Eight for Losing, One for Loving (Wicked Sons #9)

Chapter 2

Hamilton,

Congratulations, Lord, but we’re falling like flies. I’m happy for you and wish you and your bride good fortune – not that you need any more good fortune. Indeed, if you could send some of your golden touch my way, I’d appreciate it.

I would have loved to come to the back end of beyond to celebrate with you – truly I would – but I am on a quest, an honourable one, and doing my best to be a Sir Galahad, or Lancelot. Wait, no, he was the one who had an affair with the king’s wife, wasn’t he? Not him. Galahad then. Anyway, it’s not going terribly well. Pray for me.

―Excerpt of a letter from Mr Leo Hunt (son of Mr Nathanial and Mrs Alice Hunt) to The Hon’ble Hamilton Anderson (son of The right Hon’ble Gordon and Ruth Anderson, The Earl and Countess of Morven).

21 st June 1850, Piccadilly, London.

“Leo!”

Leo turned to see Ashton Anson waving at him and pulled the tilbury over to let the man jump in. Ash took a moment to negotiate a space with Mau and sat himself down.

“Well met, Ash. Lord, where did you get that dreadful waistcoat?” Leo asked, grimacing and tearing his gaze away from the appalling apparition while he manoeuvred himself back into the throng.

“My wife bought it for me,” Ash replied dryly.

Leo choked, not having expected that for Ash was famous for his extravagant waistcoats. “Ah,” he said remorsefully. “Beg pardon.”

“Stow it,” Ash said amiably. “Where’ve you been?”

“Taking Violetta out for a turn about Hyde Park,” Leo admitted, glancing at Ash to see the same pitying expression Mau had given him earlier.

“The eternal battle,” Ash replied with amusement. “How goes the war for Miss Spencer’s heart?”

“I’m not dead yet,” Leo said resolutely. “Only wounded.”

Ash chuckled and patted Leo’s shoulder. “Courage, my friend.”

Leo harrumphed and changed the subject, not wanting to speak of his woeful love life any longer. “Where’ve you been then, and where is the lovely Narcissa? I didn’t think you let her out of your sight.”

“I’ve been visiting Larkin, and that’s not somewhere I’d take my wife these days. One never knows what one will find.”

“Ah. Yes, I went last week and tripped over a naked girl. Modelling for a painting apparently, but all the same, not something one wishes to explain to one’s wife, I suppose.”

“Quite,” Ash said with a laugh, and then shook his head sadly. “Was he drunk?”

“Not drunk,” Leo allowed. “Hungover. In good spirits, though, I thought.”

“He’s burning the candle at both ends.”

Leo nodded. “Yes, but he’s not drinking like he was. I thought he was in real trouble for a while there, but it’s more a lot of partying than drinking alone, which was what really worried me.”

“True. But he’s working all hours and out with that artistic set he hangs about with the rest. I don’t think he sleeps. At all,” Ash replied, shaking his head.

“Well, at least a lot of artists and poets are not likely to murder him. Some of the dodgy types he was hanging about with before made me fear he’d end up in the river with his throat cut. Still, whatever he’s up to now, it all might be about to change,” Leo said, falling silent as he negotiated a tight turn.

Ash waited until they were back on the straight and turned to Leo enquiringly.

“His father is coming and intends to shake him up.”

Ash winced, and Leo nodded. They both had a healthy respect for Larkin’s father: a war hero and a man not to be trifled with.

“Your mama told you, I suppose?”

“She did,” Leo agreed. “Lady Rothborn is one of her intimates, but I was sworn to secrecy, so for God’s sake, don’t warn him or I shall be in the basket.”

“He needs a shake. A bloody good one,” Ash said, frowning. “I only hope it does some good.”

“Can’t hurt, at least,” Leo said as Ash gestured for him to stop.

“Drop me here, there’s a good fellow. Are you going to the Marchams’ ball tonight?”

“I don’t know. I suppose so,” Leo said, not much caring for the idea. Vi wasn’t going because Kitty was giving a dinner party.

“Well, if you go, I’ll see you there,” Ash replied, jumping down and disappearing into the crowd.

Leo drew his team back into the traffic, not feeling the slightest interest in the ball that evening, and far more concerned with his strategy for winning Vi over. He turned to Mau, who was sitting up now, watching the passing scenery with the dismissive eye of a creature who’d seen it all before.

