate. Baxter did not need his eyeglasses to conclude that there was little chance of anyone observing him in the crowd. It was still early by Town standards, but the men who
filled the overheated room were already sunk deep in heavy play at
the green baize-covered tables. No one paid him any attention.
A roaring fire on the large hearth threw a hellish red glow over
the scene. The air was thick with the smell of ale, sweat, and smoke.
Baxter found a secluded corner protected by a large, wellendowed stone figure of a nude female. He removed his pocket watch and held it up as though to get a closer look at the face. Fle
studied the crowd through the single lens. The faces of the hell's patrons sharpened abruptly.
There was no sign of Hamilton or Norris.
Frowning, Baxter started to close the watch. Movement on the
stairs at the rear of the large room made him hesitate. He raised the
lens again and took a quick look.
Several young men, including Hamilton and Norris, were on
their way to one of the upper floors. Baxter wondered if there were
private dining parlors above or if the new owner of the premises had elected to continue offering the services of a brothel in a more
discreet fashion.
Then he recalled something Hamilton had said about the man-
agement providing a special meeting place for the members of his exclusive club.
Baxter shut the watch case and dropped it into his pocket. I-le did not need the single eyeglass to make his way across the roorn.
But when he got closer to the bottom of the staircase, he saw a
large, somewhat blurred figure lQunging against the banister.
While the crowd milled around him, Baxter took out his wat(h
191
and ri sked another survey. One glance at the thick features of the heavYsl@l man on the stairs was all that was necessary. He was look-
guard. The man had obviously been posted to protect the elite ClUb members privileged to partake of the pleasures that were offered on the upper floors. (:Lirjoslty and a strong sense of foreboding descended on him in equal proportions. The ground-floor gaming room of The Green Tablc was bad enough. It was the sort of place in which a careless yout, man could lose a great deal in a night's deep play. Whatever Jay overhead was probably a good deal more unpleasant.
What sort of devilish nonsense had Hamilton gotten himself involved in? Baxter wondered. He could almost hear his father's voice telling him to keep an eye on his younger half brother.
Stifling a resigned groan, Baxter eased his way back through the crowd to the front door. He waited until a group of patrons chose to leave and quietly attached himself to their number.
Outside on the pavement he made his way to the corner of the street. He paused to fish his eyeglasses out of his pocket and put them on. Then he turned and went down an alley that looked as though it would take him to the rear of The Green Table.
Most of the nearby buildings were dark at this hour but there was enough light from the windows and the kitchens of The Green Table to guide Baxter. The establishment was three stories high. From the alley he could see that the windows on the top floor were dark. But on the floor below, a tiny sliver of light escaped from one window.
Years ago, The Cloister had been notorious, Baxter reminded himself as he prowled through the shadows of the garden. In its heyday, it had been the sort of place that had traded in a variety of illicit activities and exotic tastes. It was an establishment that had needed -landestine entrances and exits, not to mention peepholes and hidden staircases.
It was the sort of place that had attracted his father. A privy stood in the unkempt garden. As Baxter watched, a
192
Amanda Quick
III
drunken man staggered out of the necessary and made his way ba into the club through a rear door. A moment or two later, Baxi followed him. He found himself in a small servants' hall. It
empty. A flight of narrow, twisting steps led to the upper floors.
He took the steps with caution. Fortunately, they were all in sound condition. He paused on the first landing. The door tEir opened onto the hall was locked. He had not thought to bring his lock picks, so he was obliged to pause long enough to correct the
problem with the wire earpiece of his eyeglasses.
A moment later he was inside the darkened corridor.
He was about to make his way down the hall toward the room
where he thought he had seen a light when he heard the scrape of a
shoe on a wooden stair tread.
The sound was too light and too tentative to have been made !)y the guard.
He waited in the shadows. A figure swathed in a voluminons
cloak entered the narrow hall.
He stepped quickly away from the wall and locked one arm
around his pursuer's throat. "Do not move. Not one word. Not one sound," he warned very quietly.
The trapped figure froze and then nodded quickly, silently. Baxter caught a whiff of a familiar scent, part herbal soap, part fernale, absolutely unmistakable. The particular fragrance was forever reg;"tered on his senses. He would go to his grave able to recognize it. I I
would no doubt be his grim fate that even on his deathbed, lie would still suffer the sweet, aching tug of desire whenever he in-
haled it.
"Bloody hell, Charlotte. What are you doing here?"
-7-1,06ke -@
I w @ saw you leave the club and go do n the street. But you went off'In the wrong direction. I did not know what to think." Charlotte was breathless, not only from the anxiety that had impelled her to leave the carriage, but also from the mad dash along the alley and the climb up the rear stairs.
The shock that she had )ust received upon finding herself pinned in the dark by a man's unyielding arm had only made matters worse. The realization that the man who held her was none other than Baxter was a tremendous relief but it was not doing much to slow her racing pulse.
