Ashes To Ashes: A Ministry of Curiosities Novella (The Ministry of Curiosities Book 5) by C.J. Archer Read Free Book Online Page A

word he liked to associate with himself, but on this occasion, he could admit it. He hunched into his coat on the street opposite Harcourt House, his hood pulled low, and waited for Julia to leave. More than an hour later, his patience was rewarded as the front door opened and Millard the butler handed her an umbrella. She descended the steps and strolled up the street. Once she was gone from sight, Lincoln approached the house.
    Millard answered his knock. "Lady Harcourt is not at home, sir."
    "I wish to see Mr. Buchanan," Lincoln said.
    "He's not available to callers."
    Meaning he was probably still in bed. Lincoln checked his pocket watch. It was almost midday. "Inform Mr. Buchanan that he will make himself available to discuss Ela. If he's not down within fifteen minutes, I'll come up to his room and drag him out of bed by the ankles."
    Millard didn't blink an eye. He merely stepped aside to allow Lincoln in. "May I take your coat, sir?"
    Fifteen minutes later, Buchanan ambled into the drawing room. He looked as if someone had dragged him out of bed by the ankles. His fair hair was flat on one side and stuck out from his head on the other. He rubbed bloodshot eyes and stifled a yawn.
    "Bloody early, ain't it, Fitzroy?"
    "No."
    Buchanan crossed to the window and looked out. He winced and rubbed his eyes again, even though the day wasn't bright. "You're right. Not too early for a drink at all." He poured a snifter of brandy and offered it to Lincoln.
    Lincoln shook his head and Buchanan sipped from the glass. "I believe you know Ela, one of Barnum and Bailey's dancers," Lincoln said.
    Buchanan smirked. "I know her. Speaking of girls, where's your fiancée? She's not with you today?"
    Julia hadn't told him? "Charlie no longer lives with me."
    Buchanan lowered the glass and blinked slowly, as if waking from a dream. "You don't say. Interesting."
    "Why?"
    Buchanan swirled the liquid around the snifter. "Does this mean you're no longer engaged?"
    Blood surged along Lincoln's veins. He forced himself to remain still, and to think. A suitable answer came to him after several thumping heartbeats. "Charlie is too young to get married."
    "Hardly. Girls younger than her have been hitched, or promised." Buchanan's smirk reappeared, more twisted than before. "Besides, she's hardly innocent, given her background. Probably has more experience than me. I wouldn't mind finding out what the little vixen—"
    Lincoln grabbed the turd's throat, cutting off the flow of verbal vomit spewing from his mouth. Buchanan choked out something inaudible, and his face turned a satisfying shade of red.
    "If you disparage her again," Lincoln snarled in Buchanan's ear, "I will castrate you and serve your balls to you on a platter. Do you understand?"
    The purple veins on Buchanan's temple stood out in bas-relief. He attempted a nod.
    Lincoln let him go and watched as Buchanan fell to his knees, one hand at his throat, the other holding the snifter steady so that none of the liquid spilled.
    A movement by the door caught Lincoln's attention. Millard stood there, his steady gaze on his master. How much had he seen? After a moment, he merely said, "Is there anything you require, sir?"
    "No," Lincoln said, not caring if Millard had addressed him or Buchanan. "Get up," he ordered Buchanan when Millard backed out of the drawing room and shut the doors, despite not being asked to. "I have questions about Ela."
    "If you want me to talk, you shouldn't've tried to bloody kill me," Buchanan rasped.
    "If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead." Lincoln waited while Buchanan got to his feet, drank the rest of his drink, and poured himself another.
    By the time he sat in the armchair, his color had returned to its usual washed-out pallor, although his throat remained red. "What about Ela?"
    "You know her intimately."
    Buchanan held his glass up in salute. "And?"
    "And did you know that she was also intimate with another circus performer by the name of Patrick