Scotland Hard (Book 2 in the Tom & Laura Series) (27 page)

34.
      
Bomb

Tom wondered what it was about Laura that made it impossible for her to set out for anything on time. Giles had told them that the clothes they wore would be fine for this Scottish ‘Kay-lee’ so all Tom did when they got back to their room was splash some water over his face to freshen up and then he was ready to go.

Perhaps it was the fact that the maid, Rhona, had been waiting for them when they got back, and that the two girls pushed Tom out of the room before he had finished toweling his face. Maybe when two young women got together, little things like being late for a dance did not matter anymore.

Tom had been brought up strictly by his parents. They had taught him the value of manners through the judicious use of rod and strap. Walking into his parents’ bedroom without knocking and waiting for permission first resulted in a severe whipping when he was four years old. Being rude to people was nearly unthinkable. It had taken him years to get to the point where he could joke with someone like Laura, and he often thought he went too far with her.

One of the things that had been drummed into him repeatedly was never to be late and never to incommode a host. The thought of being late to the dance was making him twitch, but to knock on the bedroom door and complain about it was equally unthinkable. The internal conflict was driving him crazy.

Their bedroom door opened and the two girls walked out. As soon as he saw them, Tom realized what had taken all the time; Laura had been helping Rhona get ready for the dance. Both girls looked breathtakingly beautiful. Laura had a gift when it came to applying makeup. Unless you knew, you would not realize either girl wore any makeup at all, but both looked radiant in a way that nature rarely achieved.

Rhona took in Tom’s stare and giggled in delight.

“If the other men are affected like your young man, I’m going to have a grand time at the dance.”

“Tom is a little naïve when it comes to women so you may have to work a little harder with normal men. Just look how he has made us late by not telling us how the time was going. So typical of the boy,” Laura said airily.

Tom tried to find appropriate words of outrage, but as usual, his upbringing hindered him and all he could manage was a half-hearted sulky reply.

“You had a perfectly good clock in the room.”

“And I thought I had a perfectly good young man out here, making sure I would not be late,” Laura snapped back. “Now don’t delay us further, Thomas, we must not keep Lord McBride and his guests waiting a moment longer.”

Tom waved his hands in a gesture of despair and led the way down to the Banqueting Hall. Giles had been precise with directions, so Tom knew exactly how to get there.

He had barely managed a dozen steps before Laura and Rhona caught up with him and linked their arms in his.

“That’s better, Tom,” Laura said as she held him close to her. “You shall enter the hall with two of the prettiest woman in this place on your arms and everyone will know you are someone special.”

“Did you not just spend five minutes telling me how useless I am?” Tom asked in confusion.

“Do you think I would waste my time expending all that effort on you if you were not someone special?” Laura asked. “It is just that you require a little house training. When I have finished, you will be perfect.”

Arnold
had found a secret place to hide where he could eat in peace without the threat of Josiah Green bombarding him with questions. There was an alcove behind a large tapestry of a stag at bay and he had hidden there with a large tankard of mulled wine and a plate brimming with food.
Arnold
planned to spend the entire dance in this one spot if he could. It was bad enough having to wear a skirt, without embarrassing himself further by showing off his total lack of skill on the dance floor.

He was just about to bite into a large slice of beef when he heard two men speaking softly to each other on the other side of the tapestry. They must have been inches from his position.

“The test is set for midnight, Laird,” an educated Scottish male voice said skeptically. “Assuming your man, Clerkes, is correct in his theory, we may well hear the blast from here.”

“You should have more faith, Blane,” a heartier Scottish voice replied. “I knew from the first that dantium came straight from hell and when Hans suggested it could be used to create a burst of hellfire I knew I was correct. We shall use this dantium bomb to burn
England
at its heart and the Empire’s centre shall move to
Edinburgh
and
Scotland
where it rightly belongs.”

