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they would return to Alexandria, where he would find Avram a suitable reward for his help.

CHAPTER NINE

GRACIE SAT in the corner of the public house staring across the table at Tellman. He was watching her intently, more than was required for what she was telling him, and with a warm ripple of both comfort and self-consciousness, she knew he would have looked at her that way even if she had been talking complete nonsense. It was a fact she was going to have to address sooner or later. He had shown all kinds of emotions towards her, from his initial lack of interest to irritation at her acceptance of being a resident servant in someone else's house, totally dependent upon them even for the roof over her head. He had been forced into a grudging respect for her intelligence when she had assisted Pitt in certain cases, then showed more clearly than he knew, fighting for all he was worth not to admit to anyone at all, especially himself, that he was in love with her. Now he no longer pretended he was not-at least not all the time.

He had kissed her once, with a sweet, fierce honesty that she could still remember, and if she closed her eyes and blocked out the rest of the world, she could feel it again as if it were moments ago. When she had found herself doing that, standing alone in the windy street and smiling, she acknowledged it was time to admit that she loved him too.

Not that she was necessarily prepared to admit anything of the sort to him. But it was as well to know at least what she wanted, even if she did not know when.

She had been recounting to him what Lady Vespasia had learned about the Garrick household, and that Stephen Garrick was supposed to have gone to the south of France for the good of his health.

"But it's more 'n long enough for him to have written and told Tilda, in't it?" she finished. "In fact, 'e could 'ave sent 'er a message before 'e left. That in't 'ard ter do, an' surely Mr. Garrick wouldn't 'ave minded?"

He frowned. His opinion of the whole business of permission from others to attend to ordinary family commitments was a sore point they had already argued over many times.

"Shouldn't!" he said with feeling. "But you can't tell." He looked at her intently, as if no one else in the babble around them were real. "But if he went to the south of France, he must have taken cases with him, and either used a hansom or his own carriage, at least as far as the station. There'll be record of a boat across the Channel. We'll know for sure that Martin Garvie went with him. I just don't know why there was no letter back."

"Mebbe we could ask Mr. Garrick, 'oo's still 'ere in London, fer an address?" Gracie suggested. "It's fair, as 'is family should want ter know where ter write ter 'im."

Tellman pursed his lips. "It is fair," he agreed. "But we've already tried. Tilda herself tried, and then you did. I'll see what I can find out about their leaving."

She looked at him steadily. She knew every expression of his face; she could have pictured it exactly with her eyes closed. She was surprised and a little embarrassed to realize how often she had done so, not really telling herself the truth as to her reasons, or admitting the odd sense of comfort it gave her. She knew now that he was worried, and also that he was trying to hide it from her to protect her, and partly because he was uncertain.

"Yer think there's summink wrong, don't yer?" she said softly. "People don't lie fer nothin'."

He was cautious, gentle. "I don't know. Can you get the evening off the day after tomorrow?"

"If I need ter. Why?"

"I'll tell you what I've found. It may take me a while. I'll need to get witnesses, see train and ferry records and the like."

" 'Course. Mrs. Pitt'd never stand in the way of an investigation. I'll be 'ere. Yer jus' tell me wot time."

"How about early? We'll go to the music hall, see something good?" His face was eager, but the shadow in his eyes betrayed that her acceptance mattered to him, and he by no means took it for granted. This was a social engagement, something to do together for pleasure, not just as part of a