“What should I do, Mau?” he asked the great cat, as he often did. Large yellow eyes turned in his direction and stared placidly back at him. “Don’t give up? Yes, that’s what I thought. If at first you don’t succeed, eh? Good advice, old man,” Leo replied, stroking the cat’s silken head.

Mau closed his eyes and purred and the two went home in perfect accord.

24 th June 1850, Piccadilly, London.

It was with a sense of déjà vu that Vi saw the tilbury coming down the street towards her home the following Monday. Having decided on another tactic, Vi strode out of the parlour to the front door. Pembury handed her gloves to her, standing as stiff as a ramrod. He was extremely tall, and she had to look up a good way to nod her thanks. His expression was one even the queen’s butler would find impressive. She must tell Mama to get the poor fellow to relax, for he looked like he’d swallowed a wasp. Button opened the door for her and Vi strode out, surprised when Pembury followed her. She walked down the front steps and stood on the pavement waiting as Leo brought the tilbury to a halt in front of her.

For a moment, he stood staring at her in bemusement.

“You’re keen,” he observed, his lips twitching.

“The sooner we go, the sooner it will be over,” she told him candidly. “Are you just going to sit there, or are you thinking of helping me up?”

“Of course, love,” he said, grinning at her as he leapt down and offered her his hand. He glanced at Pembury and waved the fellow away. “I can look after the lady.”

Pembury cast Leo a dark look and glared at Mau but stayed where he was. Leo shook his head and turned back to her. “I say, I like that rig, Vi.”

Vi gently pushed Mau to one side as the cat sighed and rearranged himself, and then sat down, smoothing out the lovely shot silk of her gown

“Shove up, Mau,” Leo said, giving the cat a little push.

Mau protested, miaowing volubly, and Vi stifled a laugh as Pembury stared at Leo and the cat with an expression that might have been horror.

Leo touched the ribbon of her bonnet, giving it a little tweak. “Fabulous colour.”

The ribbons matched the rest of her ensemble. It was a pretty outfit, and she was secretly delighted by it. A soft dusty pink shot silk, it had a green aspect when the light hit it, and the flounces on her skirts fluttered and ruffled in the light summer breeze. Her high brim bonnet was lined with the same fabric with little clusters of silk roses that framed her face. The effect was charming, though Vi had worried that perhaps it was too young and frivolous an outfit for a woman on the shady side of thirty years. The trouble was she had fallen in love with both the design and the fabric and Kitty had persuaded her to buy it.

Vi glanced at Leo as he climbed in, for she had to admit his taste was exceptionally good and, whilst she would have bitten off her tongue rather than admit it, his approval mattered.

“You like it?”

“I do,” he said, waiting for Mau to settle himself down again before turning in his seat to give her a critical once over.

Vi blushed under his scrutiny, wondering if the tiny lines she feared she had detected around her eyes that morning were very noticeable in the bright sunshine.

“Dashing,” he pronounced after a long moment. “But with elegance enough to carry it off.”

“Yes!” Vi exclaimed, before she remembered she was not supposed to encourage him. “That’s just what I thought. I fretted it was too young a style, but I think the dusty pink elevates it. If it had been a rose pink, it would not have been at all the thing.”

Leo rolled his eyes at her. “Yes, you’d have looked a shocking sight, and everyone would have stared,” he said, deadpan.

Vi ignored the sarcasm. “I don’t think everyone would have stared, but I do believe many would have thought me foolish for trying to pretend I am still a girl.”

“Lord, Vi, I swore I would not vex you today, but you try my patience when you spout such blasted nonsense,” he said. “In the first place, I’m not interested in silly young girls who do not have a thought in their heads worth listening to. In the second, you talk as though you are in your dotage, when every fellow with eyes turns to stare at you wherever you go.”

“Indeed, they do not!” Vi exclaimed, not about to accept this piece of flummery, for it was pure fantasy.

“They do,” Leo insisted, his expression somewhat mulish. “You just don’t notice them, drat you.”

“Fiddlesticks,” she retorted. “Now for heaven’s sake, drive on. Or do you wish to sit and quarrel on the doorstep all afternoon? I believe we have given our new footman enough of a show,” she added in an undertone, aware that Pembury was watching them. No, not them – Leo. She frowned but Leo’s voice caught her attention.

“No, I want to go on a romantic drive with a beautiful woman who is doing her best to send me to Bedlam,” he replied, before giving his tiger the instruction to let the horse go.

