"But?" prompted Sebastian as they stepped off the shallow porch into the downpour.

McCain turned their steps toward the hospital. "Well, let's just say I've bred enough horses and dogs in my day to know that characteristics such as temperament and intelligence are as likely as blue eyes and brown hair to be pa.s.sed down from sire and dam. If I'm to adopt a child, I want to know something about the stable. The Bishop was able to vouch for the character of this babe's mother and father. Rea.s.sured me both were young and healthy, and of good moral fiber. Superior in every way."

Sebastian stared off through the rain, to where a wherryman in an oil slicker and a slouch hat was unloading his fare at the base of a set of wooden steps leading down to the wind-whipped river. "Prescott never said anything to give you some clue as to the ident.i.ty of the child's mother-or its father?"

McCain glanced at him in surprise. "Surely you don't think the unborn child could have something to do with the Bishop's death?"

"I don't see how. But I honestly don't know."

The physician shook his head. "I'm sorry, but he was very careful not to give us any particulars."

"I understand." They had reached the edge of the hospital's courtyard by now, the redbrick walls and white columns of the facade half obscured by the driving rain. Sebastian drew up. "Thank you again for your help."

The physician frowned, stopping beside him. "You know, I'd swear I've met you before. It's something about the eyes . . ."

Sebastian swiped the forearm of his rough coat across his wet face. "You don't see many men with yellow eyes, I'll admit."

"True, true," said McCain. "Although I met a highwayman with yellow eyes, once. Held me up and robbed me on Hounslow Heath, not three years ago."

"I trust you're not suggesting I might be a highwayman?"

The physician laughed. "Hardly. The man who robbed me was younger than you. Dark haired, and lean."

"I was dark haired and young once myself. And lean."

McCain laughed again. "Weren't we all? It's odd, though, because I was thinking about that highwayman just the other day. Someone else must have recently reminded me of him . . ." His voice trailed off, and he shrugged. "It will come to me."

"Perhaps it will." Sebastian took a step back, boots splashing in the puddling water. "Thank you again for your time."

"I wish I could have been of more a.s.sistance. He was a good man, Bishop Prescott."

"Yes, he was."

Head bent against the downpour, Sebastian turned to walk rapidly toward the road. But when he reached the footpath and glanced back, he saw McCain still standing beneath the portico of the east pensioner's ward, his umbrella held aloft as he stared thoughtfully into the rain.

A hackney loomed out of the mist, harness jingling, the rawboned bay between the poles snorting as the jarvey pulled up in response to Sebastian's raised hand.

"Where to, gov'nor?" shouted the jarvey, a big, broad-shouldered c.o.c.kney with a slouch hat pulled low over a beard-grizzled face.

"London. Brook Street."

"Aye, gov'nor." The hackney rolled forward as Sebastian leapt up and slammed the door behind him.

The inside of the carriage was damp, the straw on the floor old and foul, the ancient leather seats cracked. Sebastian settled gingerly into a corner, his arms crossed, his chin sinking to his chest as he listened to the rain drumming on the roof of the old carriage, the splash of the horse's hooves as the hackney swung away from the curb.

Lost in a swirl of troubled thoughts, he was only dimly aware of the hackney lurching and b.u.mping over the rutted road, of the air growing heavy with the stench of burning coal. He heard the hiss of steam, the roar of engines, and looked up suddenly.

Two tall, narrow towers loomed out of the rain, some four or five stories high and linked by a heavy timber scaffolding. Built of brick, the engine houses crowned a nearby small rise. He could see the sullen gleam of a series of ponds, the rain-pocked expanse of a channel that stretched back toward the river. And suddenly, he knew where he was: the Chelsea Water Works.

He was reaching up to signal the jarvey when the hackney came to a plunging halt and a heavy hand jerked open the door.

"Welcome, Captain Viscount," said Obadiah Slade, his fist tightening around a stout cudgel.

Chapter 33.

Surging forward, Sebastian gripped the scarred wood framing the ancient carriage door and levered up off the tattered seat to swing both feet through the open doorway.

