Rivals in the City (28 page)

Mary blinked back a tear. “Thank you, James. I will consider it … for the next ten minutes.”

James looked visibly surprised at this time constraint, but seemed not to trust his voice. He offered her his arm and they continued to walk, leaving the confines of Russell Square and pacing silently up Woburn Place. They looked precisely like what they were: a courting couple taking the air of a late morning. They also looked nothing like what they were: a pair of radicals, quietly at war with their society.

After several minutes, Mary stopped walking. She turned to face James, who looked at her with very real trepidation. “Well?”

“I ought to be asking you that question,” said James. His voice was husky.

“What’s in your pockets?”

He obediently performed a small inventory. “Handkerchief, penknife, pencil, billfold, two shillings and six, a penny stamp … and this.” He pulled from his breast pocket a thick sheet of paper covered with spidery handwriting. He showed it to her and Mary saw, with a pang, that his hands were trembling. “A marriage licence. I, er, got it this morning. Before coming to see you.”

“Wasn’t that a trifle presumptuous?”

He offered her a shadow of his usual arrogant grin. “Optimistic, I’ll grant you.” He presented it to her. “Well? Aren’t you going to tear it up?”

“Have you noticed where we are?”

James blinked and looked around him. They were standing at the foot of the steps to St Pancras Church. He smiled weakly. “Mary? Are you planning to torture me for much longer?”

She looped her arm through his once again, and lightly tugged him up the first step. “I suppose it depends upon one’s definition of ‘much longer’.”

He followed her warily. “And yours comprises…?”

She gave him her sweetest, sunniest smile. “How about the rest of our lives?”

OTHER MARY QUINN MYSTERIES

May 1858

A foul-smelling heat wave paralyzes London. Mary enters a rich merchant’s household to solve the mystery of his lost cargo ships. But as she soon learns, the house is full of deceptions, and people are not what they seem – including Mary herself.

The first book in this riveting Victorian detective quartet

July 1859

A bricklayer falls to his death from the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament – the most recent horror in a string of scandals that plagues the building site. With the British people eagerly watching the installation of Big Ben, Mary Quinn disguises herself as a twelve-year-old boy labourer to uncover the grim truth. Her fellow workers are suspicious. Mary’s secret past distracts her. And then James Easton returns…

The second book in this riveting Victorian detective quartet

February 1860

A series of petty thefts takes place at Buckingham Palace. Mary Quinn, disguised as a domestic servant to Queen Victoria, is on the case. At first it seems simple enough – until a friend of the Prince of Wales is murdered in scandalous circumstances. Meanwhile, James Easton’s engineering firm is repairing the sewers beneath the Palace and a mysterious tunnel is discovered. Mary’s struggles seem insurmountable and she risks losing everything in

the third book in this riveting Victorian detective quartet

Y. S. Lee
was born in Singapore, raised in Vancouver and Toronto, and lived for a spell in London. As Ying completed her PhD in Victorian literature and culture, she began to research a story about a women’s detective agency. The result was
A Spy in the House
, her debut novel. Mary Quinn’s adventures continue in
The Body at the Tower
and
The Traitor and the Tunnel
.
Rivals in the City
is the final book in the Mary Quinn quartet.

Ying now lives in Kingston, Ontario. She blogs weekly at
www.yslee.com
.

OTHER MARY QUINN NOVELS

A Spy in the House
The Body at the Tower
The Traitor and the Tunnel

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated, as they may result in injury.

First published in Great Britain 2014 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ

Text © 2014 by Y. S. Lee
Cover illustration © 2014 Walker Books
Image of figure © George Doyle/Stockbyte/Getty Images
Image of British Museum © Mary Evans/Interfoto

The right of Y. S. Lee to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988c

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4063-4721-0 (ePub)