Vi sighed, wishing such words didn’t have the effect of making her feel happy and tearful at the same time. Turning her head resolutely away from Leo, she watched the world around her as he took them through the busy street. It was impossible to ignore him, though, and she felt herself drawn back into the aura that surrounded him. Being close to Leo was like being bathed in sunshine. Whilst his attention was upon you, it was as if you were the best and most special person in the world and, when it was gone, you were left feeling chilled and alone. As a girl, she had adored him, and drank in every scrap of attention he would give her, but she had become used to the fact she could not hold it for long. There was always a boxing match, a race, a party or some event that would see him careering away from her at breakneck speed to whatever bit of fun was on offer that day. He was an energetic man, one who loved to ride and drive, and he found it hard to sit still. People gravitated towards him because of the energy and enthusiasm that radiated from him. It was magnetic and irresistible, but it was also fleeting, for his attention waned rapidly and then he would look for the next source of interest, the next bit of fun. Dangerous fun, usually.

Perhaps if the things that took him away had not been so reckless she could have been braver, could have taken that chance on him, but there had been too many times when she had feared he would wind up dead in a ditch, thrown from a horse or carriage, or beaten to a pulp by some adversary he had underestimated. She only knew a small fraction about his hare-brained adventures, but there had been enough to give her sleepless nights. How would that feel if he was no longer just a childhood friend, she was far too fond of for her own peace of mind, but her husband, father to her children?

Vi could not live that life with him. She liked peace and quiet. A morning sitting in the sunshine with her embroidery was one of her favourite things. She loved the serenity it gave her and the time to just be, without having to think or to please anyone but herself. There was no chance of her life being turned upside down by grief if she sat still and concentrated on her beautiful designs. She knew what it was to lose everything, for the people she loved to be torn from her and leave her all alone. Losing her parents had felt like the end of her world, and even Kitty and Luke’s generosity and boundless love had struggled to mend the damage. She feared losing Leo might actually destroy her if she allowed herself to love him. But even if he did not kill himself doing something reckless, life with Leo would be a series of arguments punctuated by goodbyes as she waved him off to one event after another, leaving her to worry over him and to wonder what he was up to and whom with. Leo was a beautiful man, and women wanted him, women far prettier and younger and more exciting than Vi. She’d seen one of his mistresses once and marvelled at her extravagant beauty. She had quite cast Vi in the shade… and there would always be women like that wanting his attention. No matter his intentions, temptation would beckon on all sides, and Vi did not rate her own assets highly enough to believe she could hold him.

“Penny for them?” Leo asked, his voice soft.

Vi blushed as she realised he was watching her and shook her head. “They’re not worth that much, I assure you.”

“I’d give a king’s ransom to know what they were all the same,” he told her. “Perhaps then I could understand you better.”

“You understand me well enough,” she replied, darting him a swift smile. “I’m an argumentative, contrary creature who would say black was white just to vex you.”

He laughed at that, and her stupid heart leapt at the sound. “At least you admit it, you dreadful girl.”

To Violetta’s surprise, Leo stopped the tilbury once they were alongside the Serpentine and the tiger came around to take hold of the horse.

“Find some shade, Norton. Miss Spencer and I are going to take a little stroll. If that’s all right, Vi?”

“Certainly,” she replied, accepting his hand and climbing down from the carriage.

“Come along, Mau, you too. You’re getting fat,” Leo told the cat, who stood and stretched languidly before leaping to the ground. He wound himself back and forth around Leo’s shiny boots, purring.

“Don’t you ever worry he’ll run away?” Vi asked, as Leo offered her his arm and they walked along the lakeside. Mau trotted beside them, occasionally running off to investigate something scurrying in the undergrowth.

“No,” Leo said, shaking his head. “He’s had plenty of opportunity to do so. I think he was a dog in a previous existence. Either that or a king.”

Vi laughed. “There’s a rather large discrepancy between the two states.”

Leo shrugged. “All the same.” He looked around at Mau, who had stopped to take a drink. When he was done, Leo whistled and Mau bounded after them and then stalked on ahead, tail aloft. “He’s the most marvellous companion. I adore the great brute.”

