Revenge of the Brotherhood (Book 3 in the Tom & Laura Series) (4 page)

“Stop, young man. Where do you think you’re going?” Miss Talbot said imperiously.

Tricky stopped in mid stride halfway up the first flight. “Telegram to deliver. Urgent, ma’am,” he said holding a telegram up in the air. He didn’t turn as he didn’t dare. Miss Talbot had seen his face on a number of occasions.

“Who for?” Miss Talbot asked suspiciously.

“Mister Smith,” Tricky said desperately. No one had thought to give him any names.

“Which floor?”

“Second, Miss, been there lot’s of times.” Sweat began to gather under Tricky’s collar.

“Then you should know its Doctor Smyth, not Smith, and be quick about it.”

“Doctor Smyth, you’re right, Miss. Got it now.”

Tricky ran up to Baxter’s floor. Then he had to stop and wait for the stitch to go away before he could move on.

He ran past a couple of people on the way to the office. Nobody stopped him or said a word. It was if he was invisible.

“I’m keeping this costume if I’s gets out alive,” Tricky informed himself as he slid into Baxter’s office. “P’vided Alice can stop ’em nippin’ mi nadges.”

Tricky got up on a chair to remove the painting the safe was hidden behind. Its lock was of the tumbler type and Tricky used his gift to watch the tumblers move as he turned the dial. He had memorized Trelawney’s combination, which he was using as a guide on how the lock worked.

“Dolt’s only changed one number,” he said with considerable satisfaction. Even being able to see the tumblers didn’t make it easy to see what was going on as there was so much metal getting in the way. But with Trelawney’s combination to start with, it only took him three tries to get the safe door open.

The safe contained several boxes as well as a lot of money. The folded five pound notes gave Tricky pause. This was more money than he’d seen in his life. It took him an effort to ignore them and investigate the boxes. The boxes contained manila folders marked with different colored stripes. It was only when he got down to the bottom of the last box that he found the folder with the blue stripe.

Tricky put everything back the way he had found it. His fingers lingered over the money,
‘surely nobody would miss one?’
Making up his mind, he closed the safe and replaced the picture.

“We have decided on your first mission,” Annelise told Cam.

“Good, I was wondering when I would get to serve the Empire,” Cam replied in fluent German. If anything, she had a slight Bavarian accent.

Annelise passed a Daguerreotype picture to her. She recognized it instantly and it was hard to suppress a gasp.

“You know him?”

“He looks a little bit like my father. Surely he is too old to be dangerous?”

“That is Sir Ernest Trelawney; he was once the Director of Military Magic Department Three in the British Empire. He was dismissed in disgrace after a recent mission. The mission was a success, but the British like to punish success just as much as they praise failure.”

“Why bother with him now?”

Annelise looked serious and put her hand on Cam’s. “Ingrid, you are young and naïve. We are not the only people who prey on the British Empire. There is an organization that eats at it from within that is known as the Brotherhood. We do business with them from time to time and now they want this man dead.”

“We kill this man so they are in our debt?”

Annelise nodded. “He is getting married in less than three weeks. You speak perfect English and will be able to attend the wedding without attracting attention. You will kill Trelawney and his bride during the ceremony.”

Cam nodded and then looked puzzled. “How will I get out without getting caught?”

“That will be down to your ingenuity. We have no time for agents who cannot look after themselves.”

Baxter settled down in his chair while Harris poured them a drink.

“So Snood is in France or possibly Brittany. Can he speak French?”

Harris handed him a glass and sat in one of the comfortable leather chairs that edged the wall. “Spellbinders write their spells in Latin. That’s pretty close to French.”

“I found Trelawney’s premise that Snood changed himself into a dolphin highly unlikely.”

Harris shook his head. “There were rumors that Snood was a better Spellbinder than his grade suggested. It’s as good a theory as any.”