“There’s a lot of Sassenachs in places like
Manchester
and
Liverpool
that will disagree with you on that matter, Laird,” Blane said dryly

“This mission was given to me by God himself,” McBride continued. “Why else would he put pitchblende on my land or send me the scientists and Spellbinders who could unlock its secrets? Why only today the Good Lord answered my prayers and Giles Summers is fully recovered. What greater sign could you want than that?”

“As you say, Laird,” Blane replied demurely. “One way or the other we shall know soon enough. Perhaps our Mr. Clarkes will underestimate his safe distance and join his master in hell. It would be no great loss.”

“Aye,” the Laird said with a chuckle, “I will have no need of him once we are certain the bomb works. Rest assured that I will dispose of him when the time is right. The knowledge he holds makes him far too dangerous to be allowed to continue to walk the Earth.”

“Aye, Laird, for one thing he could point the accusing finger at you and I when the English come seeking revenge.”

“There will be no one left to come looking, Blane, I can assure you of that, no one who is in London at the time, for certain.”

“If the device works, Laird.”

Arnold
had been trying hard not to breathe as the two men spoke. If they discovered him hiding there, they would certainly kill him out of hand.
Arnold
was certain that the man the other called Laird must be Lord McBride. A few short months ago,
Arnold
would have scoffed at the idea of a bomb that could blow up a city as big as
London
. His encounters with the invention of an American called Gatling had convinced him otherwise. If a man could make a gun so unholy that it could fire more than a hundred rounds a minute, then another could build a bomb big enough to destroy a city. It stood to reason.

Tom made a grand entrance into the hall with Laura on his right and Rhona on his left. The hall was crowded with people eating, drinking, and talking, but nonetheless eyes turned towards them and several people nudged their friends to take a look.

“My dear, how delightful for us that you should attend our little function,” McBride said as he approached them at speed. Trailing behind him was his secretary, Blane Grant. Blane carried a wine glass in one hand and had a look of amused contempt on his face.

“And surely this cannot be our own Rhona Freer?” Lord McBride said as he smiled at the girl. “If I did not know that you have no tools for casting a bind, I would accuse you of witchcraft, my dear. Rhona has never looked lovelier and I dare say the young men of the castle will be chasing her this night.”

Rhona gave McBride a deep curtsy and left to find her friends.

“And you, laddie,” Lord McBride said addressing Tom. “You dinna look like much, but if you can get two such beautiful lassies to hang on your arms then you must have something about you. I might have tried my own hand at healing if I’d known such privileges were attached.”

Tom blushed at McBride’s words. As he always did in such times, he fell back on the manners he had been taught over his parent’s knees.

“Is Lady McBride well?”

Lord McBride’s face went from a smile to a scowl and Blane laughed cynically. With a visible effort, McBride pulled a smile back onto his face.

“It is good of you to ask, laddie. Unfortunately, Lady McBride has come down with a terrible headache and has retired to her bed. But enough on such gloomy matters, you must hurry up and eat something. The dancing is about to start and I insist that our most handsome couple should take part in it.”

“I don’t know any Scottish dances,” Tom protested. The truth was that he could only dance if his partner did not mind bruised toes.

“Nonsense, laddie, as I explained to the bonnie lassie earlier, the dances are simple and a demonstration will be given before we start. Now go and get some mulled wine down you.”

“So this is where you are hiding, Arnold Tompkins,”
Cam
said angrily as she pulled aside the tapestry to reveal the man still hiding in the alcove.

“Shush, are you trying to give us away?”
Arnold
snapped and pulled
Cam
into the alcove with him.

“
Arnold
, I never knew you cared,” Cam said breathlessly as she found
Arnold
holding her in a close embrace. Her tone became hard. “Nor do I particularly care to know, unhand me now.”

“
Cam
, I overheard a conversation you will not believe. But if you carry on talking loudly, we are both going to end up dead.”

