Virginia laughed. “I’m sure he has no idea just how lucky he was.” She watched Owen emerge from the chaotic tangle of horses, carriages and people milling about on the street. “Mrs. Harkins has been looking after herself and her career for a long time. She has dealt with more than one investigator who sought to expose her as a fraud. She made them all look like silly fools for questioning her talent.”
Owen reached the top of the steps in time to hear the remark. He grinned.
“I’m not a complete idiot,” he said. “When I set out to expose a few frauds, I chose very carefully, I assure you. Sally Harkins was not on my list.”
“Very wise of you, sir,” Charlotte said. “Legend has it that Mrs. Harkins punished the last investigator who tried to expose her by revealing the name of his current mistress to a correspondent from the Flying Intelligencer.The gentleman’s wife was not at all pleased when the item appeared in the paper.”
“I did some research,” Owen said. “I was aware of that story.” He surveyed the busy street. “Where is Nick?”
“Here,” Nick said, materializing out of the crowd. “I finally found a carriage. The driver is waiting in the lane, Miss Tate.”
“Our carriage is across the street,” Owen said to Virginia. “Are you ready to leave?”
“As the evening has apparently been a complete waste of time in terms of the investigation, I suppose so,” Virginia said. “Not that it hasn’t had its moments, mind you.”
There was a short round of polite farewells, and then Owen was steering her through the crowd. He had his hand clamped around her upper arm. He was not hurting her, but the manaclelike grip spoke volumes about his determination to get her away from the Institute.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Aside from the fact that tonight I discovered that Gilmore Leybrook wants you as his mistress, do you mean?”
She flushed. “Don’t waste any time worrying about Leybrook. I am quite capable of handling him.”
“He is determined to have you, Virginia.”
“Pamela Egan did say something to the effect that he may be shopping around for a new assistant. But I assure you I have no interest in the position. I prefer to control my own career. I have no wish to work as another practitioner’s assistant.”
“I am not referring to the opening for a new assistant. Leybrook wants you in a much more intimate position.”
“Nonsense. You’re overstating the case.”
“I saw it in his eyes.”
“He does have a very unpleasant history of conducting affairs with his assistants,” she conceded. “Indeed, he is known to select them for very specific physical attributes. I’m quite certain I do not meet his specifications.”
“I think he may have adjusted some of the specifications on his list.”
She glanced at him, startled. “How odd. Pamela Egan said much the same thing. Just what is this new attribute that might move me to the top of Leybrook’s list?”
“Your talent,” Owen said. “He has sensed that it is real.”
“What of it? He possesses some talent himself. I’m sure of it.”
“Precisely. I believe he has concluded that with you by his side he can take his financial empire to even greater heights. It’s a logical move, when you consider it closely. The Institute is already a profitable enterprise. But just think what two people of strong talent could do with the business.”
“If Leybrook offers me the position Adriana now holds, I will decline. I have no interest in entering into a partnership with him.”
“Even if it means making a great deal more money than you do now?”
“Make no mistake, I am as ambitious as any other practitioner. But I have my own long-range plans. They do not include Leybrook.”
“You say that, yet you are affiliated with the Institute,” Owen pointed out.
“Temporarily. I did not say that I could not do business with Leybrook. But I would never enter into a close partnership of any kind with him.”
“You make such fine distinctions?” Owen sounded intrigued, not dismissive or critical.
“A close partnership is like a marriage, sir,” she said. “To be successful, there must be a great deal of trust on both sides.”
“And you do not trust Leybrook?”
“Oh, I trust him,” Virginia said. “I trust him to always do what he perceives to be in his own best interests. As long as I keep that in mind, he and I can get along together at the Institute. At the moment our financial interests are aligned, as Mrs. Crofton would say. But that will not always be the case.”
At the base of the steps the hair suddenly stirred on the nape of her neck. Her intuition sent a sharp jolt of warning through all of her senses.
“Owen?” she began.
But he was already reacting, pulling her aside so quickly that she stumbled and would have fallen if he had not steadied her.
A figure in a hooded cloak swept past so close that the edge of the cloak whipped against Virginia. A gloved hand lashed out, missing Virginia’s shoulder by inches. She knew that if Owen had not yanked her out of the way, the cloaked figure would have shoved her down the long flight of granite steps.
It was all over in an instant. The cloaked figure slipped away into the throng. The crowd closed up, oblivious to what had occurred.
“Wait here,” Owen ordered. “Don’t move.”
He started past her. She knew that he was going after the cloaked figure. She put out a hand to stop him.
“Owen, no,” she said urgently.
To her surprise he stopped. His eyes burned. “She tried to push you down the steps.”
“It was an impulsive act. She is not our killer.”
“Impulse or not, if you had gone down those steps you could have broken your neck.”
“There are a lot of people in the way. I’m sure they would have broken the fall. It is more likely that I would have twisted an ankle.”
“Owen, Miss Dean, wait.”
The sound of Nick’s sharp, urgent voice came from the street. Virginia turned and saw him plowing a path through the crowd. He had a firm grip on Charlotte’s hand, hauling her with him.
Owen watched the pair come quickly toward them.
“What did you see?” he asked Nick.
“I glanced back in this direction just as I was assisting Miss Tate into a cab. Saw a figure in a cloak push through the crowd. Her movements were very deliberate. It appeared that she was determined to get to Miss Dean. Thought maybe she wanted to have a word with her, but there was something about the way she was moving that did not seem right. Then I saw Miss Dean stumble.”
“Someone brushed up against me,” Virginia said. “It was an accident.” But even as she spoke, she remembered the frisson of intuition that had seared her senses.
“The woman in the cloak tried to push Virginia down the steps,” Owen said.
“Who was it?” Charlotte demanded. “Did you see her face?”
“No, but I saw her glove and her shoes,” Virginia said. “It was Adriana Walters.”
TWENTY-NINE
“ Iam very certain that Adriana acted on impulse,” Virginia said. “Nothing more.”
Owen looked at her from the opposite seat of the carriage. In the shadows of the darkened cab it was impossible to read her face. “She hates you.”
“She is seething because she fears Leybrook is going to let her go, and she blames me. I understand. But she is not the one who murdered Ratford and Hackett. You said yourself, the killer is a man.”
“It does not follow that she is not linked to the killer,” Owen said. A fever was simmering in him, but it was generated by frustration. It had not been easy to let Adriana escape.
Virginia hesitated. “Well, I suppose anything is possible, but my intuition tells me that Adriana is not involved in murder.”