Driven hard by the momentum of the swing and packing Sebastian's full weight, his boots caught Obadiah square in the chest. He staggered back with a grunt, his scarred, shaven head jerking, his powerful arms flailing as he fought to keep his balance in the mud.

Rain pounded on the old wooden roof of the hackney carriage, slapped into the dull, muddy surface of the ponds that stretched out into the mist. Sebastian jerked the knife from his boot and leapt from the carriage.

He landed in the wet, gra.s.sy verge, knife held low, body crouched in a street fighter's stance. He could hear the roar of the engines from the nearby waterworks, the hiss of steam, and the splat of a pair of rough boots landing in the muddy lane as the hackney driver dropped off the box behind him.

Sebastian tightened his grip on his knife, his breath coming hard and fast. He now had one man before him, one man at his back. He heard the whistle of a whip cutting through the air and threw himself sideways, the tip of the driver's horsewhip flicking across his temple.

"You b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.d," swore Sebastian, swiping the sleeve of his rough coat at the warm wetness spilling into his eyes.

The jarvey lashed at him again. But Sebastian was already moving in on him. Throwing up his left arm, Sebastian caught the blow on his forearm, the lash wrapping around his wrist like a hot wire as he pivoted to drive the blade of his dagger deep into the jarvey's chest.

Eyes wide with bewilderment, blood spilling from his mouth as his jaw sagged, the driver dropped heavily to his knees, then pitched forward onto his face in the mud before Sebastian had time to yank his dagger free.

"Lost yer knife, have ye?" Obadiah gave a harsh, ringing laugh. "What ye gonna do now? Hmm, Captain Viscount?" He slapped the cudgel against his palm, lips peeling back from his teeth in a grin.

Sebastian still had the lash of the driver's whip wrapped around his left arm. Now, his gaze on the other man's rawboned, scarred face, he closed his right fist on the thong some three feet closer to the handle and took two quick loops of the leather around his wrist.

Obadiah hawked up a mouthful of spittle and spat it into the mud at Sebastian's feet. "By the time I'm done wit' ye, yer own da ain't gonna recognize ye."

Stepping forward, he swung the cudgel at Sebastian's face, the heavy wood whistling through the air. Sebastian jerked the whip up, the leather thong held taut between both fists. The blow bounced off the whiplash, sending shock waves down Sebastian's arms and throwing Obadiah off balance.

Kicking out, Sebastian knocked the big man's lead foot out from beneath him. Obadiah went down hard, his right hand reflexively letting go of the cudgel to break his fall. Sebastian kicked again and the club went spinning through the rain to land with a plop in the muddy water of the pond lapping at the gra.s.sy verge beside the lane.

"Ye b.a.s.t.a.r.d," spat Obadiah. Wrapping his arms around Sebastian's legs, he brought him down like a roped calf.

Sebastian hit the muddy ground with a painful grunt. Scrabbling around, he kicked out to free himself from the other man's hold. Obadiah grabbed fistfuls of Sebastian's coat, and the two men rolled together across the gra.s.sy verge and down a gentle incline to hit the murky surface of the pond with a splash. Sebastian felt the cold water closing over him and barely had time to suck in one last breath before his head went under.

He fought his way to the surface, feet scrabbling for purchase on the silty, shifting bottom. He swung around, breath coming in quick gasps, eyes filmed with water and mud and blood as he scanned the churning, rain-pocked surface of the pond, its far banks obscured by a haze of mist mingling with steam from the pounding engines of the waterworks.

He swiped his wet sleeve across his face and heard Obadiah rise up behind him with an angry roar. Before he could spin around, a ma.s.sive arm clamped around Sebastian's neck to slam him back against a chest as hard as one of the sides of beef hanging from a hook in Jack Slade's butcher shop.

Sebastian could hear his own blood surging in his ears, feel the meaty strength of the other man's forearm crushing his windpipe. He tried to pitch forward, but couldn't. With his last strength he lurched backward and felt the big man's feet shoot out from beneath him as his stance shifted on the treacherous, slippery bottom.

