“My wife has written several items for you and I require them back,” he said, placing several coins into the man’s hand.
The printer, normally a man of words and freedom of expression, was apt to argue but sleep deprivation and the heavy coins changed his mind. He allowed the two men access to his shop, waving his hand to the wooden shelves in the back.
“Over there. I keep all my originals in the back,” he muttered before returning upstairs to his bed.
Etienne was at a loss for words but Sebastian showed him Sophie’s writing and told him to look for anything similar. Many of the sheets were filled with cramped handwriting, not his wife’s elegant work, but before long they discovered her other writings and took them in hand, with Sebastian carefully placing the items into his coat pocket.
They left the shop with Etienne complaining about his lack of breakfast. Sebastian took pity on him and purchased them both meat pies from a street vendor before they made their next stop.
“What is all this about?” Etienne asked.
Sebastian sat across from him in the carriage in a stony silence as they made their way to the inspector’s lodgings.
Finally he took a deep breath and relayed everything to his friend as he had been told by Sophie. He laid the facts out plainly and told Etienne that their current mission was to secure all the items that would lead the inspector back to Sophie as the pamphlet writer.
They had achieved part of that mission at the printer’s. Now they needed to visit the lodgings of the inspector and take back the two items he held over Sophie’s head.
“With pleasure!” Etienne exclaimed as the carriage continued its course and Sebastian finished his story. “My God, Bash! To blackmail a respectable young woman like that and to have her break into her own father’s office. The man’s a scoundrel!”
“Yes. But once we have the papers in our possession, Sophie will be free and then we can deal with him properly,” Sebastian said coldly.
“You may count me firmly in your corner, mon ami,” Etienne said passionately.
The carriage deposited the two men in front of the unsavory tavern and went on its way. Sebastian saw the staircase Sophie had mentioned at the side of the main building, and several children ran by chasing a dog, but other than that, the small street was bare. They moved quickly up the stairs and found the door unlocked.
When the two men entered, both stared at the austere, plain room. It was simply filled with the necessary table and chairs, shelves and bed and nothing in addition. It looked more like a monk’s cell, only missing the necessary crucifix.
He saw no papers immediately in view so he and Etienne began to comb through the many books, shaking each one upside down to discover its contents. One after the other came out of the shelf but none revealed Sophie’s writings.
The spartan room left few places to hide anything, yet Sebastian knew the man well enough to know that he would have it someplace close at hand. He even checked the floorboards, but none were loose. He looked about the room and thought perhaps the inspector might have the writings on his person.
“Come, Bash. It’s not here,” Etienne said after they’d spent several minutes combing through the small library.
Sebastian shook his head and took one last look at the room. He noticed for the first time on the wall the painting of a ship at sea. It
was a copy, and not a very good one, of an overly large ship atop a massive wave at sea. It seemed out of place and Sebastian narrowed his eyes.
He moved towards it, took the picture off the wall and flung it over onto the bed in one quick movement. There on the backside of the painting was the card and Sophie’s original handwritten pamphlet.
“Voila!” Sebastian exclaimed, tucking the precious papers into his coat and setting the painting back carefully. “Now the game begins.”
Chapter 25
Lizette hadn’t seen Sophie since her marriage ceremony, so when she was invited over to her new home for tea, she was delighted.
The two women chatted and talked of insignificant things in the small salon, although Sophie’s mind remained on her husband and what he intended to do with the addresses she had given him.
“I was so shocked when you had married, Sophie. Of course, he’s so handsome and connected but I never thought—”
“It was sudden,” Sophie nodded in agreement.
Lizette prattled on about the sudden marriage and Sophie heard bits and pieces of “expecting” and “marriage,” which only confirmed what she had thought. Everyone had decided that the sudden marriage was due to her pregnancy and the fact that the couple had visited the marital bed before the marriage.
If they only knew, she thought, smiling.
She watched the day turn to midafternoon and waited for Sebastian to return home long after she had bid a warm goodbye to Lizette.
When she finally heard him enter the foyer, she tried to calm herself.