Free Falconer's Quest by T. Davis Bunn Page B

abduction.”
    Reginald struggled to shape the words. “You have seen him?”
    “I have.” All vestige of strength had evaporated with her anger. “Forgive me, sir. Might I sit? I am feeling quite faint.”
    “I have spent four months fighting against an uncaring, unlistening world.” Amelia Henning’s trembling fingers held fragments of the bread and cheese supplied by Soap. “I have been living at the seaman’s mission run by my husband’s church. I have spent days seeking aid from the navy and the government. All to no avail.”
    “Samuel told me…That is, Samuel Aldridge, my friend and partner. He informed me that the messenger— who turns out to be you—had simply vanished.”
    “It was a mistake. I see that now. But your man insisted upon taking such a measured course. And his constant questions nearly drove me insane.”
    Which was how she looked to Falconer’s eye. A woman on the border of insanity. Her movements were jerky. Beneath that ragged hat, her face was blistered with sun and taut with hunger and nerves. Yet through all the disarray, she was an uncommonly attractive woman, in a rather half-starved and desperate fashion. Amelia Henning sipped from her cup, rattling it against the saucer when she set it down, then turned back to the plate of bread and cheese.
    “I could not wait. Not for an instant. And Mr. Aldridge insisted upon doing nothing until you arrived from America. You or your trusted man.” But she did not say this in other than a matter-of-fact tone.
    Reginald had adopted a pose of utter patience. He nodded in agreement at everything the woman said and spoke to her as he would a woman of position. “I apologize most profusely, madam. But Samuel merely acted as I had requested. We had received so many frustrating reports, you see. One after the other proved false. People who had heard of our son’s disappearance sought to profit from it.”
    “Do I seem to you a woman after gain?”
    “No, madam. Nothing could be further from the truth I see before me and hear from your lips.”
    “Yet your Mr. Aldridge peppered me with his questions and offered no help at all!”
    “Again, my sincerest regrets over any distress he might have caused. Won’t you have more cheese?”
    “I am rather famished.” She could scarcely lift the fragments of bread to her mouth. She ate a bite, then a crumbled segment of cheese, then took a tiny sip from the cup. Her gaze was never still.
    Footsteps rumbled down the outside passage. Harkness and Lieutenant Bivens entered the cabin, then crowded to a halt. “What’s this?”
    “Captain Harkness, may I have the pleasure of introducing Amelia Henning. We were just having a most remarkable conversation. Mrs. Henning, would you mind terribly if they joined us?”
    “Of course not.” Her voice was both weary and petulant. “Why should I, since I’ve spent the entire day trying to meet him?”
    “Of course. Most foolish of me.”
    Falconer sensed a sudden chill race up his spine. All of a sudden, the entire situation came into brilliant focus. Eyeing the sun through a telescope could not have been more shocking.
    He interrupted the introductions. “Mrs. Henning, may I ask why you did not tell Samuel Aldridge all that you know of this situation?”
    The hand rose and fell, a bit of bread, a sliver of cheese. “And you are?”
    “My name is John Falconer. I am Reginald Langston’s trusted man. We have known one another for years, and I can assure you, whatever Master Langston says is far more trustworthy than most men’s gold locked in a steel vault.”
    “I will testify to that as well,” Captain Harkness said.
    Falconer leaned forward in his chair. He could not say why, but he was certain enough to speak his thoughts aloud. “Madam, forgive me for saying this. But I fear you and I suffer from the same malady.”
    The hand stopped in midair.
    “We have both suffered a grievous loss, is that not true?”
    The hand began to tremble more