2. Missing

Cordelia had only eaten a few forkfuls of oyster pie when she heard the front door open. Even from the dining room the sound was unmistakable.

The front door was a peculiar piece of the house, though not the most peculiar. When it opened, the rush of air caused the curtains in the front hall to fly up and flutter down, effectively mimicking the sound of a colony of angry bats flying away.

Immediately, Cordelia stood and left the room, meeting Mr. Blackburn in the front hall, where Gladwich was attempting to retrieve his coat.

Mr. Blackburn himself was an interesting figure, although outwardly he dressed like any other man of class. He wore a top hat, a long, black frock coat, and linen shirt with a patterned cravat tied around his neck.

The man underneath the hat, however, was unlike anyone Cordelia had ever known. He was decently young but lived alone, and he had sharp features. His eyes, in particular, were unusually bright, as they were a light turquoise color. They perfectly matched the sphere of turquoise stone that topped the cane he so often carried.

“Gladwich, please, I’m on my way out,” Blackburn said, dodging the footman’s efforts to remove his coat.

“I’ve got an address!” Cordelia said proudly over Gladwich’s voluble objections to Blackburn.

“Ah, Miss Green,” greeted Blackburn. “I, too, have an address, of sorts. One we will be heading to at once. The carriage is out front.” To Gladwich he said, “Gather our traveling cases.”

“But you’ve only just arrived,” griped Gladwich, but he retreated into the house to do as he was told.

Blackburn immediately cocked his head at Cordelia. “Where on earth did you obtain an address?”

Cordelia, quite smuggly, pulled a note from her pocket and offered it to him. “I do not sit idly around the house, Mr. Blackburn.”

His mouth quirked, and he received the note. “There is much to learn about you, Cordelia.”

She shook her head at his informality. They had only known each other for near three days, but they got along decently. Although, Cordelia didn’t have any other options, really, for she desperately needed a place to stay.

“Unfortunately, you’ve agreed to help me first, so your investigation must wait. To the carriage!” Blackburn said, ushering Cordelia outside the house.

* * *

“We’re staying the night someplace else?” Cordelia asked, peeking out of the carriage’s curtains. They had just set off, and the sky was beginning to darken.

Blackburn tapped a finger on the head of his cane. “Yes, if that’s acceptable for you. It’s a half hour’s ride to Dulwich Wood.”

“And what is the nature of this… case?” Cordelia asked. She had made a deal to assist Blackburn in his day-to-day job, which seemed to be solving low-profile mysteries and disturbances around London.

Blackburn took a small photograph out of his coat and handed it to her. “The woman I met with today, Malissa Bellingham, says her husband went missing in these woods.”

“And are you qualified to find him?” Cordelia asked pointedly. She looked at the photograph, a man with a curly mustache and a woman laughing, holding her bonnet to her head.

“Well,” Blackburn leaned back in his seat, “It’s within my range of... interest. Mrs. Bellingham said she’d just been to the woods with a friend, and they’d bumped into some fortune tellers. When she came home with her fortune, Mr. Bellingham was not just skeptical, but furious.”

“What was the fortune?” Cordelia asked, leaning forward. A few weeks ago, she’d shake off fortune tellers as evil and hearsay, but things were different now.

“That she’d never bear a child. So, the husband, Samuel, came to see for himself. And that was two days ago.”

“Why not take this to someone else? Can’t the parish send out people to find him?”

Blackburn’s turquoise eyes turned to her, looking solemn. “The parish doesn’t deal with cases such as this. Fortunes, otherworldly forces, the like. No one else wants to deal with this. That’s why I do it.” He punctuated this statement with a dimpled smile.

Cordelia scoffed, surprised. Were they really the best people in all of London to find Samuel Bellingham?

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