“I’ll write a letter tonight. Inform the Elders and let them decide what to do. Given our plans, I can’t take the time out to track him down.”

“You note our bigger problem?” Harris asked.

“Of course. Trelawney still has agents reporting directly to him. ‘Saw an article in a French newspaper,’ indeed. He probably had the story planted by the agent who spotted Snood. The Elders have told me not to worry about Trelawney, but I think I may have no choice.”

The two men sat in silence for awhile. Baxter noticed something and sat up straighter in his chair.

“Does that painting look askew to you?”

He pointed at the large painting that hid the safe. Harris looked at the painting and shrugged.

“Probably knocked by the cleaners.”

“You may be right.” Baxter sat back in his chair, but his pig-like eyes continued to stare at the painting suspiciously.

Tricky handed the folder to Belinda while the choir practiced hymns in the church. She eyed him up suspiciously as his emotions were in turmoil.

“Did something go wrong?”

“You could’ve given us a name in case they asked.”

“Yes, we should have thought of that. I’m sorry.”

“The trousers were too short, nearly cut mi nadges off.”

Belinda nodded; she was sure Tricky was holding something back. “I can’t change that now.”

Tricky gave Belinda a plaintive look. “Alice… Alice…”

Belinda was instantly alert. “What about Alice? Did someone hurt her?”

He shook his head and Belinda felt his emotions take an unexpected turn.

“She… ’sisted on rubbin’ ’em better. I…” Tricky blushed.

“Ah, well, yes, that would explain a lot,” Belinda said in a kindly way and put a sympathetic arm on his shoulder.

4.
  
Progressions

Aberrant Magic

The number of people showing talents aberrant to those set out in the Newton archives is greater than originally thought. The magically talented find themselves with enough problems when they are discovered to volunteer that their talent does not exactly match the norm. Only children whose talent is far from the norm reveal themselves by their actions.

The work carried out under Lord McBride’s auspices located and investigated a number of children: Emma Franks who could detect mineral deposits as part of her Farseer talent, Alice Short, the world’s only transmitting telepath, David Hart who can see through walls, and of course, Ebenezer Sweeting who constantly sees the world five seconds into the future.

With more of these children being gathered together in a single school, it is hoped that further insights may be gathered into our understanding of magic and how Newton’s laws can be amended to cover these cases.

- Notes of Dr Glyn Thomas – Headmaster of McBride’s Academy, May 1861

Cam strode as quickly as the clothes she was wearing would allow. This was not particularly fast as there was far too much skirt. She was heading for Steffi, as the locals affectionately called their cathedral, but it was essential she lose the man tailing her before she went in.

Stephansplatz was filled with hawkers, shouting out their wares. Cam ducked behind a stall and checked the gentleman’s pocket watch she kept in her purse. She only had five minutes left before her meeting. There was no chance that her tail could follow her through these crowds. The
Singers Door
was wide open and she slipped through it and into the cathedral. It was cooler inside than out.

A man in laborer’s clothing nodded his head with satisfaction as he saw Cam enter the cathedral. His orders were to follow her wherever she went and make a note of anyone she talked to. It was just a precaution as nobody suspected her of anything, but she was new to the service and it was always best to take precautions.

He reached the side of the cathedral, using the space behind the market stalls to make his way both unseen and unimpeded. As he approached the Singers Door a gentleman bumped into him. The knife penetrated his heart in less than a second and he didn’t even have time to be surprised before he died.

“Sorry, old chap. Bad luck and all that,” Peter Burton said in English. “That’s it; you just sit down with your back against the wall and have a nice rest.”

Leaving the dead spy neatly seated on the ground, Burton made his way into the cathedral, removing his hat as he entered the building.

Cam sat in a pew at the eastern end of the cathedral staring at the closed double triptych of the Wiener Neustädter Altar. On Sunday it would be open, revealing the reliquary beneath it, but today it was unimpressive as its doors showed only a faded painting of saints. Cam had no idea who any of them were.

