Free A Wicked Way to Burn by Margaret Miles Page A

Middleton give you anything on account?”
    The innkeeper looked slightly embarrassed. “Now that you mention it, he did leave a piece of gold. A Dutch gulden, actually. I plan to give it to Reverend Rowe for his fund, as soon as I see him. In return, I’ll ask him to send up a prayer, for a poor soul beleaguered by women.”
    Another show of gold! It seemed to Charlotte that Middleton might have taken more pains to hide his wealth in a small place like Bracebridge, where he was a stranger. In fact, the man seemed to have enjoyed displaying it. It was something to consider.
    THEY HAD NEARLY made the top of the stairs when another door, next to the one they’d passed through, abruptly swung open, and a bespectacled man with a body like a sapling backed into the hall. He had a canvas pack slung over one shoulder and was dressed in a jacketand breeches of faded tweed. Looking up, he gave them a casual salute.
    “Mr. Pratt!” The rich, full voice made the landlord wince and look about. “I’ve just come back for my spyglass. I was glad to have it with me last night—training it on the full moon. Quiet a performance!”
    Pratt bowed silently, as if he’d had something to do with the lunar display, and seemed more than ready to move on. But Charlotte held him back. Sighing, the landlord did his duty.
    “Mrs. Willett, might I present Mr. Adolphus Lee, of Cambridge. Mr. Lee calls himself a naturalist. He is writing a volume, so he tells us, on animal life in our region.”
    That, Charlotte observed with an inclination of her head, explained his robust complexion, the collapsing telescope he was securing, and two thick books that stuck out from between the laces of his knapsack. His eyes also told her he had a knavish nature. Here was a man who might enjoy spending some of his time peering into the lives of his own species as well as others, she decided with an interest of her own. And she especially wondered what news of Bracebridge Lee’s telescope might have brought him lately.
    “I’m always very pleased to meet a man of Science,” she began with only partial honesty, for she had in fact met a good many with widely varying results.
    “I’m honored, Mrs. Willett. Have you an interest in these things, too?” asked Mr. Lee. His spectacles sparkled, but he seemed to stare above them as he regarded her freely; quite carefully, he looked his new acquaintance up and down in a most methodical way which, scientific or not, made her ears feel warm.
    “In some things. I was fascinated to hear what happened last night, across the river. Did you happen to see the mysterious fire yourself, sir?”
    “Alas, no,” replied Mr. Lee with a look of genuinesorrow. “I went out walking, it’s true, but toward the east … well over the next hill. They tell me now that I only returned after the thing was over. At the moment,” he explained, “much of my work involves observing creatures who are most active at night. I got up early to go across the river this morning, though, to see what I can see; they say it isn’t much after all. Frankly, I don’t know what to make of the story.”
    “You’re not alone there,” remarked the innkeeper. “Your room, you know, is next to the one Mr. Middleton occupied.”
    Mr. Lee gaped with delight at the door to the Jamaica Room, as if it might still hold a potential conflagration.
    “Did you …” Charlotte asked with polite hesitation, “speak with old Mr. Middleton yourself?”
    “Oh, no—no. In fact, I hadn’t realized! I did notice him when he arrived yesterday. Well, with that red cape, it would have been difficult not to. I’d come in for my lunch and was examining some of my findings, before taking a nap. That’s when I saw him, through the window. I heard him, too, now that I think of it, when I awoke later. I believe he was speaking to our landlady, probably about the room—the sheets, I think, or something of that nature. As I remember, he had a rather reedy voice, and