Theo woke up Monday morning feeling as if he hadn’t slept a minute. After he dropped Miss Brecknell off the previous night, he returned home as soon as possible. The journals Georgia gave him were suddenly even more exciting. If he could match something found in those notebooks with what Sarah told him, he might be able to put the whole business to rest.
He couldn’t believe it. Months of waiting for a lead, and it turned out Sarah might be exactly the person he’d been hoping to meet. Such a strange moment, finding her there in his carriage. She was not at all like the image of her he’d created in his head based on their brief meeting at the funeral. The real Sarah Brecknell was more composed, more practical. And obviously intelligent.
He wouldn’t have been surprised if the woman had been in hysterics after the encounter she described to him. Yet Sarah showed very little fear. She laid out the problem plainly, merely wondering about the oddity of the request surfacing after so many months of silence.
Which was an excellent question to ask. Why did the stranger confront her after so long? Had something happened to bring Sarah to the man’s attention? And who the hell was he? Did he work for Arceneau? Was he another opportunist like Charlie, but for another side?
Theo groaned at all the possibilities. He had so much work to do. He had to reexamine all the puzzle pieces he’d already gathered. Unfortunately, once he got home and had the privacy to examine Charlie’s notebooks, he discovered they were virtually unreadable. He spent three hours poring over them, burning several candles more than usual. He could read a few lines written in plain English. But the majority of the notebooks appeared to be in some sort of code. Several codes, perhaps, to judge by the many different pages of letters, columns of numbers, and even sketches. He wasn’t skilled enough to break a single one. Nothing made sense. But Theo refused to believe it was useless. Charlie never dabbled. If he did something, he always had a reason for it.
After he gave up on the notebooks for the night, Theo lay in bed, eyes wide open as he turned over all the new information in his mind. Sarah kept reappearing, her grey eyes asking questions he had no answers to.
One other thing he realized from speaking to Sarah was that although she knew about Charlie’s work and about the existence of the Zodiac—a fact that would give Julian a seizure when he learned of it—she did not know Charlie had turned traitor. And thank God. She was obviously so proud of him, and in love with his memory. Learning such a thing would only hurt her, which Theo didn’t want to do.
And of course, if she did know about Charlie’s perfidy, she would be far less inclined to help him recover the papers. She wouldn’t want to summon any sort of proof of her beloved’s fall from grace. No, Theo had to keep the truth from her if he expected her to cooperate.
Eventually, he slept a little, and when he woke, it was full daylight.
Downstairs, he encountered his sister Katherine in the sunny parlor. She was sewing, and her youngest child Estelle was crawling around at her feet.
Theo came in, happy to be distracted for a moment. “Good morning,” he said. “How’s my favorite niece?”
Estelle turned at the sound of his voice and held her arms out imperiously. “Up!”
“Yes, my lady,” he said, bending to scoop her up in his arms. Estelle squealed in delight as he swung her around.
Theo gave her a kiss, then sat down opposite Katherine. Estelle laughed as she bounced happily on his knee.
“See what I told you the other day?” Theo told Katherine. “She’s going to be a rider. I can tell.”
His sister smiled indulgently at both of them. “You promise to teach her?”
“Naturally. Who else would you trust to do it? Estelle,” he said. “Listen carefully. It will be my duty to teach you to ride and jump fences and chase carriages and race and perform all manner of stunts that will have your mother cursing my name.”
Katherine shook her head. “Not if I have anything to say about it!”
He bent his head and mock-whispered, “As soon as she turns her back, little star, we’ll be off.”
“You look ten years younger when you smile, Teddy,” Katherine said.
He cringed at the old family pet name. “Don’t call me that. What do you mean?”
“You’ve looked so dragged down these past few months.”
“I have not.”
“Of course you have.” She looked at her baby and then back to him. “When you have to seek out a toddler for solace, I know something’s wrong.”
“Nonsense.”
“Mama was by to visit yesterday. She said you finally set a date with Alyse.”
“The end of May,” he confirmed. “There’s no reason to put it off longer.”
“No, indeed.” Katherine shot him a sharp look, but then held up her work. She appeared to be embroidering the hem of a baby’s outfit. “What do you think?”
“You’re asking me?” he said, amused. “I suppose it’s pretty.”
“A word of advice, dear brother. When Alyse asks you a similar question, you need to be much more effusive.”
“Is that so? Let me try again. How darling,” Theo said, putting false enthusiasm into his voice. “How do you manage to stitch all that and still be a perfect wife and mother?”
Katherine muttered, looking skyward, “I wonder if Alyse knows what she’s getting.”