Cam sensed
Arnold
was being serious and shut up. She had been angry at having to put up with Josiah Green for nearly an hour that common sense had momentarily fled. When she finally found an excuse to get away from the annoying Josiah, she had spent a further half hour searching for
Arnold
. It was only when she remembered his habit of hiding behind curtains at Hobsgate, that she achieved success.

Arnold
briefed her succinctly in a low whisper.

“Stay here,”
Cam
ordered. “I shall check the coast is clear and then we must leave as quietly as possible. Lord McBride and this Blane character must not suspect you have ever been here.”

Cam
slid along the wall, pulling her tummy in tight so she did not rustle the tapestry as she moved. A quick glance told her it was safe to move and she slid further along the wall until she was out in the open. Keeping an eye on the crowd, she signaled for
Arnold
to follow.

With a heartfelt sigh,
Arnold
made his way behind the tapestry. Cam chose her moment and then reached for
Arnold
and dragged him out, engaging him in a passionate embrace.

“What if Dougal McBride saw us just then,”
Arnold
complained as the two of them stood side by side along the wall, “We are supposed to be brother and sister.”

“I expect such things happen in
Scotland
too,” Cam replied, unperturbed by
Arnold
’s comment, “Just so long as he didn’t spot you hiding behind the tapestry.”

“And what are we going to do now?”

“We are going to get into that group of people about to dance,”
Cam
said as she grabbed his hand and started pulling him across the hall. “You need to be seen somewhere away from that alcove to be sure we have allayed any suspicion.”

“I think I preferred the ‘
being killed
’ option,”
Arnold
whispered as he resigned himself to joining the dance. Working as a spy out in the field was turning out to be far less fun than he had thought it would be when he joined Military Magic.

35.
      
Daisy & Dougal

“We really should be getting back to the dance,” Daisy pointed out to Dougal. He had taken her away from the hall to show her around the castle, or so he claimed. Daisy soon found he was more interested in touring her body with his hands than pointing out the fifteenth century arches in the kitchen.

“But I haven’t shown you everything yet,” Dougal protested. “There is still the great library and we have one of the biggest collections in the whole of
Scotland
.”

“My sister and brothers will be worried about me,” Daisy explained. “And you haven’t shown me the dungeons either. I am beginning to suspect that is where you eventually lure innocent lassies like me.”

“I would never do anything to hurt you, Daisy, and I am afraid I cannot show you the dungeons,” Dougal said in a hurt little boy voice.

“Why ever not? Are you holding prisoners down there?” Daisy asked in outrage.

Dougal laughed in delight.

“Nay, it’s nothing like that. My father has his laboratories down in the dungeons and he does not allow visitors to go down there. He says it is far too dangerous.”

Daisy pouted at Dougal and feigned looking upset. “I am sure you could show me if you really wanted. A hidden laboratory deep down in a castle’s dungeons, why it makes me feel all of a tingle just to think of it.”

Daisy grabbed Dougal’s arm and pressed her body close to his, making sure her breasts were pushed hard against him. “Please let me look at the dungeons Dougal. I would be ever so grateful if you did.”

“You must promise never to say anything of it to anybody,” Dougal said, clearly wavering. He was thankful that the size of his sporran concealed his reaction to being so close to Daisy. “The Laird must never know you have been there.”

“I would never betray you, Dougal. Surely you must know that?” Daisy remonstrated with him and batted her eyelids innocently. “A woman would never betray the man she truly cares about.”

Dougal gulped for air as Daisy pressed her bosoms higher up his chest by stretching up on the tips of her toes.

“Let us go quickly then,” he told her. Daisy held onto his hand as Dougal led her through the castle at very close to a run.

“Where you got these adult spies ‘idden, Tricky,”
Alice
asked as she looked around the crowded hall. It was bad enough seeing Ebb and Tricky wearing skirts, but seeing so many men wearing them was causing an outbreak of curiosity in
Alice
. She was pondering the age-old question of what might lie beneath and
Alice
was not the kind of girl who would let a question like that remain unanswered.

