Free Queen of Hearts (Royal Spyness Mysteries) by Rhys Bowen Page B

think we all knew it was pretty hopeless. How would you ever find someone again in the vastness of this ocean, when we had been traveling away from them at a mile every couple of minutes? I felt sick and found that I was shivering. One of the men noticed this.
    “You’re cold, young lady. Let’s get you inside. There’s nothing more we can do up here. We leave it to the ship’s crew now. Come along. We’ll get a brandy.”
    The costume ball had ended and the ballroom was deserted. No sign of my mother and her party. The men escorted me through the ballroom to the Palm Court, sat me down and put a snifter of brandy in front of me. “Drink that up. You’ll feel better,” one of them said. Actually all I wanted was to go to bed and curl up in a little ball, but I suspected that someone would want to ask me questions at some point, and sure enough before I could finish my brandy a ship’s officer came up to us and said that the captain would like to speak to me. I followed the officer down long passageways, until he tapped on a door at the end of the hall, then ushered me through and I saw that I was on the bridge.
    “The young lady, sir,” he said.
    The captain had been standing at the helm, while other crew members were at the windows, looking out.
    “Take over for me, Higgins,” the captain said. “One last circle then we have to call it quits.”
    “Very good, sir.”
    The captain turned to me then I saw recognition in his eyes in spite of my cat costume. “Ah, Lady Georgiana. It’s you. I was just told a young woman, dressed as a cat. Please do take a seat. This must have been most distressing for you.”
    I nodded. I was still shivering as I sat on the chair a crew member had brought over to me.
    “So you saw someone fall from the ship and into the sea? Are you sure of this?”
    “The problem is that I don’t know exactly what I saw. It all happened so quickly. I just caught the movement out of the corner of my eye.”
    “Did anyone else see it?”
    “No. I was all alone on the deck at the time.”
    “And you don’t think you imagined it? The moonlight can play tricks out on the ocean, especially after a night of drinking and dancing, maybe?”
    I shook my head. “I definitely saw something.”
    “Tell us exactly what you thought you saw.” He pulled up a chair beside me.
    I frowned, trying to re-create what I had seen. “I was standing up on A deck, looking out to sea and I thought I saw something come out of a window farther down the ship and I watched it fall into the sea. I heard a splash and when I looked down it seemed to me that long dark hair was floating on the surface.”
    “You’re sure it was a person that you saw?”
    “Not at all sure. It could have been a big object. A big bundle.”
    “A bundle, you say?” he asked sharply. “What made you use that word?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. It just came out.”
    “And when you looked down into the ocean you didn’t notice anyone struggling or splashing or calling for help?”
    I shook my head. “No movement at all.”
    “No white face? White limbs?”
    “No. Just a dark shape and the hair floating out.”
    The captain glanced across at the officer who was standing beside me.
    “Would you say that whoever or whatever this was fell straight down or maybe jumped out first?”
    I thought again. “I couldn’t say. I just caught movement and had an impression of something falling. Something quite large and dark.”
    “And where did it fall from, do you think?”
    “I believe it must have been from my level,” I said. “From A deck, quite a way to the right of where I was standing. I suppose it could have come from one deck below me, but I don’t think so.”
    “Toward the stern, you mean?”
    “Yes.”
    “So that would be a part of A deck where there is no promenade deck. Where the cabins have windows that open directly onto the side of the ship?”
    “Yes, I think so.”
    “Make a note of who has those cabins