They both went under, the impact breaking them apart. Coming up fast, Sebastian staggered back toward the sh.o.r.e. He was about hip-deep in the water when Obadiah broke the surface, sputtering. Swinging around, Sebastian charged into him. Grabbing the lapels of the other man's coat, Sebastian pushed him back and down again, and watched with grim satisfaction as the muddy water closed over the ma.s.sive, hard-jawed face, the man's eyes open and startled.

From somewhere he heard a shout, the sound of men splashing through mud and rain. Sebastian tightened his hold on Obadiah's coat and held him beneath the cold, muddy surface of the pond.

"Let him go!"

Rough hands closed on Sebastian's shoulders, loosening his grip. A red-bearded man with a wildly disordered neckcloth shoved his face into Sebastian's line of vision. "Wot the 'ell ye doin' there? Ye're gonna kill 'im."

Sebastian felt Obadiah slip from his grasp. Sebastian lurched after him, but two more men had appeared by now to lay hold of Sebastian. They dragged him back toward the sh.o.r.e, where the silent form of the jarvey lay stretched out in the mud beside the hackney.

The rain fell from the sky in a roar that mingled with the droning thunder of the steam engines. Breaking free of the men's hold, Sebastian swung around to look back at the pond. A white mist swirled across the still, empty water.

Obadiah had disappeared.

"The hackney belongs to a man by the name of Miles Buckley," said Sir Henry Lovejoy. He was standing in the doorway of Sebastian's dressing room, watching Sebastian wince as Calhoun applied a clean sticking plaster to the cut above Sebastian's eye. "A small, bandy-legged Liverpudlian of some sixty years of age."

"What does he have to say?" asked Sebastian, stretching to his feet. He was dressed in black evening knee breeches, black silk stockings, and a white silk waistcoat. Outside, the rain had finally begun to clear, the sun peeking from beneath the heavy clouds as it slipped below the horizon.

"Very little. He was found insensible from a blow to the head, in a lane behind the White Horse Inn, in Church Street."

Sebastian reached for a snowy white neckcloth. "Will he recover?"

"Oh, yes. A slight dent in his crown is all. He's a tough old codger."

Sebastian grunted, his chin held aloft as he adjusted the folds of his cravat.

Lovejoy said, "I believe your a.s.sailants must have followed you to Chelsea, then availed themselves of Mr. Buckley's hackney, leaving him incapacitated while they shadowed you from Cheyne Walk and waited until you were ready to depart for London."

"A scheme into which I stepped like a regular Johnny Flat." Lovejoy cleared his throat. "Not exactly. The individual who was driving the hackney won't be waylaying any more fairs. You killed him."

"Good."

"A coroner's inquest will be held, of course, but there's no doubt his death will be found a simple case of self-defense. We've set the local constables to searching the ponds of the waterworks and the riverbank beyond, but Mr. Obidiah Slade appears to have made good his escape."

"He'll be back," said Sebastian, reaching for his coat.

Lovejoy cleared his throat again. "That's what I'm afraid of."

That night, Sebastian prowled the playgrounds of the haut ton. Moving purposefully from the theaters of Covent Garden to the glittering ballrooms and drawing rooms of Mayfair, he scanned the throngs of men in black silk and white linen, of women in sparkling jewels and shimmering evening gowns that slipped enticingly from bare shoulders. But the one woman he sought was not to be found.

He was in the flower-decked ballroom of a house on Cav endish Square belonging to the Duke of Isling, his gaze narrowed against the haze of hundreds of beeswax candles, when he heard a woman's familiar voice say, "Good heavens, it is you, Devlin. Bayard swore he'd seen you, but I'd hoped he was simply suffering the effects of too much of Isling's punch."

Sebastian turned to meet his sister's icy blue stare. "h.e.l.lo, Amanda."