Tricky looked around the hall and could see no sign of Cam, Daisy or
Arnold
. This was not too surprising, given the number of people crowded into the hall.

“Dunno, I ‘spect they’re around somewhere,” he said after checking a second time.

Lucy and Ebb sat together higher up the spiral of the staircase. As soon as Lucy discovered that Ebb was a Precog, she had wanted to get him alone to talk about their shared gift.

“No, not like you,” Ebb replied before she could utter a word. “I see a few seconds ahead, only all the time.”

“That must be very strange for you,” Lucy replied in a Welsh lilt that made Ebb smile. It was the second time he had heard it and he thought it delightful. “I see things all the time, while I’m awake. Most Precogs have to dream them.”

“Lord McBride collects the strange ones. Thank you,” Ebb said before Lucy could tell him that he wasn’t strange. She smiled as an understanding of what he was doing came to her.

“I’m thirteen, older than Edith, though she looks older than me,” Lucy said shyly.

“I’ll be eleven just after Christmas,” Ebb admitted.

Lucy looked down the stairs at Edith and Gwendolyn, who were engaged in an animated discussion with Tricky and
Alice
.

“Gwendolyn’s a Reader and you know how rare they are. It is hard for her to stay in such an old castle.”

“Huh?”

“She touches a wall and sees someone being stabbed a century ago. She looks out of the window and sees a body swinging from a gibbet or hears a girl screaming as she is burnt at the stake. All that swagger of hers and the violence, it is an act to protect herself. She see’s such terrible things.”

“What ‘ave you seen?” Ebb asked quietly. Lucy took his hand in hers, which is the reason he dared to ask the question and they sat without speaking for some time. Then Ebb squeezed her fingers in shock at hearing her answer, triggering her into answering him.

“I have seen the end of the world.”

Tom watched very carefully as two young Scots couples gave a demonstration of the dance he was about to perform. They had lined up in rows, women on one side, men on the other. Laura stood immediately opposite him watching the demonstration with the same grim determination he had. Neither of them wanted to look foolish in front of all these people.

The dance involved the men and women prancing into the gap between them in time to the music and then twirling each other around in a tight embrace. After two turns the men bowed, the women curtseyed and then they swapped places with the person next to them. This left them facing a different partner.

“We have an odd number of couples in the dance, so everybody gets to dance with everybody else,” one of the dancers explained. “Well with all the members of the opposite sex. We had a couple got confused once and men found themselves dancing with men and women with women. It led to quite a fight, let me tell you.”

Everybody laughed dutifully.

“When you find yourself dancing with your original partner the dance comes to an end and we let the next lot of couples have a go. Are you all ready then?”

A cheer of sorts went up from all the dancers in the line while a few catcalls came from those waiting their turn. The musicians started up and Tom stumbled out into the centre only a single step behind the others.

“Chin up, Thomas Merlin Carter,” Laura told him as he twirled around with her. “And do try to avoid standing on the girl’s feet. They will not have you around to heal their bruised toes later.”

Three girls later, Tom started to get the hang of it and was beginning to enjoy himself. He was no longer having to listen to swearing as he danced onto girls toes. Two girls further down the line, he found himself dancing with Camilla Burns.

“Do pick your chin up from the floor, Carter. People will think you are drooling over my breasts,”
Cam
said cheerfully.

Tom stared at her in astonishment.

“How? What?”

“Come to rescue you of course. We’ve chased you all the way up the
British Isles
.”

Then
Cam
was gone and Tom had to work hard to avoid standing on the next girl’s feet.

Arnold
had his eyes firmly on the dance floor, watching the girl’s feet and his own. He was surprised when one of his partners dragged up his head so he was looking into her eyes.

“Camilla has to be around here somewhere,” Laura told him, her eyes twinkling with delight.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because no one but her could have persuaded you to wear a skirt.”

“It’s called a kilt,”
Arnold
shouted after her, but Laura had already danced away.