“I know you do,” Vi said, glancing up at him and feeling the usual stab of melancholy as she looked at the handsome face she knew and loved so well. The affection he held for Mau, and for all animals, was one of the most endearing things about Leo. She knew he thought nothing of staying up all night and sleeping in the stables if one of his horses was hurt or unwell. He’d had dogs as a boy and had always taken them everywhere, and even when they were old, he’d carried them in and out of rooms and carriages if he thought they needed the help. She’d seen his devastation when each of them finally went to sleep for the last time, and knew he was capable of great compassion and kindness. A wife, however, was a different kettle of fish, and she did not trust him quite far enough to give him her heart entirely. He had too much of it already, more than was comfortable. She’d be a fool to hand him the rest.

As they walked, people stopped and exclaimed at the sight of Leo and Vi and the large black and brown cat trotting beside them. People they knew greeted them, and Mau too, as they meandered along the paths.

“Mau!”

Vi turned to look and saw a girl running towards Mau, skirts and plaits flying as she flew towards him. For a moment Mau froze, bristling all over like a bottle brush, but then the girl drew closer, and he trotted happily to meet her.

“Good afternoon, Miss Tilly,” Leo said, grinning at the child as she tried and failed to hoist Mau into her arms. The poor cat sent Leo a plaintive look but endured patiently. “He’s too heavy for that, I’m afraid.”

“Good afternoon, Cousin Leo,” Tilly said, giving up on picking the cat up and falling to her knees on the dusty path to hug him instead.

“Tilly, don’t sit in the dirt!” remonstrated a female voice.

Vi looked around to see her governess, Mrs Harris, hurrying after her charge. Behind her strolled the Marquess and Marchioness of Montagu.

“Afternoon, Auntie,” Leo said, raising his hat to Lady Montagu. “My lord,” he added deferentially to Montagu.

“Leo, Violetta, how lovely to see you both. I see you are enjoying the lovely sunshine as we are,” his Aunt Matilda said, smiling at them.

“We could be enjoying it even better at Dern,” Montagu murmured dryly, earning himself a look from his wife.

“We will return once the season is over. Isn’t that right, Tilly?” Lady Montagu said to her granddaughter.

“I’d rather go now,” the child said gloomily. “But I’m not leaving Papa with all these marriage-minded ninnies chasing him about.”

“Tilly!” Mrs Harris said in exasperation. “Good heavens, child, are you trying to put me to the blush?”

“Don’t fret, Mrs Harris,” Leo said with a grin. “We all know Tilly is a dreadful girl.”

Tilly shot him a grin and got to her feet, unsuccessfully brushing dust from her skirts as Mau had got bored and strolled off. “Dreadful girls are the best sort, aren’t they, Pops?”

Lord Montagu looked from his wife to Mrs Harris and back to Tilly. “Not content with embarrassing Mrs Harris, now you wish to get me a scolding, I see,” he said reproachfully, making Vi choke with laughter.

“But you did say so, Pops!” Tilly insisted.

“Quite dreadful,” Vi murmured with a chuckle, so only Leo could hear.

“Yes, but it was not supposed to be repeated in company, you wicked child,” he said with a sigh. “And they are only the best sort if they know how to behave when they must,” he added firmly.

Tilly pouted at this but went and took her grandfather’s hand and tried her best to look the picture of innocence.

“Tilly Barrington, you are just like your Auntie Cat, and I thought no one could ever be worse than that,” Leo said, laughing, a comment which appeared to make Tilly very happy indeed.

Bidding the Montagus and Mrs Harris a pleasant afternoon, Vi and Leo strolled on for a while longer before turning and retracing their steps, heading back to the carriage.

“If you had the choice, would you like to return to town for the season each year, or would you prefer to stay in the country?” Leo asked.

Vi shrugged. “I have no great liking for too much society, but I should miss visiting friends now and then, and the theatre and concerts, and I enjoy a bit of shopping. But the season is tedious if one must stay for the whole.”

“Quite so,” Leo agreed easily. “Just what I was thinking. We’ll live mostly in the countryside but come to town now and again for a bit of culture and shopping.”

Vi shot a glance at him. “Don’t do that,” she said crossly.

“Do what?” he regarded her with wide celestial blue eyes, the exact colour of the sky above them.

“Make believe that I will change my mind if you just keep nagging me.”

“I have to believe that, or I shall be sunk into gloom,” he replied, looking away from her and watching Mau as he stalked a sparrow.

“For a day or two until something new catches your attention,” Vi remarked. Rather to her surprise, she felt him stiffen and realised the remark had been too harsh. She forgot sometimes that she could hurt Leo’s feelings, for he hurt her so every day without even realising it. “I beg your pardon. Please forget I said that,” she told him contritely.