Baxter sounded angry. Very angry. There was an ice-and-steel edge to his voice that she had never before heard. "I told you to wait in the carriage. 11
Charlotte struggled to take several deep, fortifying breaths. "I was concerned. I did not know what was going on. I thought you Might need my help."
11 If I had needed your assistance, I would have asked for it." "Really, Baxter, there is no call to lose your temper with me. We are in this together, as I keep reminding you." "How could I possibly forget?" Baxter released her and gave her
194
Amanda Qmck
a small push toward the door. "We shall go back the way we cem(,. Quickly. " "But why did you come up here in the first place?" "To find Hamilton. But that matter must wait. The first order of business is to get you out of here." "There is no reason why we cannot go ahead with whatever plan you had in mind."
"There is every reason why we cannot.
A burst of muffled masculine laughter echoed from the chamber at the far end of the hall. Baxter stilled. Charlotte felt him turn to
glance down the corridor. She followed his gaze.
There was a small, undraped window in the wall at the end of
the narrow hall. It provided just enough illumination to reveal the
two rows of closed doors that lined the passage. A tiny ray of light winked from beneath the last door on the left. "Hamilton is in that chamber?" Charlotte asked very softly. "I suspect that is where the club members meet."
She was intrigued. "You intended to spy o
n him?" "Let's just say that I was curious." Baxter reached past her to
open the staircase door.
Footsteps thudded on the lower stairs. A fresh dose of alarm
went through Charlotte. Someone was coming up the rear staircase.
Baxter did not swear aloud but she could almost hear his silent bloody hell.
He closed the door as quietly as he had opened it.
He seized her arm and pulled her down the passageway. She noticed that he did not bother to try the first three doors. Instead, he chose the next one. She breathed a sigh of relief when it opened at his touch. She did not relish the prospect of being caught in the hall by whoever was tromping up the stairs.
It would be not only awkward and embarrassing, but quite scandalous if she and Baxter were discovered there tonight. The fashionable young gentlemen of the club were likely to be incensed
_-%D
195
at bellig spied upon by Baxter St. Ives and his fianc6e. Word would spread through the ton with the speed of a fire in the stews.
Baxter eased her through the doorway of the small chamber. Charlotte wrinkled her nose at the stale, musty smell that greeted her. it was obvious that the room had not been aired in some time. She moved with great caution, unable to see anything in the dense darkness.
Another distant rumble of laughter sounded from the room at the end of the hall. Baxter quickly closed the door. Charlotte felt him move and realized that he had put his ear to the panel. She knew that he was listening to the footsteps of the person who had climbed the back stairs.
She took a cautious step back and came up hard against another door. She realized it must open into the adjoining room, the one that separated this chamber from the one being used by Hamilton and his friends.
Outside in the hall, floorboards creaked as someone walked steadily past the room in which she and Baxter hid. Whoever it was did not pause. A servant going about his duties, no doubt, she concluded. Perhaps taking claret to the members of the club. She and Baxter would be trapped there until the man went back downstairs.
She touched Baxter's arm.
"What is it?" he asked in her ear. "Another door. Leads to the next room. You might be able to overhear what is being said." "I've got to get you out of here." "You keep saying that but we can do nothing until the servant leaves again. And as we are already in the neighborhood, it seems a Pity to waste the opportunity."
She felt him hesitate. She took his hand and guided it to the doorknob behind her. "Bloody hell."
196
_-_D
Amanda Quick
But she could feel him wavering. She wondered if Baxter con-
sidered her a bad influence. After a few seconds' pause, he appatently reached a decision. He stepped around her and slowl@, carefully opened the connecting door.
Another wave of stale, long-closed-In air wafted out of the adjoining chamber. Charlotte leaned forward to peer around the cor-
ner. There was just enough light from a partially draped window to see something of the interior. A sagging bed, the looming shape of a
wardrobe, and a w@shstancl stood on the threadbare carpet. A framed picture hung askew on the wall.
Baxter touched his fingertips to Charlotte's lips. She did not
need the warning to remain silent. Only a single wall separated them from Hamilton and his friends.
There was another burst of laughter from the next chamber.
Then it faded. Voices, less raucous now, could be heard through the wall.
Charlotte watched, mystified, as Baxter crossed the room to the
wardrobe. He opened it cautiously and quickly examined the inte-
rior as though he expected to discover something of interest inside.
Plainly dissatisfied, he stepped back, gently closed the wardrobe door, and went to stand in front of the framed picture. After a
moment's close study, he lifted it down from the wall.
A small circle of light appeared. Charlotte stared in astonishment at the hole in the wall. It would, she realized, provide a vie\
into the chamber where Hamilton and his friends were gathered. She made a note to ask Baxter how he had known to look for the peephole.
He put his eye to the opening. She went forward, eager for a
peek, and caught a faint whiff of a sweet, smoky, herbal vapor. It reminded her a bit of the incense Juliana Post used. But this W'Is
stronger, more intense. She saw Baxter pull back far enough to takc a deep breath of the stale air in the room before he turned back to
the peephole.
