Seven Dials Page 0,115

At that instant the sight of her was more beautiful than anything else he could imagine, more than sunset over the Nile or the desert sky white with stars.

"Hello..." he said quietly.

She jerked around, stared at him for an unbelieving heartbeat, then dropped the sewing on the floor and threw herself into his arms. It was long minutes later, when they heard Gracie's heels along the hall, that they broke apart and Charlotte, her face flushed, went over to put the kettle on.

"Yer 'ome!" Gracie said with exuberant delight. Then, remembering her dignity a little, and lowering her voice to something closer to normal, "Well I'm that glad ter see yer safe. I s'pose yer 'ungry?" That was hopeful. Hungry was back to normal. When he did not answer immediately she regarded him with a shadow of anxiety.

"Yes, please." He smiled at her and sat down in his usual place. "But a cold meat sandwich will be fine. Is everything well here?"

" 'Course it is," Gracie said firmly.

Charlotte turned from the stove, the kettle now on the hob. Her eyes were bright. "Very well," she confirmed, not looking at Gracie.

He caught the tension, the shadow somewhere, the communication in that neither had looked at each other, almost as if the answer was agreed before he had come in.

"What have you been doing?" he asked conversationally.

Charlotte looked at him, but after a hesitation so minute that had he not been watching her closely, he would have missed it. It was as if she had been going to turn to Gracie first, and then decided not to.

"What have you been doing?" he repeated, before she had time to say something less than the truth, which she would then be unable to withdraw.

She took in a deep breath. "Gracie has a friend whose brother seems to be missing. We have been trying to find out what happened to him."

He read her expression. "But you haven't succeeded," he said.

"No. No, and we don't know what to do next. I'll tell you about it... tomorrow."

"Why not tonight?" The question sprang from the nudge of anxiety that she was delaying because something in the story would displease or disturb him.

She smiled. "Because you are tired and hungry, and there are far better things to talk about. We have tried, and not achieved very much."

As if released from waiting on every word, Gracie swiveled around and darted to the pantry to slice the cold meat, and Charlotte went upstairs to wake the children.

They came racing down the stairs and threw themselves at Pitt, almost overbalancing him off his chair, hugging him, asking question after question about Egypt, Alexandria, the desert, the ship, and constantly interrupting the answers. Then he opened his case and gave them all the gifts he had brought, to everyone's intense delight.

BUT IN THE MORNING he raised the question again, when Gracie was out shopping and Daniel and Jemima were at school. He had slept late, and came down to find Charlotte making bread.

"Who is the missing brother?" he asked, accepting tea and toast and fishing in the marmalade pot to see if there was sufficient left to satisfy his hunger for it. Its tart pungency was one of his favorite flavors, and it seemed like months since he had enjoyed crisp toast. He thought there might be just enough. He looked up at her. "Well?"

Now her face was shadowed. She went on kneading automatically. "He was valet to Stephen Garrick, in Torrington Square. A very respectable family, although Aunt Vespasia doesn't care for the father at all-General Garrick, a-" She stopped, her hands motionless. "What is it?"

"General Garrick?" he asked.

"Yes. Do you know him?" At the moment she was no more than curious.

"He was commanding officer in Alexandria when Lovat was invalided out of the army," he replied.

Her hands stopped kneading the dough and she looked up at him. "Does that mean anything?" she said slowly, turning over the idea in her mind. "It's just coincidence... isn't it?" But even as she spoke, other thoughts gathered in her mind-doubts, shadows, memories of things Sandeman had said.

"What is it?" Pitt prompted, and she knew he had seen it in her face.

She wiped her hands on her apron. "I really fear something could have happened to Martin Garvie," she replied gravely. "And perhaps even Stephen Garrick as well. I found the priest that Martin went to in the Seven Dials area just before he disappeared. He works especially with soldiers who have fallen on hard