They walked on in silence for a while until he spoke again. “Do you really think me so shallow, love?”

Vi sighed, shaking her head. “Not shallow, no. Just… Just full of energy and easily distracted, eager for the next interesting thing to divert you.”

He frowned, considering this. “I like the unexpected,” he admitted. “There’s nothing better to me than going out intending to do one thing and finding two or three other things along the way. I like discovering new places, new people, new experiences. Is that wrong?”

“Not in the least, but I like sitting quietly with my embroidery and enjoying the birds singing in the garden.”

“I could like that too. Well, not the embroidery. But I could enjoy being quiet with you.”

Vi shot him a sceptical glance. “You would last precisely five minutes.”

Leo shook his head. “You’re wrong. If we had our own home, if I could wake each morning and know I had that, that bit of peace to begin the day with. I think I should like that.”

Vi blushed at the idea of them waking each morning together, never having heard him say such a thing before. She stared at him in shock, hearing the sincerity in his voice. Don’t believe it, don’t believe him, that way leads to heartbreak , said a panicky voice in her head. Her heart was beating too hard, too fast.

“I wouldn’t say such things if—” he began, and then his head whipped around as a feline shriek of indignity reached his ears. “Mau?”

Vi looked around them, realising she couldn’t see the big cat who rarely strayed far from them. “Mau?” she called.

A muttered oath and more howling, yowling, and furious noises came from the small thicket of trees beside them.

“Mau!” Leo called, hurrying into the undergrowth as Vi followed, heedless of her skirts catching on brambles or branches, or the impropriety of dashing headlong into a secluded woodland with Leo Hunt.

Leo crashed through the assorted bracken and bushes in the direction the noises had come from, with Vi hurrying to catch him up. He stopped as he exited the small copse, so suddenly that Vi ploughed into the back of him.

“Where is he?” she demanded, rubbing her nose and readjusting her bonnet.

“I don’t know,” Leo said, and she could hear the worry in his voice. “I can’t see—”

“There!” Vi cried, suddenly spotting a stocky fellow in an ill-fitting suit carrying a heavy sack. He was holding it at arm’s length and the sack was writhing and occasionally emitting hissing noises. “Oh, Leo, look there, that man—”

But Leo was already moving, running flat out. The man must have heard the heavy footfalls and turned, the colour draining from his face as he saw Leo thundering towards him.

“Edgar! Edgar!” he shouted, as a hackney carriage pulled up beside him. With surprising speed for such a stocky fellow, he threw the sack inside and leapt in after it, slamming the door closed as it careered away, back through the park.

Leo was a second too late, his hand pounding on the side of the carriage as it took off. He reached out, trying to grab hold of something, but clutched only air.

“Oh, Leo! They’ve got Mau!” Vi cried, so appalled her voice trembled.

“Not for long,” Leo said savagely.

He turned, stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a shrill whistle, gesturing madly at the stand of trees beside the Serpentine, some yards away where the tilbury and tiger were waiting for them. Norton leapt into the driver's seat and got the horses moving, cantering them over to where Leo was waiting.

“Some bastard took Mau,” he told his tiger.

Norton’s face contorted. “No, sir! Oh, surely not?”

“No mistake,” Leo said grimly. “Get down and see Miss Spencer safely home, would you?”

“Certainly,” Norton said at once, but Vi was already climbing up beside Leo.

“Don’t be ridiculous and don’t argue. Get after them, Leo, before you lose them.”

“Vi, I don’t know where this is going to lead or—”

Vi gave him an aggravated shove, bouncing on the seat with impatience. “Go! Go! Go!” she shouted.

Leo muttered an oath as Norton hurried to the back. He took up the reins, and the horses leapt forward at his command, so fast they might have been fired from a pistol. Vi swallowed a shriek of alarm, clutching at the tilbury with one hand and her bonnet with the other. People stopped and stared, some shouting in annoyance at their breakneck speed as they galloped in pursuit of the villains.

“Why would anyone take Mau?” Vi cried over the din as they flew through the park.

“Ransom,” Leo said. His face was expressionless, but she could well imagine his feelings. “It’s not the first time,” he added grimly.

“It’s not?” Vi asked in shock.

Leo shook his head. “I’ve stopped putting a collar on him. The first time, someone just took the collar because it had a gold tag with his name on, but left Mau.”