“Alyse and I understand each other very well. And in any case, we have over a year before I have any chance to be interrogated over the stitching on a baby’s outfit.”
“Theo,” Katherine said, more gently. “You’re never so short tempered. I know something’s wrong. Can’t you tell me?”
No, no he could not. Katherine was his sister and he loved her dearly. But the truth wasn’t something he was entitled to share. “If I’ve been distant, I apologize.”
“I don’t want your apology. I want you to be happy.”
“Happy!” Estelle echoed.
He smiled at her, then said to Katherine, “Don’t worry about me. I’ve had a few concerns over the past months. But they are nearly concluded. And when I marry Alyse, I’m sure all will be well.”
Katherine didn’t look as if she believed him, but let the matter drop.
Later, when Theo walked to the front hall dressed to go out, Jem was waiting patiently.
“Where to, sir?” he asked as they stepped outside.
Theo said, “We’re going to the corner at Adam and Manchester Streets.”
“Oh, the Athenaeum.” Jem nodded confidently.
“How did you know that?” Theo, asked, exasperated. Did everyone know everything now?
“Could find that place in the middle of a fog, sir. Didn’t I drive milady there nearly every month?” he said, referring to his former employer.
“So you know what the place is like?”
Jem shrugged diffidently. “Only the outside and the mews nearby. I’m not exactly the typical lecture-goer, sir.”
Theo laughed as he climbed into the cab. Jem had a gift for understatement.
He arrived a few minutes before two, just as he said he would. Not surprisingly, the building was a model of classical architecture, though in wood and brick rather than marble. It sported columns all along the front façade, and the windows glowed from within, for even the afternoon did not bring much light in winter.
Theo found little difficulty in gaining entrance. The name of Mr Stephen Brecknell was well known to the people there. He did not seek out the gentleman, however. Following Sarah’s instructions, he instead found his way to the end of a long hall. He knocked at the last door on the left.
Sarah was waiting. She stood up when he entered, looking as if she were nervous.
“Thank you for stopping by, Lord Markham,” she said formally. “We are lucky,” she added in a quieter voice. “Papa is quite busy preparing for an upcoming lecture. So you shouldn’t have to explain yourself at all.”
Theo nodded, looking around the small room. “This belongs to you?”
“I have the exclusive use of it. They think it more seemly than if I were out among the men.”
He glanced at her. “Are they worried you’ll show them up? What do you study?”
“Oh, I just dabble. Classics. History. Languages. Whatever catches my fancy.”
“Have you looked through your books yet?”
Sarah nodded and pointed to a stack of books on the desk. “These were all gifts from Charlie. I had to start somewhere.”
“He gave you books?”
“They last longer than flowers,” Sarah said defensively. “And I enjoy them considerably more.”
Theo looked through the stack. Titles in German, Latin, and Greek. Many were well-thumbed. Sarah was probably not a dabbler, but a very serious scholar. Theo wondered if she downplayed her dedication because some men were affronted—or intimidated—by it.
“I’m twenty-one,” Sarah said suddenly, as he was still examining the titles.
He looked up at her, puzzled at the announcement. “What?”
“Last night, you said if an eighteen year old girl could press Charlie…” She paused. “In fact, I am twenty-one. Nearly twenty-two. We were engaged for years, ever since he proposed to me at the end of my first Season.”
Theo was amused at her precision. “I stand corrected.”
“It’s important to tell the truth,” she said.
Theo’s sense of amusement fled. “Indeed.” The truth was the one thing he couldn’t tell her.
They both looked through the books more carefully, but there was nothing hidden inside.
Theo did notice a rather odd inscription on the flyleaf of one book: a series of three numbers, in columns all down the page. “What are these?” he asked, pointing. It looked similar to a few pages in Charlie’s notebooks.
Sarah looked at the inscription. “They refer to Bible verses. That’s all.”
“Chapter and verse only explains the first two numbers.”
“The third is the word of interest in the verse,” she said shortly. She pulled the book from his hands. “It doesn’t have anything to do with anything he left behind. He gave this to me shortly after we became engaged.”
Theo saw how nervous she was, and took the book back. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. Please forget about it.” She moved as if to take it again, but she stopped when Theo made it clear she’d actually have to touch his hands to do it. A lady like Sarah would never be so bold.
“Why not tell me the significance, or do I need to look up all the words myself?”
Sarah looked down, then muttered, “She is my one love, until the end of time.”
“What?”
“That’s what it says,” she said, her eyes glued to the floor.
He could see a blush spreading over her face. “This is a coded message?”
“Yes. It was just a game we played.”
“Charlie taught you codes,” Theo said.
“No,” she corrected. She looked up at him, gauging his reaction. “I taught him codes.”