Free Whitechapel Wagers 02 - Wanton Wager by Christy Carlyle

glanced at his pocket watch some time later and was surprised to see that nearly one half of an hour had passed before a stern-faced woman dressed in black from head to toe marched toward him from a hallway off the admitting room.
    “I am Matron Marley. I understand you wish to speak with me, sir.”
    Will rose as gracefully as his stiff muscles allowed. The woman was so tall their eyes were on a level when he stretched to his full height of just over six feet.
    “Thank you for your time, Matron. Truth be told, I came to speak with Miss Ada Hamilton. I understand she is a probationary nurse at the hospital and works here during the week.”
    “Follow me, please.”
    Will watched the woman stalk away as if the question of him following her was a forgone conclusion. He did not wish to follow her. He only wished to see Ada and tell her his suspicions about Beth after his meeting with Ashdowne.
    Matron Marley waited for him inside a surprisingly sumptuous and neat-as-a-pin office outfitted with a massive cherry wood desk and bookshelves stacked with medical journals and ledgers. An impressive painting of the Samaritan Hospital, completed when it was recently constructed and still pristine, dominated the wall behind her desk.
    “My I ask your name and interest in Miss Hamilton, sir?”
    “Yes, of course. My name is Selsby, and I believe I may have some useful information pertaining to Miss Hamilton’s sister.”
    “The girl who’s gone missing?”
    He nodded and an expression of real distress passed over the woman’s face before her expression returned to the same grim set of mouth and eyes.
    “That is tragic. I do hope they find her safe and sound. But I must inform you that Miss Adaline Hamilton is no longer in the hospital’s employ. She was dismissed just this morning. And I must say the incidence of a gentleman calling upon her this afternoon…” She indicated Will with the tilt of her head. “Well, it makes me even more certain about my decision.”
    “I do not have a long acquaintance with Miss Hamilton, but I suspect you have lost a fine nurse. Why was she dismissed?”
    “That is not a matter I am at liberty to divulge. Perhaps Miss Hamilton would care to enlighten you.”
    ***
    Will wasn’t looking forward to his next encounter with The Golden Bell’s less than friendly giant of a barkeep. The man had begrudgingly served him a drink after his first meeting with Miss Hamilton, but Will suspected it was just because the barman realized Will would soon be out the door.
    The pub was crowded for a Monday afternoon, but the burly man seemed to notice Will the moment he crossed the threshold. The man’s look was no more welcoming, and this time the giant left his post behind the bar and approached Will.
    “You ‘ave no business ‘ere, my lord .” The man spoke the word lord as if it was the most offensive of curses, as if he was calling Will the Whitechapel murderer and every other kind of monster.
    “I am no lord. And my business here is with Miss Ada Hamilton.”
    Will took a step forward and sidestepped the man, hoping to bypass him completely. But a heavy arm, as thick as the trunk of healthy tree, shot out, not touching him but preventing him from passing.
    “That lady is already crying ‘er eyes out over yer meddling and lies.”
    Will remembered how Ada had cried over her sister the first night he’d met her. He suspected she had shed many tears in the last week, and he was determined to alleviate her misery in the only way he could. She may not wish to know him as he wished to know her, but he would help her find her sister.
    “I must speak with her. About her sister.”
    At those words, the man lowered his arm, though he continued to glare at Will as he made his way past him. Will suspected the man watched him all the way up the stairs to the Hamilton family’s lodgings.
    He rapped on the door only once before it creaked open and a child, eyes red rimmed and sad, opened the door to