She glanced to her right as a man slid along the pews behind her to end up directly behind her. Even though she had recognized him as her controller, she hated the feeling his presence created. This was because she didn’t trust the man.

“You were careless,” Burton whispered in English. He was surprisingly poor at languages for a spy based in Vienna. She had never heard him speak German. “I eliminated your tail. We could not have him listening in to our little conversation, now could we?”

Cam suppressed an involuntary shudder. He talked so calmly of killing, as if it were nothing. Sometimes she wondered what she was doing here. Defending the Empire was one thing, but the casual killing of innocents was not what she signed up for.

“Has Shultz given you a mission yet?”

“Yes, that’s why I set up this meeting. She wants me to travel to London and kill Sir Ernest Trelawney and Belinda Mann during their wedding ceremony.”

Burton took a couple of seconds to consider this.

“Then you have your orders. Go ahead and do it. Try not to get caught afterwards, there’s a good girl.” He stood up to leave and Cam stood and turned on him, her face red with suppressed rage.

“You cannot be serious!”

Burton was amused by her distress.

“You are in deep cover. If you don’t kill a few on our side we will never get to discover their plans when it really matters. Trelawney and Mann are expendable. Not even part of the service anymore.”

Cam wanted to punch him, but she kept her clenched fists at her side. “I want you to consult our superiors. You cannot condemn two people to death just like that.”

Burton laughed. “Of course I can. I just killed a man because you were careless in losing him. Kill them. I dare say you will get a medal for it when you come home. Old spies who know too much are always an embarrassment.”

Burton gave her a mock salute and left the cathedral. Cam sat back on the pew and considered praying for her soul.

Winslow Becket was a fine teacher of mathematics, if by a fine teacher you meant one that obtained results. Becket’s results came at the end of a cane as it left stripes on young naked bottoms, and he was careful to apply his methods at least a couple of times during every single lesson.

He had already reached his target this session and so was feeling quite well disposed to the pupils who had not yet felt his wrath. Even David Hart, the Farseer boy, with the strange talent to only see things that were close. However, today he was sitting some distance from the Short girl and shooing her away as she tried to get his attention with her mind tricks. Becket was well aware of her ability to project thoughts and that would never do.

“Hart, Short come up here right now and prepare yourselves. I think we shall find out what six plus six equals. The class will count them out loud as I deliver them.”

“That was you, Alice,” Tricky said as he tried to rub the pain out of his stinging backside. They had a ten minute break before the last lesson and they both needed it.

“I got the same too. Wouldn’t ’ave ’appened if you weren’t ignoring mi.” Alice was resisting the urge to rub her bottom. She felt it wasn’t ladylike.

“Well, you shouldn’t ’ave, you know, yesterday.”

“It ain’t like you didn’t like it.”

Tricky grinned. She had him there. Maybe he was being foolish.

“You want to bunk off again? I got some cream back home takes the sting right out of a whack,” he offered.

Alice nodded with delight. The two teens hurried down the corridor before they were seen by a teacher.

Trelawney put the folder with the blue stripe on it into his briefcase and sighed. “Hiding things from Arnold is becoming increasingly tedious, my dear.”

Belinda looked up from her knitting to address her betrothed.

“We will tell him when his innocence will no longer betray us. Besides it is not as bad as getting married just so we can gather so many important people in one place without arousing suspicion.”

Trelawney smiled. “Our marriage is something that should have taken place years ago, regardless of our present need.”

“That might be so, but it took a crisis of these proportions to get you to propose.”

“I was scared you might refuse.”

Belinda gave him a significant look and he had the grace to blush.

Trelawney said nothing for a few minutes before he mused further on the subject.

“Or it might just be my talent in play. Daisy has it in much greater quantity than I and it will be good to compare notes with her. Rest assured, if something of such magnitude is about to happen, she will have already put all the pieces in the right places to give us the best chance to succeed.”