“I remember that. It was reported in the scandal sheets,” Vi said, clutching again at the carriage as they hit a pothole.

“Unfortunately, yes, which gave other people ideas, I think. I’ve stopped taking him into the city with me, but I never imagined the park in broad daylight would be a problem, damn me for a fool.”

He fell silent, his face impassive as he concentrated on keeping the hackney in view.

“Well, he’ll be well cared for, then, if they mean to extort money from you,” Vi said, hoping to calm him, for the unreadable look on his face frightened her more than any show of anger and told her he was beyond being reasonable.

“I’ll murder them with my bare hands before they get the chance,” he growled.

“I’ll help you,” Vi offered, earning herself a brief, if grateful, smile before he fell silent again. They reached the exit to the path and stared up and down the highway.

“Where are they?” Vi cried, terrified they had lost the villains already.

“There, sir, towards Marble Arch,” Norton shouted, hanging around the side of the tilbury.

“Hold on, Norton,” Leo said, which turned out to be good advice.

Vi had always considered herself an excellent passenger. Being a reasonable whipster herself, she knew when she was in the hands of someone with skill and never so much as twitched when Leo was driving. Today, it was all she could do to keep a still tongue in her head as he weaved in and out of traffic and took corners with such speed, she could only close her eyes and pray. From Marble Arch they flew down Tottenham Court Road, and she did not know whether to thank God or curse for the fact the traffic was lighter than usual. For as much as it helped them to follow, it left the path clear for the villains to make their escape.

“All right, Vi?” Leo asked her in concern, noticing her white knuckle hold on the side of the tilbury.

“Quite all right,” Vi replied firmly, determined not to halt his pursuit. Nothing was going to happen. Leo was an excellent driver she told herself over and over. They would not crash. Her stomach churned all the same.

“They’re heading for the Great North Road,” Leo said furiously. “Damn them, where are they taking him?”

“I think perhaps their plans have changed as they’re being pursued. They probably expected to deliver a ransom note to you this evening,” she said, closing her eyes as he passed a heavily loaded cart with barely the width of her finger between them.

“They’re not getting away from me,” Leo said, in a tone that left Vi in no doubt that he would follow them to John o’Groats and back if he had to. “But Vi, love, I’m going to have to drop you off. I can’t be haring all over the countryside with you in tow. I know you’re scared to death, too.”

“No.”

In some dim part of her mind, Vi knew that her choice was one that would change things, change her life, perhaps even herself, forever. The voice of reason shrieked at her, telling her Leo was quite right and the sensible thing to do was to get down and leave him to his pursuit. She was scared, terrified in fact, but Leo would get Mau back without her. She did not doubt that, not for a moment. He would go off on his adventure and tell her all about it when he got back.

She didn’t want that, she realised. Much as she loved her peaceful life and felt sure she did not wish to live at the frantic pace Leo set, she was tired of hearing of his adventures, second, third or even fourth hand. She had read about them in the papers, seen print shop caricatures, and overheard people gossiping. Never had she been a part of them. Now, unexpectedly, was her chance. If she wanted to take it. If she were brave enough, just this once [A1] .

He turned to stare at her. “Vi, I might be in Brighton, or halfway across the country in a few hours. Then you’ll be in the basket.”

“I’ll get a train back. One advantage of being an old maid is that my reputation isn’t quite so easily ruined. I’m sure no one will notice,” she said, waving this away.

“Not notice!” Leo said in astonishment. “Vi, love—”

“Oh, do stop Vi-loving me,” she said impatiently. “Oh, Leo, Leo, look out!”

Leo cursed as he saw the drunkard weaving from the pavement and into the traffic and his attention was entirely focused for the next few moments as he negotiated the near disaster. By the time the crisis had passed, the hackney had made the turn.

“Hurry, Leo, hurry, you’ll lose them,” Vi urged.

“Vi, for the love of—”

“Don’t you dare think of putting me down,” she shouted at him. “Oh, heavens, Leo, look!”

Leo did as she told him, momentarily diverted as he saw what she did, hackney carriages as far as the eye could see.

“Curse it,” he muttered.

Vi grabbed his arm. “Which one? Which one is it?”

Leo shook his head. “It had faded red paint on the doors. It might have said Reed, or Reeves, something of the kind.”

“We’ll find it,” Vi said resolutely. “Hurry now.”

Leo gave her a long, searching look, and made the turn onto the Great North Road.