The Mysterious Lady Law Read Online Free PDF Page B

church.”
    “Wonderful. I have transportation waiting outside. My driver will take us. And Mr. Grant, I will make sure Miss Bairstow arrives at the Pegasus platform in plenty of time.” With a quick, devilish wink, she added, “It will also give you the opportunity to change out of your uniform, sir.”
    Grant mumbled something and then let go of Julia’s arm at the reception desk. “Lady Law, good day. Julia, I will see you shortly.”
    She loved that he had called her Julia in public.
    “Promise I won’t be late.” She grinned and offered him her hand, which he kissed like a gentleman.
    Lady Law left him with another incomplete nod.
    Outside, a bizarre, two-wheeled brass vehicle waited by the kerb. It appeared to be a kind of steam-powered penny-farthing bicycle with a scaled-down front wheel. Its rear half incorporated a compact steam engine with twin cylinders over the smaller wheel. Instead of pedals, pistons powered the front wheel via two outward-pointing, v-shaped cylinders and two smaller crank wheels on a long axle. Julia had never seen anything so…clumsy-looking.
    “A new toy?” she asked.
    “A prototype, yes.” Lady Law handed her a pair of goggles and ushered her around the far side, to a two-seated sidecar. This ran on three wheels and was attached to the penny-farthing’s frame by two long brass pipes. Julia frowned. The contraption didn’t look safe at all.
    “I find it best to set trends, not follow them,” Lady Law added.
    The driver, a gaunt man with the face of a starved ox, wore a canvas trench coat and a leather cap. He motioned to help Lady Law into the sidecar, but she waved him away like he was a pesky Portobello bum. Julia was all too glad to be given the VIP treatment, however, and grinned to herself as she climbed into the rear compartment, delighting in the knowledge that, for all Lady Law’s fame and fortune, when it came to dealing with ordinary folk she hadn’t the manners of a cancan dancer
     
    Genuflecting on a weekday in an almost empty church put Julia in a strange, melancholy mood. Without Georgy at her side she didn’t feel like praying, and who could she whisper the day’s gossip to? The loneliness seeped through her. Then she thought of Aloysius Grant and his invitation to the Dover flyover—a marvellous first date, even though it wasn’t really a date. He’d improvised it on the lam. Or had he? He’d seen to her every want over the past few days, often personally. A senior constable had the power to delegate, but Grant had, it seemed to Julia, used every excuse to spend time with her. He’d telephoned her employers to ensure she would still have both jobs after her week off, helped her put together a shopping list and checked up on her three times a day despite having two constables watching the hotel day and night. Grant had become her guardian angel in blue.
    “Lovely choir, are they not?” Lady Law whispered. Her reverent gaze toward the balcony over the altar lasted a good half minute, after which she led Julia to the middle of a pew near the rear of the church. St. Bartholomew’s was a tall, cavernous building, one of the oldest in London. A stupendous brass pipe organ behind the altar dominated the front of the church. The choir’s beautiful rendition of “Bring Flowers of the Rarest” soared among tight-ribbed rafters and ancient stone alcoves, the faint echoes of chords dovetailing high above.
    Lady Law sat on the wooden seat then leant forward, shifted a tatty leather hymn book to one side. “Is it not the most calming sensation? That meeting of mind and moment. The whisper in an empty church. An unsurpassed solace, surely.
    “What was the last thing you and your sister talked about?” Lady Law kept her gaze on the empty pew in front of her.
    “I beg your pardon, but what does that have to do with—”
    “Perhaps nothing. But it is usually a good way to set the client at ease when thinking of a loved one. Remembering them in an everyday