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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

Both Matthew and Julian looked back to see the Owl being admitted through the gate, which swung shut behind him, and the freakish man in the white-hooded coat strode rapidly toward the front steps.

“Pull over just ahead, on the park side,” Julian instructed.

The driver did as he was told and reined Hermes to a stop.

Matthew saw that the Owl’s hackney remained in front of the gate. He watched the Owl use a knocker on the door to announce his presence, and within a few seconds it was opened by a man in a dark blue uniform of some kind, but definitely not a bearlike man with a flame-painted beard. The Owl entered the house and the door was closed.

“Let’s take a walk,” said Julian. “Driver, we’ll need you to stay here. An extra six shillings for you.” One of the guineas had been made into change at a coaching inn, which Matthew was sure would meet with Professor Fell’s approval since Julian was no longer throwing his money away.

Julian left his saddlebag and sword in the carriage, and he walked beside Matthew as they approached the man at the gate. The snow had abated though it was still blowing in flurries, but Matthew thought the temperature must be falling to bone-cracking lows. He figured the guard at the gate had been on duty for a while or was set to be there for a time, therefore the woolen mask to ward off the freeze. Julian reached out to rub his hand along the flank of the horse that had brought the Owl’s hackney here, and then he faced the guard and said, “Pardon me, sir. I fear we’re lost in all this weather. Whose house is this?”

The guard said nothing. The hard blue eyes in the mask’s holes stared impassively at his questioner.

“We’re to be guests at Lord Somerset’s. Isn’t this his house?”

Still the guard did not speak. But there was a response: a gloved hand moved a fold of his coat aside to show a holster and a pistol’s grip.

“Oh!” said Julian, feigning both surprise and offense. “Pardon me again, we must have the wrong address! Come along, Samuel.” He gave a tug at Matthew’s sleeve and started walking back toward the Hermes carriage further up the road. Before he followed, Matthew cast another look at the mansion and saw at its highest roof a large crescent-shaped attic window lit by a lamp. On the other side of the glass a ship’s spoked wheel stood on a pedestal presumably mounted to the floor.

The admiral’s house, he thought. Bravo, Julian!

Then he turned away, the back of his neck bristling with the stare that the armed guard aimed at him.

Ten

Ten

“Hold on a minute,” said Julian as they reached their hackney. “What have we here?”