Page 2 of Murder in Blackfriars

As though sensing my annoyance, Daniel looked over his shoulder and sent me a nod. I hoped it was a promise to tell me all when he could, though I might have to wait for some time before I had the explanation. I could only sigh and turn to packing up the plates from our luncheon.

James misinterpreted my agitation. “Dad will be all right,” he assured me. “Mr. Grimes always looks after him.”

I wasn’t worried about Daniel’s safety at the moment, but I nodded my thanks at James. “I know.”

“Mr. Grimes can join us in our walk home, if he likes,” Grace said. “I’m sure Aunt Joanna can give him some tea.”

“We can ask him,” I agreed.

I did not believe Mr. Grimes would take Joanna up on the hospitality, but I did not want to dash Grace’s hopes. Mr. Grimes lived somewhere in Southwark, in what lodgings I did not know, but he might be uncomfortable with an invitation into the Millburns’ home.

Grace and James helped me tidy up, the two young people stretching the blanket between them to fold it neatly.

Grace kept sending me glances, as though she wanted to speak but restrained herself. I would believe her worried about my reaction to Mr. Grimes’s sudden appearance, but she’d been doing such things all afternoon.

I’d have to wait to learn whatever worried her, as Daniel and Mr. Grimes had reversed their steps to start back up the hill. James closed the picnic basket, and Grace smoothed the blanket, all of us ready to make our way back to Cheapside.

“Whew, that’s a climb, ain’t it?” Mr. Grimes announced, out of breath. “But worth it to see the view.” He gazed out over the park and the metropolis in the near distance, enraptured.

I agreed that the contrast between the green field dotted with trees, the blue sky with only a few puffy clouds floating in it, and the roofs of the city beyond was lovely, but I noted it in distraction at the moment.

Daniel seemed to have aged since he’d walked away with Mr. Grimes only a few minutes ago. His face bore lines I had not seen before, his mouth set in grim hardness.

I could not ask him what was the matter in front of our collective children and Mr. Grimes, not to mention the other picnickers who still watched us curiously. I only nodded at Mr. Grimes’s observation and asked James if he’d be kind enough to tote the heavy basket for me.

We made our way toward the edge of the Heath, James and Mr. Grimes carrying the basket between them while Daniel took the blanket. Mr. Grimes chattered in his outgoing way, interested in Grace’s book learning and asking James about how he was expanding Daniel’s delivery business. He professed great interest in all of it, to the delight of James and Grace, who answered him readily.

Daniel remained uncharacteristically silent. He trudged along next to me, his gaze on the path ahead of him, the buoyant camaraderie of earlier this afternoon deserting him.

I sensed he’d not be happy with any inquiries I made in front of the others, so I said not a word. Something was very wrong, and though I burned to know what, I realized that prying wouldnot help. I tamped down my rampant curiosity by assuring myself he’d tell me when he could.

When we reached the road that led to Camden Town, Daniel halted and whistled for the nearest empty hansom. The driver sent him a look of irritation but turned his horse and clopped toward us.

“We’ll not all fit in that,” I pointed out.

“It will take you, Grace, and James to Cheapside,” Daniel said, the first words he’d spoken since we’d begun our descent from the Heath. “I have business to attend to.”

James regarded him in surprise. “What business, Dad? Do you need me?”

“I need you to see Mrs. Holloway and Grace home,” Daniel said firmly. “Make certain they reach it safely.”

James drew a breath to argue, but whatever he read in Daniel’s eyes made him close his mouth again.

The cab halted beside us, and James handed Grace in and tucked the basket and blanket under the seat. “Mrs. H.?” James held out his hand to me.

I did not want to climb into the hansom and leave Daniel to race off into whatever danger Mr. Grimes had brought to him. That there was danger I had no doubt.

“Please go home, Kat.” Daniel’s voice was tight, though I heard him attempt to soften his tone. “I will call on you later.”

He meant near the middle of the night, where I’d wait for him in the kitchen of the Mayfair home in which I was a cook. It was only four o’clock in the afternoon now, and midnight was a long way off.

I glanced at Mr. Grimes, who nodded encouragingly at me. My heart twinged with misgivings, but I let James help me into the cab.

Both Daniel and Mr. Grimes led hazardous lives, and I’dbeen caught more than once in the peril that surrounded them. Indeed, it was because of one of Daniel’s investigations earlier this year that Mr. Grimes had been obliged to rescue me.

This did not mean I was sanguine with running off home and leaving them to it.

I would have been more persistent in pursuing the matter if not for Grace. I would do anything to keep her from harm, and if that meant quashing my current impatience, so be it.