The Invisible Amateur by Amelia Price Read Free Book Online

Seconds later the piece of paper was feeding
the fire in the grate, and not long after that it was gone.
    They sat together
in silence for a few more minutes, drinking tea and thinking.
Mycroft could tell his brother wasn't happy with not being told
every detail, but Mycroft knew it wasn't a secret they'd entrusted
anywhere else, and that meant it was a secret he was responsible
for alone. If Sherlock found out about it Mycroft would be
betraying that confidence.
    Half an hour later
Mycroft still hadn't disclosed any more information. Finally,
Sherlock gave up and left. When it came to patiently sitting
through and waiting for a result, Mycroft had always been the
brother best suited to the task.
    Although he
couldn't have predicted Sherlock's presence there, Mycroft sat back
in his chair, already satisfied that his trip to the Diogenes Club
was fruitful. His brother might give Mycroft's tasks the lowest
priority for solving, but at some point he always ran out of cases,
and even Amelia's frequent visits weren't enough to stave off the
inevitable boredom. Sherlock was unpredictable for this one
reason.
    To keep the royal
family content and oblivious to Mycroft's dealings behind the
scenes, he spent the rest of the afternoon solving a security issue
with their palace in Sandringham. One of the maids had compromised
their system. When Mycroft had seen her CV he hadn't been
surprised, but no one else had picked up on the obvious issues.
    He wasn't willing
to read the paperwork of every applicant to one of the royal
households, so he had been ordered to detail as many indicators of
a problem as he could. They'd got the notion into their minds that
some young technology geek could write a computer program to do it
for them. It wouldn't work, but it amused him to see them try and
replace his expertise.
    When he was
satisfied he appeared to be working on what others wanted, he went
back to his house. For now, all he could do was wait, and that
wasn't a task he struggled with. He might even take a short
walk.
     
     

Chapter 6
    Amelia sat down to
sip the tea Mrs Wintern had just shown up with, and Sebastian
joined her, sitting opposite in his usual chair.
    “You're getting
much better. You'd fool the average person now,” he said, and she
detected the hint of smugness in his voice. He was pleased with her
progress because it reflected well on his teaching capabilities,
but it was a compliment and she'd take it. It was also obvious he
meant that he still noticed her taking the card from the pocket of
the coat rigged with bells on it. She could do it silently, but he
still saw, and they hadn't got as far as doing the opposite of
putting something inside a pocket or tucking it under a glass as he
had the money while in the restaurant.
    In the few days
since being in London she'd learnt a lot and spent the entire time
practising one task or another based on the directions of the
Holmes brothers. It made her feel tired, but at the same time
pleased. It was a taste of a more exciting life, one where she
wasn't always at home by herself. The two most anti-social men in
the world had let her in enough to show her she might just be able
to fit into their worlds, and she didn't want it to stop.
    “Has my brother
given you another lesson?” Sebastian asked a few minutes later. She
shook her head.
    “No. I expected
him to, but only the one so far.”
    “Well, at least
he's keeping an eye on you. You're safer under his watch than
anywhere else.”
    At this, Amelia
furrowed her brow and tried to hide the flutter of panic that took
hold of her insides and gave them a squeeze.
    “He didn't tell
you?” Sebastian asked. It took a second for Amelia to process this
out-of-the-blue question. He'd evidently read her expression and
figured out she knew so little.
    “No, he hasn't
told me anything. I suspected that's why he brought me here, but
when you mentioned our arrangement and Myron bringing me to London,
I assumed that it was as innocent as