Free Twelve Minutes to Midnight by Christopher Edge

scaffolding. Beyond this, lay the British Museum of Natural History, the Imperial Institute and the Royal Albert Hall. She shook her head. This was her territory. What was Bradburn doing here?
    On the opposite side of the road stood a grand red-brick house, its tall windows and fanlights looking down condescendingly at the passing traffic. Bradburn hurried across the road, darting behind a speeding omnibus. Opening the gate, he scurried up the stone steps that led to the front door. Crossing the road after him, Penny sheltered behind the manicured hedge that fronted the property, peeking between its leaves to see what would happen next. She was surprised to see Bradburn ignore the tradesmen’s bell and instead loudly rap twice on the door knocker, the sound of it echoing behind the dark-green door.
    After a pause, the front door slowly opened and a butler peered out inquisitively. Bradburn spoke briefly, but from behind the hedge Penelope couldn’t make out the words. Then her sense of surprise grew as she watched the butler quickly usher him inside. The door closed with a slam.
    Penelope took a step backwards, looking up at the grand façade of the house. Her eyes swept past its windows and wrought-iron balconies, reaching up for five storeys into the darkening sky. It must be worth over ten thousand pounds. What on earth was a two-bob orderly doing here?
    “Pardon me, Miss.”
    A delivery boy was wheeling a heavily-laden barrow along the narrow pavement.
    “Excuse me,” said Penelope as she stepped to one side to let him pass. “Do you know whose house this is?”
    The young boy glanced up at the red-brick building and sniffed.
    “Course I do,” he replied. “That’s where the Spider Lady of South Kensington lives.”

X
    Penelope leafed through the pages of Who’s Who , her eyes scurrying over the entries as she searched out the one she was looking for. Next to her on the reading desk sat a stack of reference books: Burke’s Peerage, Kelly’s Handbook to the Titled Classes and other assorted guides to the aristocracy. She leaned forward on the hard mahogany chair, the electric reading light above the desk spilling a warm yellow glow across the pages. From around her came the sound of scratching pens and turning pages, the long rows of desks fanning out around the room filled with readers. Running around the walls, countless rows of books gave the library the snug feel of her home.
    Penny’s fingers paused as they turned the next page, her eye snagging on the entry in the top right-hand corner. 

    CAMBRIDGE, Lady; Isabella Violet Hester
    Born 13 Nov. 1876; daughter of Sir William Ross, FRCS (died 1897) and Lady Marie Charlotte Ross; married in 1897 to Lord Cambridge (died 1898)
    Education
    Cheltenham Ladies’ College; King’s College, University of London
    Career
    Travelled extensively in Europe, India and Africa, conducting entomological research into exotic species of arachnids; appointed to the board of trustees of the British Museum of Natural History
    Publications
    Untangling the Web: Observations about Arachnid Behaviour , 1897; Taxonomic Notes of the Spider Fauna of Southern India , 1895; A Morphological Study of Spider Toxins and Venom , 1898; scientific papers and journals, chiefly on arachnology
    Recreation
    Reading, cross-stitch and embroidery
    Address
    Stanley House, 2 Egerton Gardens, South Kensington, London
    So this was who Bradburn had been calling on, mused Penny as she glanced up from the book, a puzzled expression written across her face. Lady Isabella Cambridge – the Spider Lady of South Kensington. But what interest could this aristocratic lady have in a hard-faced orderly from Bedlam, his pocket filled with the patients’ scribblings? She sighed in frustration, causing the reader at the next desk, an old bespectacled man, whose head was bent inches away from his book, to shush her in irritation.
    Penny frowned. She looked back down at the entry from Who’s Who , her eyes settling