Horatio Lyle Read Free Page A

state like this?’
    Something of the Lyle family spirit flared up in Horatio. Though he prided himself on being able to deal in a rational manner with any crisis from chemical fires to electrical overloads, some things were beyond reasonable expectations, and he snapped. ‘This child damn well broke into my hou — ’
    ‘Language, Horatio!’
    ‘Please, miss, I never, I never, miss, I . . . ’
    ‘Horatio,’ snapped Miss Chaste, ‘I think you owe this young lady an apology.’
    Lyle realized the girl, between sobs, was slyly watching him through her fingers. She grinned slightly behind her hands. His scowl deepened. ‘Miss Chaste, I have reason to believe this young lady may be a thief.’
    ‘No, miss, t ’isn’t true, miss, I swear! T’isn’t true!’ And then, fulfilling a plan which had been brewing from the moment she ’d labelled Miss Chaste a busy-body, and better still, a rich busy-body of total gullibility, Teresa Hatch, pickpocket and burglar by trade and notorious up and down Shadwell, fainted.
     
    And in that part of the city where the fate of continents is decided over a glass of port and a game of bridge, in a room with a ceiling appreciable only by giraffes and a width that would certainly appeal to a small blue whale, if it ever had occasion to see it, a room hung with pictures of fine old men with large moustaches, a man sits at the end of a long, polished table topped with black leather, and says, ‘Well?’
    ‘We’ve just had confirmation of the break-in.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘And . . . we can’t say how it happened, sir.’
    Silence.
    ‘What do you wish done, sir?’
    ‘I wish to know where they have taken it, and what they are planning.’
    ‘Would Her Majesty approve, sir?’
    ‘Her Majesty,’ the man replies quietly, ‘need never know.’

CHAPTER 1
    Thief
    The sun rose on the city, and the city rose with the sun.
    And someone was shouting, ‘What do you mean , it wasn’t there?’
    ‘I mean the object was not in the vicinity.’
    ‘You have failed?’
    ‘We will find it. Investigations are already underway.’
    ‘Meanwhile, we’ll have lost precious time. They will be looking for it as well. By this time we could be in the streets, we could be drowning in the power and dragging this city out of the smoke and metal back into the clean, pure light rather than this black abyss . . . and you . . . ’
    ‘I appreciate that, my lady.’
    ‘See that you do, my lord.’
     
    And in the house of Lord and Lady Elwick, young Master Thomas woke in a large soft bed to the sound of heavy footsteps in the corridor outside. The door burst open and his governess rushed in and said from behind the bed curtains, before he’d even hauled himself up on his elbows, ‘Master says you’re to be downstairs immediately.’
    ‘What?’ he asked, swinging himself out of bed a little bit too fast for his groggy head. ‘Why does Father want me now?’
    ‘The whole house is mustering, Master Thomas. Everyone says it’s because of the bank. I’ve never seen the master so angry.’
    ‘The bank? Which bank?’
    ‘ The bank, Master Thomas! Your parents are going down there immediately to check the vault. You must be up quickly, they’ll want to say goodbye!’
    Thomas didn’t hesitate. No Elwick ever hesitated. He stood up and made for the giant mahogany wardrobe on the other side of his large room. ‘If they’re going,’ he said determinedly, ‘then I’m going too!’
    His governess rolled her eyes when he wasn’t looking, but didn’t ask what a fifteen-year-old boy thought he could do. He ’d just say what he always did. ‘If I don’t try, I’ll never know.’
    Which wasn’t an answer at all.
     
    The sunlight spread from east to west and crawled through high windows and low windows alike, trickled across floors and ceilings, and brushed the eyes of the sleeping.
    Tess Hatch woke, and was instantly alert. I know it’s early in the morning, and I’m pretty sure the house must be