The voices of the club members could be heard more clearly
197
[I()% but they sounded blurred and subdued, as if the men were riot oniIy Intoxicated, but a bit drowsy. ''Begone, man," someone said to the servant. 'he door opened and closed- Footsteps sounded in the hall.
It's time to summon our magician," one of the men announced
D @1 dreamy voice. "Let us see what demonstrations of the powers of the metaphysical plane he has prepared for us tonight."
-A test," another man said in singsong tone. "He promised us a test. Let the great magician show us his skills tonight." "Excellent notion," someone chortled weakly. "Let's see how cle@er our mage is. Let him put Norris, here, in a real trance. You'll V011_111teer, won't you, Norrie?" "Why not?" Norris sounded languid but willing. "Always glad (onduct an experiment on the metaphysical plane. Summon the bloody sorcerer."
There was a shuffling sound next door, as though the furnishings were being shifted. Baxter took a step back from the peephole to get another breath of air. Charlotte saw the light coming through thc small opening abruptly dim to a weak glow. Someone had turned down the lamp in the next chamber. The club members bc,,,an to chant in an eerie, dreamlike cadence.
"Lead and silver' electrum and gold,
Degrees of power, ancient and old. When the emerald laws reveal the sign,
Mercury, sulphur, and salt combine. Pure knowledge exists for all to see
But few will ever know the key
The men repeated the chant, their voices thickening. Tongues got tangled. Someone giggled.
Charlotte tugged on Baxter's sleeve. He hesitated. She gave him a small push and he moved reluctantly aside to allow her a peek.
198
Amanda Quick
She took a breath, stood on tiptoe, and put her eye to the hole.
She found herself gazing into a dimly lit chamber that was clouded
with smoky incense. There was a large wardrobe against the far wall. She recognized Hamilton and Norris. They and the other club
members lounged on large Turkish pillows around a brazier. Each
had a glass of claret in one hand, but they all seemed more inter-
ested in the fragrance of the burning herbs than in the wine.
"That which the heirs of Hermes desire
Is revealed to the laborers in the fire."
The words were almost unintelligible now. The men nodded over their glasses. The incense that drifted through the tiny peephole was irksome. It made Charlotte's eyes water and blurred her
vision. She turned her head away to take a breath of fresher air. "Behold, the magician," one of the men announced with a small
giggle. "He appears before us."
Charlotte quickly put her eye to the peephole again. She was
startled to see that there was a new figure inside the secret chamber.
She was quite certain that the door had not been opened. It was as if
he had simply materialized out of the wardrobe.
The magician walked slowly across the room to stand amid the
languidly sprawled men. He was cloaked from head to foot in flow-
ing black robes. A heavy hood was pulled down very low over his
face. Charlotte could not make out his features-because of the shadows cast by the hood, she thought. Then the newcomer turned
his he
ad slightly. Light glinted on a gleaming black silk mask that concealed his entire face.
It is only a gentlemen's game, she thought. An entertainment Hamllton and his friends have invented to amuse themselves. But she could not
stop the shiver of dread that feathered her -nerves.
"Let us see how strong this power of yours really is," Norris saic,
with an air of bravado that sounded false.
199
'he shrouded figure raised his hand. An object dangled from his rs, a glittering pendant. The club members stared at it with
1_11](11sguised fascination.
Frozen fingers traced Charlotte's spine. The incense had become ,11rnost overpowering. She tried to get a closer look at the pendant bLic it was impossible to make it out from this distance.
She flinched when Baxter's hand clamped around her shoulder. lt@ithout a word she stepped back.
Baxter took a turn at the peephole. Charlotte put her ear to the all.
"I've got it," one of the club members said. "Put him into a
ince that can be tested at some later time." "Make Norrie cluck like a chicken tomorrow night in the midst
,o the Clapham soiree." "Have him bare his arse in Pall Mall at the height of the shopping hour." "Persuade him to dance with Lady Buelton's horse-faced chit." "There is no power," Norris declared in ringing accents, "neither in this world nor on the metaphysical plane, that could make me dance with Buelton's daughter."
Weak laughter greeted this announcement. And then a hush fell
in the chamber.
Charlotte pressed closer to the wall but she heard nothing. She prodded Baxter again. He hesitated and then stepped aside.
She peeked through the hole and was startled to see that the
(+,lmber had been further darkened. Someone had put out the lamp. 'T"" coals on the small brazier still glowed but the red-gold glare not illuminate the faces of the men. The magician lit a single candle and placed it directly in front of
rris.
As Charlotte watched, the cloaked figure moved in the shadows. edges of his robes swirled around him, flapping gently in the
'iner of great, black wings. The pendant in his hand swayed v1y, catching and reflecting the light of the candle.
200
_*@D
Amanda Quick
The club members began to chant again, this time in a heav@ throbbing rhythm that echoed the beat of the blood in Charlott,@@s
