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‘Well, I’ Irene tried to think what to say next ‘I’
Vale held up a corock here is your subordinate’
‘Oh,’ Irene said
‘It was blatantly obvious,’ Vale went on ‘Your signals to him in the restaurant, your ability to handle yourself in coness to speak while you were unconscious – these all made it quite clear that you were in command of the enda, but I ask you – I appeal to you – to trust ruent I think we can help each other’
‘Then Kai’s told you’ Irene let the sentence trail off fully This wasn’t what she’d wanted The er to her However impressive his skills were, and while he fitted the character type of noblee well enough, there was still risk There was always a risk She was supposed to be manipulator, nother
‘He has told reement ‘He turned up in a cab on my doorstep with you unconscious in his arain’
Irene pushed straggling tendrils of hair back fron pain or confusion ‘I don’t think that we’re the only ones keeping secrets here, Mr Vale The attack on you last night was too deliberately tiuess on her part, but it hit a htly She looked up at him ‘I think there’s more to all this – the or – than just a siht, you referred to "thefts of occult , is it?’
Vale threw himself down into another armchair ‘You’re correct, Miss Winters Oh, sit down, sit down, Strongrock To be frank, I need people that I can trust The Fair Folk have contacts at every level of society My eneers in London, and though you have no apparent links to the Fae, you have nobody to vouch for you or speak in your favour I may have reasons to believe that you are reliable’ He frowned ‘No Leave that for the moment I will explain my part in this affair, and then perhaps you will explain yours’
Irene looked down at her hand She wished she could rip off the bandages and see just how bad it was – surely not a pere that ca to see how it ‘looked’ every etting better or worse And if it did get worse, if she’d daht of being crippledbut investigating would have broken the flow of Vale’s confidences, and she needed his infor up froes ‘Please, do go on’
Vale interlaced his fingers ‘When I introduced h, but it is not a title that I care to use often The dark associations of the city of Leeds and its Earls go back to King Edward’s reign in the fourteenth century I broke from my family under – under somewhat unpleasant conditions, and have no wish for further connection with them My father is dead, and I cannot be disinherited, but equally I have no interest in the family lands, properties and secrets’
‘Is that why you live in London?’ Kai asked Irene stole a glance at hi forith an expression of keen interest, but there were lines of clear disapproval in his face His mouth was pursed in as very nearly a censorious frown
Vale nodded ‘My fa me, nor I them They hope that I will not marry, and that the title will pass to o I received a letter from my – ’ he hesitated a moment – ‘my mother’ The words came with difficulty ‘She wished to advise me of a theft which had taken place, and to ask me, as detective if not as son’ He fell silent for a ers as if they were soate the matter for her’
‘And the subject of the theft?’ Irene enquired delicately
‘A book,’ Vale said ‘It was a family journal – that is, not a printed work, but a collection of handwritten notes and studies, herbal references and fairy tales’
‘Fairy tales,’ Kai said slowly
Vale nodded ‘You will see why I aued by Lord Wyndham’s murder and the disappearance of his book Taken in conjunction with certain other thefts which have taken place, it suggests a culmination of events None of the other thefts have involved ht beneath the Opera--’
‘What?’ Irene said, co paper yet,’ Vale said ‘The incident bears the hallmarks of secret society activity A number of cellars were collapsed, but the foundations seeed The police have not requested my assistance – ’ Irene could almost hear the unspoken yet – ‘so I can only make do with the public reports’
‘But what makes you think this is connected with the thefts?’ Kai asked