Augustus retained his room at the Imperial. An innocent, English tourist on the face of things. He did, however, spend more time doing those sorts of things that wealthy foreigners were wont to in distant lands. Here, that involved a few public museums; a wide variety of shops, none of which even dabbled in the esoteric beyond fake charms with no potence at all, and many good meals.
Digby would have enjoyed the sight-seeing, though the many varieties of cuisines would have crashed like waves into the breakwater of his predictability. Unfortunate, that, as the man honestly did not know what he was missing.
And Marseilles touched on many, many cultures as it served up repasts and respites.
If Augustus hadn’t been constantly on his guard against the mask’s former owner tracking him, and the hope that Lachance would arrive, he might have even gone so far as to say he’d been enjoying himself.
Not that he’d ever admit it to Digby or Lady Claudette.
And if thinking of the devil summoned him, the lovely image of Lady Claudette walking into the dining room as he enjoyed a bit of bread and some wine while his meal was prepared did not catch him entirely off guard.
He could not help, however, comparing her to Nava. Golden instead of darker. Lean and elegant, instead of sturdy perhaps verging onto the edge of chunky. Shorter, though Nava wasn’t tall, even for a woman.
Both were beautiful, but in different ways. And he had an uncle’s affection for the one grinning as she walked over and sat across from him, to the utter consternation of waiter and staff.
Augustus merely returned the grin and wondered if Nava Penzig might mistake this lovely blonde creature for a romantic competitor. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but again, such knowledge would alter the balance of the game board, however subtly, so perhaps for now it was necessary to maintain a charade.
“To what do I owe such bountiful luck?” he asked as another glass got delivered and filled, leaving them alone again, her glancing at a menu and lighting up the room with her smile.
“I had considered mailing my results,” she offered, quiet and eyes down. “But that would require entrusting them to a messenger who you might not trust on sight. In the end, I decided that I could trust myself with it.”
“I’m surprised the Captain did not accompany you then,” he nodded.
“Oh, he did,” she grinned, turning it up another notch. “I left him at the hotel where we have rooms. Hidden against future need, as it were. I myself will pass in, be present, then withdraw until you need either of us.”
He approved. On the one hand, it threatened to upset the game board terribly. On the other, it gave him a bishop and a rook with which to work. Hopefully, while Lachance remained ignorant. Lady Claudette could move the diagonal easily, given her journalistic leanings, while Digby was the implacable force defined.
“And if someone sees you, my dear?” he pressed.
“Did you have a female acquaintance for whom the green spike of jealousy might rear its ugly head?” Lady Claudette teased.
“You may be more correct than you realized,” he replied quietly.
Her face fell into the perfect confusion. Shock. Denial. Something.
Augustus rather enjoyed himself at her discomfort.
Fortunately, she had not been drinking her wine at that moment, else he might have been wearing it.
He smiled.
“Truly?” she finally managed.
Augustus shrugged.
“It is something of a vacation,” he replied. “At least until certain circumstances adjust. I have taken advantage of my opportunities.”
“And she is not waiting up in your room now?” Lady Claudette asked.
“Not that I am aware,” he countered. “She is involved in the local underworld, and I have greatly roiled those waters this last week, so maintaining discretion was in the interest of all.”
Clearly, she wanted to press. To inveigle details out of him. At the same time, they were in a public space with hardly any noise, so any conversation would be public by necessity.
Instead, they ate a pleasant repast. Then retired to his room upstairs, where he confirmed that Nava hadn’t had a sneaky thought and slipped naked into his bed while he’d been away.
At least tonight.
Augustus took the couch, getting out of her way as she paced. Lady Claudette tended to think in motion, as the saying went.
And had memorized things, rather than committing them to paper. He approved. It showed that she was beginning to understand that some things needed to be stored where they could not be stolen.
Even by a dream thief.
“Lachance seems to be French,” she began. “However, he maintained a steady enough business through the War, in enough places that he could not be a French soldier granted leave. Not even an officer. Ergo, a civilian. The timing of events suggests a man no younger than fifty, assuming that he began his career in his late teens.”
“Do you understand what a dream thief does?” he asked.
“Only in so far as you have explained it,” she nodded, turning to face him.
Like Digby, the woman hadn’t the slightest smattering of power, though he suspected that she might develop it, if the need or desire arose. Unlike the good Captain.
“Not every crime attributed to Lachance seems to involve such mechanisms,” Lady Claudette continued. “At least not on the surface. As to our earlier conversations, he is a thief first and foremost. A burglar skilled at breaking and entering, regardless of the traps one might lay. Not all involve portals, but all seem to represent doing the impossible.”
“Merely the improbable,” Augustus corrected her. “I myself engaged in such a thing a week ago profitably. If you remain in Marseilles for any stretch of time, you are likely to hear all manner of details, most of them wrong.”
“Drawing your foe to you?” she asked.
“Just so,” he agreed. “I cannot hope to chase such as him down in anything less than an eternity, save by luck. But making him come to me opens new options.”
“Will he?” she pressed.
“I hope to play to his vanity.” Augustus smiled. “To represent a threat, in that I’ve done something that perhaps he cannot. If so, do all his commissions suddenly dry up because there is competition? I think a man would find it necessary to scout the terrain, as it were.”
She nodded at that.
“Would Lachance be his real name?” she asked innocently.
Augustus laughed.
“Absolutely not,” he replied. “In this field, one often finds it necessary to operate under certain noms d’guerre. Few have my name, and most of those in the last few years. In my younger days, I operated under a variety of pseudonyms. Safer, as retribution can be denied for ignorance of where to find your foe.”
“So now you wait for your foe?” she asked. “Will he take the bait?”
“If he will not, then I will try another gambit.” Augustus shrugged. “Perhaps Paris next time. Or Berlin. Someplace showier, where the splash will stain more party favors. It is my hope that I don’t have to escalate to outright taunting my foe, but that remains an option in my bag, were it to come to that later.”
“How can Digby and I assist?” she inquired.
“Remain local, but maintain a lower profile,” he said. “Uncle and favored niece, as we generally do, so that little changes about your behavior. This is not a thing that will move quickly, until the very last moment, at which time everything will be in motion. It is my hope that the two of you might provide a distraction, rather than relying on Digby using brute force to stop him, though I reserve the right to engage him thus. As for yourself, a few explorations into the underworld of the Mediterranean coast might serve you in the manner of making new contacts with which to rake your muck later. As long as you are not connected to me, Lachance should avoid you to remain distant from the lights that might shine down and reveal him to the wider world.”
“Stalk as my own investigations lead?” she nodded.
“As long as you never mention his name first,” Augustus agreed. “I’d hate to have to chase the man to the ends of the earth.”