Back The Bachelor and the Bride
Chapters (48)
  1. Chapter 1
  2. The Bachelor and the Bride
  3. Chapter 2
  4. Chapter 3
  5. Bodies of Light
  6. Chapter 4
  7. Chapter 5
  8. Chapter 6
  9. The Bachelor and the Bride
  10. Chapter 7
  11. Chapter 8
  12. Bodies of Light
  13. Chapter 9
  14. Chapter 10
  15. Chapter 11
  16. The Bachelor and the Bride
  17. Chapter 12
  18. Chapter 13
  19. Chapter 14
  20. The Bachelor and the Bride
  21. Chapter 15
  22. Chapter 16
  23. Bodies of Light
  24. Chapter 17
  25. Chapter 18
  26. Chapter 19
  27. The Bachelor and the Bride
  28. Chapter 20
  29. Chapter 21
  30. Bodies of Light
  31. Chapter 22
  32. Chapter 23
  33. The Bachelor and the Bride
  34. Chapter 24
  35. Chapter 25
  36. The Bachelor and the Bride
  37. Chapter 26
  38. Chapter 27
  39. Chapter 28
  40. Chapter 29
  41. Bodies of Light
  42. Chapter 30
  43. Chapter 31
  44. Chapter 32
  45. Chapter 33
  46. Acknowledgments
  47. Discussion Questions
  48. About the Author

The table in the kitchen was packed as tight as Newgate Street during a hanging, but this gathering weren’t gruesome or solemn. Móirín was lighthearted, gabbing with her brother and sister-in-law. Vera lit up as well. She was happy, and Gemma was happy for her.

“I’ve been tossing the puzzle of that ash marking about in m’head all day,” Móirín said between bites of stew, her gaze on Gemma. “I’ve not made heads nor tails of it.”

“What mark?” Baz asked.

Everyone in the room knew Gemma’s past; she’d explained to them the night before, so there was little point hemming over it. “We found one of my family’s calling cards on the side of a building between here and Marylebone.”

“They’ve calling cards?” Brogan blinked a few times.

“They leave marks,” Gemma explained. “Telling others they’ve been there and which of them did the deed, whatever it were that time.”

“Someone in your family was that far from Southwark?” Baz sounded as displeased with that as she was.

“Oi.”

“Could be an old mark,” Brogan said.

She shook her head. “Ash markings don’t last long.”

Brogan and Baz exchanged a glance, one that weren’t anything like relief.

“What I can’t sort,” Móirín said, “is why they’d mark that building. There’s no graveyard nearby. And, though ’tis a more well-to-do spot, nothing about it looked like a treasure trove.”

“The Kincaids don’t do nothing without reason,” Gemma said. “And they don’t lay crow about failures.” If Uncle Silas marked that building, he was bragging, shouting to the London underworld that he’d accomplished something.

“What building was the mark on?” Brogan asked.

“Number 32 Welbeck Street.” Móirín had apparently not only taken note of the address but committed it to memory.

The men both looked at Gemma. She shrugged; she hadn’t the first idea what that building held. “Looked like a house to me.”

“It is,” Vera said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Father Popoff lives there. He’s the priest attached to the Russian Embassy in London. The Russian Embassy chapel is at the back of that house.”

“Is there a churchyard attached to this chapel?” Gemma asked.

“No.”

“It weren’t a resurrection, then.” Gemma leaned back in her chair, mind spinning with questions.

“Maybe they was following a funeral from that chapel to a graveyard?” Vera suggested.

“They’d’ve marked the graveyard, not the chapel.” She pushed out a breath. “They do more than resurrections, though. It could be they fenced something or gave someone a good ragging.”

“Do they consider burglaries and beatings significant enough to leave their calling card?” Baz asked.

“Not usually. It’d need to be part of something bigger or aimed at someone important.”