Belinda shook her head. “I don’t agree, it doesn’t concern her or Laura and her talent is specific to her friends. At best she will have protected them.”

“They are coming to the wedding so it will concern them. I am not a complete fool, my love.”

Belinda went back to her knitting with a smile playing at the edges of her lips. It was good to be directing events rather than merely reacting to them again. The contents of that folder were explosive and things were finally coming to a head.

Laura had been confined to her room by Captain Trentwood that morning. He had ordered the Officers Mess to provide her with only bread and water for the next week. However, a full breakfast arrived at her room, courtesy of Sergeant Wainwright and his men. Laura was far from happy though. About the only pleasure she got these days was from walking around the barrack grounds and now she could not even do that.

“We have invitations to a wedding,” Daisy said excitedly as she entered the room.

Laura sighed. “Why look? Sir Anthony has shown no willingness to let me travel, regardless of my present situation.”

Daisy beamed at her friend. “That’s the whole point. This arrived by telegraph from MM3. Sir Anthony has already authorized it. We are going to Sir Ernest and Belinda’s wedding.”

Laura could not stop the smile from forming on her face. Then she looked bleak. “I have absolutely nothing to wear.”

“Then we shall go shopping. I shall tell Trenchbrain that if you turn up to a wedding in front of Queen Victoria in poor clothing it will reflect badly on the army and thus on him. He cannot afford to risk upsetting his superiors.”

“The Queen will be there? What about the Prince of Wales?”

Laura got on well with Bertie and he had even invited her to visit him in Buckingham Palace when they last met. The events in Scotland had put paid to that, but she still hoped to see him again.

“I don’t know. Prince Albert will certainly attend. It will be the biggest wedding of the year and I cannot imagine why it is being held in St Giles rather than St Paul’s.”

Laura slumped on her bed. “The last time I saw Bertie I was with Tom. You know what the army does with Healers, Daisy. It sticks them on the front lines of the worst battlefields so they can keep the battle going. He could be in the Crimea and the newspapers are full of lists of the dead.”

Daisy shook her head, but said nothing. Laura could not be told where Tom was. It would change how she behaved.

“He might be somewhere else entirely,” Daisy said cheerfully. “You know how Healers get commandeered from the front lines to look after important Generals. He could be having the time of his life.”

Laura sat up and looked at Daisy. “Should I do it? They asked me to go to the Crimea and use my talent to end the war. Doing that might save Tom.”

“They have other Class A’s.”

“All busy elsewhere. The opposition in Parliament has been clamoring for Military Magic to intervene and Lord Palmerston has claimed that all who are available have already been dispatched. And there is also the revolt in Brittany.”

Daisy squatted in front of Laura and took her hands. “If you go they will expect you to kill thousands. Sabotage their weapons so they blow up in their faces, still the enemies hearts, kill their horses, and turn their provisions to dust. If you are up to doing all that, I will support you.”

Laura turned away and buried her head in the mattress. “I cannot do those things. Not even to save Tom’s life. He knows that, Daisy. I told him when Lord McBride threatened to whip him to death in front of my eyes. What am I to do?”

“Something will turn up, Laura. Keep your resolve till then.”

Tom was lost in the mansion. He had spent a busy afternoon curing the minor ailments the troops and engineers had picked up. Healing was a tiring business and he felt exhausted. The next turn brought him to a familiar looking corridor; he sighed with relief and opened the door to his room.

Antonia lay naked on the bed. She shrieked and grabbed at the skirt on her chair as she got to her feet. It didn’t quiet cover her.

“How dare you enter my room without knocking?”

Tom was about to protest it was his room when a second glance showed it looked nothing like the interior of his room.

“I’m sorry. I though this was…”

 
“…a brothel, no doubt, where every young woman is your willing plaything?” Antonia said scornfully. “I expect a handsome young man like you expects every girl to drop to her knees and meet your perverted needs.”