Tom found he was twirling Laura again, much to his relief.

“
Cam
,” he said simply, too exhausted to get more than a word out.

“
Arnold
too,” Laura said as she pulled him close to her and kissed him firmly on the lips. The music stopped as the other couples bowed to each other. There was a deal of ribald laughter around Tom and Laura as they continued to kiss. Laura had to come up for air eventually and she reluctantly let Tom go.

The dancers left the floor and headed towards the food and drink while the next group of dancers organized themselves on the dance floor. Tom and Laura knew better than to rush over to their friends, while Cam and
Arnold
strolled equally indifferently across to the nearest table.

“That was quite a dance, I fear I am glowing from it,”
Cam
said rather loudly. She stood with her back to Tom and Laura.

“But very enjoyable, I found,” Laura replied.
Cam
turned around at the sound of her voice.

“You were dancing with us just now?”
Cam
asked innocently.

“She certainly was,”
Arnold
cut in, “I never forget a pretty face.”

Cam gave
Arnold
a severe look.

“You must forgive my brother,
Arnold
. He rarely waits to be introduced when there is a beautiful woman present. My name is Camilla Smith, though everybody calls me
Cam
.”

“May I present Laura Young,” Tom responded smoothly. “My name is Tom Carter and we are currently the guests of Lord McBride.”

“Indeed you are, laddie,” Lord McBride said from behind him. “It is good to see you mingling with the other guests. I told you the dance would be well within your capabilities.”

“Only two of the girls involved are seeking medical attention,” Blane said dryly, appearing at his Laird’s side as if by magic. “I had not realized that Healers drummed up their own business.”

“Good evening, my lord,”
Arnold
interrupted hesitantly. “I joined your workforce today, bringing my two sisters and two young brothers with me.”

“
Arnold
is now the breadwinner of the family, our mother dying suddenly of a broken heart, less than a month ago,”
Cam
explained.

“I’m so sorry to hear that. What brought on her sad condition?” Lord McBride enquired solicitously.

“Father was killed while fighting for Her Majesty in the
Crimea
. Florence Nightingale herself nursed him, but to no avail,”
Cam
said. Laura blinked and Tom worked hard to suppress a laugh.
Cam
could never resist embellishing a story. “My brother Arnold had just completed his first class honors degree in engineering at
Cambridge
University
…”

Cam
did not finish her sentence as Tom dropped his tankard on hearing her spout such outrageous nonsense. The girls scattered as beer splashed everywhere.

“I’m so sorry, my hand is still trembling from the exertions of the dance,” Tom said hurriedly. He glared at
Cam
as he spoke.

“First class honors, you say?” Lord McBride said thoughtfully. “We have been looking for a man of your caliber. I’m surprised my staff did not bring your papers to my attention.”

“That is because we saw no such papers,” Blane said smoothly, “Which I must say I find very strange.”

“We were recruited by Angus McKinnon,”
Cam
said before the situation could get out of hand. “Your son said he was prone to forget to post them.”

“He never forgets to collect his wages on time,” Blane said dryly, “But he is remiss with his paperwork on occasion. Do forgive my overly suspicious nature.”

“Never mind all that,” Lord McBride said impatiently. “Arnold Smith you said your name was?”

Arnold
nodded.

“Report to my laboratory at nine o’clock sharp, tomorrow morning. Any of the staff in the castle will tell you how to find it. Gordon has been moaning at me to find a qualified assistant. I think you’ll do just fine.”

“Thank you, my lord,”
Arnold
said formally and bowed. He planned to say some choice words to
Cam
when he got the chance, but now was not the time.

Lord McBride nodded in return and strode away from them, with Blane following a short distance behind him.

“You said you had sisters and brothers with you?” Laura asked politely.

“My sister Daisy is off with Lord McBride’s son, Dougal, even as we speak,”
Cam
told them, “I am hoping they have not become smitten with each other.”