Read Online The Mystery Woman by Amanda Quick - Free Book Online

decided she would not speak, either. Two could play this game.
    Mrs. Rambley reappeared and made room for the coffeepot on the tray.
    “Thank you, Mrs. Rambley,” Joshua said.
    “You’re welcome, sir.” Mrs. Rambley reddened and looked expectantly at Beatrice.
    “That will be all, thank you,” Beatrice said.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    The housekeeper left. Joshua listened to her footsteps in the hall for a moment. Then he pushed himself to his feet and made his way across the room, cane thudding heavily on the carpet. He closed the door, came back to the chair and sat down again.
    Beatrice watched him, her wariness increasing by the second. It was obvious that he did not wish the housekeeper to overhear what he was about to say.
    She poured coffee into both cups and handed one cup and saucer to Joshua. When his fingers touched the china she got another whispery tingle of sensation. She released the saucer so quickly it was a miracle that the coffee did not spill. But Joshua seemed unaware of the near-disaster.
    “Who taught you how to use a stocking gun, Miss Lockwood?” he asked.
    “A former employer,” she said.
    “Would that former employer by any chance be the late Dr. Roland Fleming, proprietor of the Academy of the Occult?”
    For one frozen moment she could not breathe. It was as if the room had suddenly tilted, throwing her off-balance. Her own cup of coffee trembled in her hand. Her pulse beat frantically and she knew a panic unlike any she had experienced since the night she fled the scene of Fleming’s murder.
    She called on all of her acting skills to collect herself.
    “I have no idea what you are talking about, Mr. Gage.” She summoned up her stage smile. “Or should I address you as the Messenger?”
    “I see you talked to Mrs. Flint and Mrs. Marsh.”
    “I roused them from their beds early this morning. They were, I must say, quite shocked by the sight of that card you gave me. Evidently you and your own former employer, Mr. Smith, left a memorable impression on them.”
    “That was a long time ago.”
    “I believe it has only been a year since they last dealt with you.”
    “It has been a very long eleven months, two weeks and four days,” Joshua said.
    She glanced at his scarred face and then at the cane. “You sound like a prisoner who keeps track of time by marking off the days on the walls of his cell.”
    “That is not far from the truth.” Joshua drank some coffee.
    “Mrs. Flint and Mrs. Marsh assumed you were dead, but I suppose you are aware of that,” Beatrice said.
    “To tell you the truth, I had not considered the matter one way or another.”
    “Is Mr. Smith still alive, as well?” Beatrice asked.
    Joshua’s eyes went cold. “Our business together does not concern Mr. Smith.”
    “So he is still alive.”
    “Retired would be more accurate,” Joshua said.
    She glanced pointedly at his cane. “Can I assume that you, also, have been in retirement for the past year?”
    “Yes,” he said. He drank some more coffee.
    She heightened her senses and looked at his footprints again. The seething iridescence in the psychical residue told her that retirement had not been a pleasant experience for Joshua. Not surprisingly, given the nature of his injuries, there was physical pain. But there was evidence of another kind of anguish, as well, the kind that cast a shadow on the heart and the senses.
    “My employers informed me that you once investigated unusual cases that had a connection to the paranormal but that you, yourself, do not believe in the paranormal,” she ventured.
    “I have never made any secret of the fact that I consider so-called psychical practitioners to be frauds at worst or deluded at best.”
    He watched her, waiting for a response.
    She smiled and sipped some coffee.
    His eyes tightened at the corners. “Have I said something that amuses you, Miss Lockwood?”
    “Sorry.” She set her cup back down on the saucer. “I’m afraid that the notion of the