‘It can’t be coincidence, can it?’ I said. ‘Elliott must have discovered James’s routine.’
Garrick nodded, an abrupt jerk of his head. ‘But not the detail. He goes there to play chess with an old friend, that’s all.’
‘Chess? Couldn’t he choose somewhere less dangerous to play it? Brooks’s for example, or a coffee house?’
‘The man he meets lost someone close to him there. Seems one of the things that keeps him sane is playing chess with old friends in the place where it happened.’ He shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me, I don’t understand it any more than you do.’
I remembered what James had told me, that the man he loved had left him, had married, because he couldn’t deal with the guilt of their association. Perhaps keeping his old friend company helped that pain a little.
‘But if all he is doing is playing chess in a public place – ’
‘Do you trust Reece not to come up with bribed witnesses to say he was above stairs with another man?’
‘No. No, I don’t.’
Garrick banged on th
e roof, then lowered the window and called up to the driver. ‘Stop here.’
We climbed out into a narrow, respectable-looking street with no landmarks I recognised and very little lighting. ‘Where are we?’
‘Just round the corner from the Swan. There’ll be watchers.’ He began to walk up the street. ‘Look.’
Yes, they were staking the place out, waiting for what I had no idea, but at least that gave us a chance. We sauntered around the corner, arm in arm, ignoring the three men I thought must be constables from the way they were so casually loitering about.
‘There.’ Garrick nodded at the building halfway along the street. There were lanterns either side of the door, light glowed from behind red curtains and a sign of a swan against a chequerboard background hung over the pavement. It looked cosy, respectable, welcoming. As we drew closer two men went up the steps and in through the door.
‘Let me go in,’ I said as we drew level. ‘They can’t arrest me for anything, whatever is going on in there. You are better outside in case we need help.’ And besides, I didn’t want Garrick swept up and arrested along with all the other unfortunate men who were going to fall into Reece’s trap.
I saw him close his eyes as though fighting with himself, then he nodded. ‘You are right. Lucian will kill me for this, but you are right. Try and keep your veil down.’
I gave his arm a squeeze, more to reassure myself than him, and walked briskly up to the front steps. The door opened under my hand and I was inside with no trouble at all.
The whole ground floor at the front seemed to be one open space. Chairs and small tables were scattered around, most of them occupied by pairs of men facing each other over a board of some kind. None of them looked up as I came in and stopped just inside the door. Through openings at either end of the back wall I could see staircases and between those were closed double doors.
The walls were panelled to my head height and above the staircase openings there were paintings of swans, all swimming in the same direction in one, I noticed, and all in facing pairs in the other. It seemed an odd composition and it distracted me until I saw a man and a veiled woman come down the stairs under the pairs of swans and two men follow each other up the other one.
Of course, heterosexual couples are the swans facing in opposite directions, same-sex couples are all swimming in the same direction.
‘Madam?’ May I assist you?’
That jerked me back to the urgency of the situation. I was faced by a neat lady dressed in black set off with some fabulous lace and huge pearl earrings. She looked like someone’s rich spinster aunt, not the keeper of a house of assignation, but then, I had never met one before.
I almost blurted out that they were about to be raided, but realised that would set off a panic and I needed to find James first. Then I saw him, right at the back, his blond head bent over a chess board, his opponent, a thin, grey-haired man waiting, it seemed, for James to make his move.
‘I have a message for Mr – ’ Oops, no names… ‘That gentleman over there.’ I walked across and tapped James’s shoulder.
He looked up, blinked. ‘What the devil are you doing here, Cassie?’
‘Reece has set a trap. This place is being watched, he intends to raid it – the Count warned us. Garrick is outside.’ I spoke low and fast, leaving it to him to handle.
He shot to his feet. ‘Mrs Godwin – we are about to be raided!’
So much for keeping the panic under control, I thought, then realised that this had been planned for. The players at the tables sat tight but Mrs Godwin tugged on a bell-pull and I heard a faint clanging overhead. Within minutes men started to run down the stairs, tying neck cloths, raking their hair into order, even, in one case, carrying his shoes in his hand. They fanned out through the room, sitting down at tables, opening backgammon sets, shifting chess pieces.
Soon the tables were full and they began to go through the doors at the back. Now the air of calm purpose was beginning to break down. If they were hoping to escape by the back door I feared they were going straight into the hands of the waiting constables and I suspected they knew it.
‘You must go.’ James began to urge me towards the door when two stragglers ran down, one frantically tucking his shirt into his waistband, the other holding two coats.