Amanda, Lady Wilc.o.x, was a tall woman, thin and fair like their mother, although she looked too much like Hendon to have ever been pretty, even when she was young. Twelve years Sebastian's senior, she was in her early forties now. Even when they were children, she had never made the least effort to disguise her acute dislike of her youngest brother. Now, watching her lip curl, her nostrils flare with disdain, Sebastian found himself wondering if she had always known-or at least suspected-the ugly secrets swirling around his conception.

"I hear you're at it again," she said, her head turning as she let her gaze scan the crowded dance floor. She could bear to look at him for only a limited amount of time. "Involving yourself in the sordid details of a murder investigation, like some grubby little Bow Street Runner."

Following her gaze, Sebastian watched his niece, Stephanie Wilc.o.x, coming down the set of the country dance on the arm of Lord Smallbone. Just finishing her first London Season at the age of eighteen, Stephanie was everything Amanda had never been: delicate and winsome and breathtakingly beautiful . . . and so much like Sebastian's long-vanished mother, Sophie, that it made his chest ache just to look at her.

Earlier in the Season there'd been talk of a match between the young Miss Wilc.o.x and Smallbone. But no announcement had as yet been forthcoming, and Sebastian knew Amanda was growing anxious. "What's the matter, Amanda?" he said gently. "Worried I'll somehow scuttle my niece's chances of landing a good catch?"

He had the satisfaction of seeing an angry flush touch his sister's cheeks. "Don't be vulgar," she snapped. "Although I don't suppose you can help it."

"Oh? Why's that, Amanda?"

Her lips tightened into a thin line. Rather than answer, she simply turned and left him staring after her, and wondering what she knew, and how she knew it.

"An interesting display of sibling affection," said Miss Hero Jarvis, walking up to him. "Or lack thereof."

She wore a stunning sapphire blue gown of satin trimmed with velvet ribbons, and was regarding him with her frank, faintly amused gray eyes.

"Definitely a 'lack thereof,' " he said dryly. The country dance came to an end with a flourish, disgorging a wave of flushed and perspiring dancers upon them. "Here," he said, cupping a hand beneath her elbow to draw her away from the crush.

"I thought you made it a practice to avoid these functions," she said, gently removing her arm from his grasp.

"Actually, I was looking for you."

"Then you're fortunate to have found me. I'm here only because I was looking for Lord Quillian. The d.u.c.h.ess of Isling is his sister. Or didn't you know?"

"No," said Sebastian, who relied on his aunt Henrietta to remind him of the intricate familial ties that bound one member of the Upper Ten Thousand to the next. "And precisely why, Miss Jarvis, were you searching for Lord Quillian?"

"Did you never find it something of a coincidence that Reverend Earnshaw should have decided to demolish the charnel house on the north side of St. Margaret's and discovered Sir Nigel's body at just this moment?"

"No," Sebastian admitted. "But you're right; it is something of a coincidence that it should all happen now, just when the Bishop was being considered for elevation to the Archbishopric of Canterbury-and preparing to present a Slavery Abolition Act to Parliament."

"You told me once that when it comes to murder, you don't believe in coincidences."

"I did?"

"You did. So I decided to drive out to Tanfield Hill this afternoon, to offer my condolences to Mrs. Earnshaw on the sad loss of her husband."

Sebastian turned to stare at her. "Really? And did she believe you were sincere?"

"She did. You're not the only one who can playact, you know."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know full well what I mean, Mr. Taylor. The woman was upset, obviously, but not disconsolate. I had no difficulty encouraging her to talk about the construction work on the church."

"And?"

"She said the Reverend had been wanting to make the changes for years, only he'd been frustrated by a lack of funds-and by a lack of cooperation from the Bishop himself."

"Interesting. But not exactly d.a.m.ning."

"No, but listen to this: According to Mrs. Earnshaw, the Reverend was very excited because he was able to secure a private donor. After much wrestling with his conscience, he decided to simply go ahead with the construction without informing London House."

"Let me guess. The private donor was Quillian."

Her face fell. "You knew?"