closer. Arthur pointed this out to the señora. “We can hope they don’t venture in there.”
“Yes,” she said. She looked very pale.
He handed her the reins. “Just hold them steady. They will not bolt.”
“Where are you going?” Her voice rose near a wail.
“To open the gate. As we are not expected.”
“But the dogs!”
“I trust they know their territory. Or the rules, as the guard put it.” Hiding his own unease, Arthur climbed down from the curricle. The dogs stood up, their eyes following his every move, but they did not run at him. He unlatched the gate and pushed it open. There was no lock. Grasping the bridles of his leaders, he led them through the fence. With measured steps he went back to close the gate.
“Gracias a Dios,” said the señora.
“Indeed.” Arthur returned to his seat and took the reins again. He pulled up before the front door. No groom appeared to take the carriage. It seemed they had not yet been noticed.
“Should I go and knock?” asked Señora Alvarez.
Her voice did not tremble, but Arthur could see the effort she was making to control it. “Let us wait a moment,” he answered.
They waited several, and then the door opened and a woman emerged. She was finely dressed, but her square face showed the bitter lines of a hard life. Her hair was gray, her frame stocky. Arthur guessed she was around sixty. “What the devil do you mean by keeping me waiting?” he said before she could speak.
“We had no word…”
“Have you no one to care for my horses?” The key was to keep these people off-balance, goaded to obey by the voice of command. Arthur had heard such arrogance from others. “I do not see why Lord Simon spoke well of this place,” he added.
“His lordship never said anyone was…”
“What has that to say to anything?”
“Everything’s to be by appointment.”
“And I have one.”
“I never heard…”
“I could not be less interested in what you have or have not heard.” Arthur debated whether to climb down from the curricle. His team was well trained and would stand. No, better to loom over this woman from above. He twitched his whip. “Do you intend to keep me waiting here?” He thought he managed threatening incredulity rather well.
After a brief inner debate, visible on her seamed face, the woman bobbed a perfunctory curtsy. She turned to the open door. “Fetch Joe,” she called to someone unseen.
A groom appeared a few minutes later and took charge of the vehicle. Arthur watched where it was taken, hoping that he would soon be retrieving it and leaving this place. Then he put a hand on the señora’s back to guide her. Though it wasn’t noticeable at any distance, she was shaking.
They walked together into a spacious entry hall. A curving staircase rose at the back. Their—Arthur supposed she must be seen as—hostess looked Señora Alvarez up and down like a stockman evaluating cattle. Her attitude confirmed Arthur’s opinion of her, and of the nature of this house. She’d certainly been a procuress of some sort. “She’s a bit old,” the creature said. “We have fresher meat than her in here.”
“I brought her for my own reasons,” Arthur replied. “No one else is to touch her.”
The woman’s answering grin was mocking.
“We require privacy.”
The grin became a leer. “Oh yes, sir, we can give you all the privacy in the world. That’s our spec-ee-ality, it is. Always supposing you’ve brought the fee.”
“Naturally.”
She held out her hand like a confident beggar.
“How much?”
Her eyes hardened with suspicion. “Lord Simon would’ve told you that.”
“He was drunk. As he so often is. And he mumbles when he’s drunk. And I am not accustomed to being kept standing.”
Muttering something disparaging about toffs, the woman named a number that startled Arthur. Knowing it was probably inflated, and not caring, he opened his purse and paid her. He’d made sure to bring plenty of cash. She closed her hand over the bills and gestured. “Upstairs,” she said.
They followed her to an upper hall. She threw open a door and waved them into a large luxurious bedchamber with a canopied bed.
“I was assured we would not be disturbed,” said Arthur. “For any reason.”
“Not until you ring,” the woman replied. “That’s what we do here. Nobody hears nothing. Nobody says nothing. And we can take care of things, after.”
Arthur was more and more appalled with each thing he learned about this place. “I require the key to this room.”
“I told you, nobody’ll be botherin’…”
He silenced