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Back Cardinal Black Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Title Page
  2. One: Into the Storm
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Two: London Calling
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Three: The Malignant Seven
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Four: Squirrels and Cats
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Five: Revelation
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. About the Author

During the course of the night Matthew understood the wisdom of the dress rehearsal. They had to become accustomed to these costumes and wear them as if they were born to the breed. Matthew also had to get used to wearing the gloves at all times, and even though they were relatively skin tight they still presented a challenge to handling small objects without fumbling, as he did with the knife and fork at their restaurant of choice. If Cardinal Black was present at the house and saw the Black-Eyed Broodies tattoo, it was the end of the masquerade and likely their lives.

Both Matthew and Julian took the opportunity to dine well on the Prussians’ money, with a platter of beef ribs, bone marrow, corncakes and a selection of various stewed vegetables accompanied by the best two bottles of ale in the house. Neither man spoke about the forthcoming night, and toward the end of the dining experience Matthew was thinking that if this was a last meal it was a good one. But he shook that thought off so it wouldn’t hobble him; he had to keep his focus on finding that book and somehow getting it out of the house—if indeed it was there—and anything else in his brain was mental debris.

Promptly at ten o’clock a servant brought the hot water to the Grand Suite, where Matthew and Julian were still in costume for his arrival but had removed their coats and tricorns. Matthew saw the young man cast a look of horror at the wreckage of the front room on his way to the washstand, and indeed he seemed to trip over his own feet when he spied the remains of the harpsichord. After the hot water was poured the servant offered to deposit their coats in the closet, to which Julian responded with a calm negative and Matthew breathed a sigh of relief that a third body was not going to be chucked atop the first two. Matthew thought the Mayfair Arms wasn’t hurting for funds to buy a new harpsichord, they would hopefully be out of here before the corpses were discovered or began to be odious, so there was no need for any further concern regarding the state of the suite.

When the servant left, Matthew immediately threw off the hideous wig and got out of the elephant-skin boots and the shiny mud-hued jacket. He set about scrubbing Baron Brux’s face from his own with the dreadful knowledge that the dress rehearsal was ended. Tomorrow night he was one of the principal actors in a deadly play, and he sent up a small prayer to God and a secret wish to Fate that they would both survive to the final curtain.

Fourteen

Fourteen

“No!”