Death in the Dark Walk by Deryn Lake

Hannah. You see, it is of great interest to me to know who killed poor Lizzie. Now, is there anything else you can tell me?’
    She shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so. Unless . . .’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Well, someone else came looking for her as well as the Count.’
    â€˜Who was that?’
    â€˜A boy, strangely enough. A lad of about fifteen or so. I took him to be an apprentice.’
    John’s breath quickened slightly as a picture came back of a young fellow in a fine blue coat crouching low to watch the lighting of the Cascade. ‘Did this boy see Lizzie?’
    â€˜No, he came after she’d gone away. I told him she wasn’t here and sent him about his business.’
    â€˜What did he look like?’
    â€˜He was quite short, I can recall that. And he had lightish hair and blue eyes. He didn’t come from hereabouts because he had a country accent.’
    â€˜You are very observant,’ said John, and handed over the coin.
    Hannah stood up, groaning a little. ‘I keep my wits about me.’
    John looked at her with a professional eye. ‘Do you have trouble with your knees by any chance?’
    â€˜Rheumatics make my joints very stiff. Hands too.’
    The Apothecary adopted a business-like manner. ‘I’ll drop you in some compound and ointment when next I pass. They will at least ease the pain.’
    The old woman gave him a look of servile gratitude. ‘That’s very kind of you, Sir. But I’m only a poor creature. What will be your charge?’
    â€˜Pay me what you can,’ John answered magnanimously, delighted to receive his first commission since the end of his indentures.
    â€˜You’re a good man, Master. Now, do you want to stay here and search the rooms?’
    John hesitated, then said, ‘No. But I’ll ask you to do so in my stead. If you find any papers, regardless of what they might be, can you keep them for me until I come with your medicines?’
    Hannah looked cunning. ‘It would have to be in my working time.’
    â€˜I’ll see that you’re compensated,’ John answered tersely, thinking what a grasping old bitch the creature really was and wishing he hadn’t offered to treat her.
    â€˜Then I am your servant in all things, Sir,’ replied Hannah and much to his consternation gave the Apothecary a somewhat alarming wink.

Chapter Six
    It still being little after noon, John, recalling the Blind Beak’s assertion that the proprietor of Vaux Hall claimed to know more about his clientele than they knew themselves, decided to make his way there forthwith. Going home merely to change his clothes into something more appropriate for a visit to the Pleasure Gardens and to seek his father’s permission to borrow his coach and horses for the rest of the day, he set out in good spirits, feeling that certain interesting facts had already come to light and that by the end of the day, with the help of Jonathan Tyers, he might have learned some more.
    In normal circumstances John would have appreciated clattering over the many arches of Westminster Bridge, then bowling along the leafy lanes of the South Bank, past that fine example of Tudor brickwork, Lambeth Palace. But today he was preoccupied, going over his conversation with Hannah, wishing he had had the sense to ask her where Comte Louis de Vignolles lived, then wondering whether the country boy who had come calling on Lizzie and the apprentice at the Cascade were one and the same person.
    At this time of day, of course, the Pleasure Gardens were closed. Between nine and ten o’clock at night was the hour at which the
beau monde
made an appearance, while those less refined or who enjoyed the lighting of the Cascade tended to arrive somewhat earlier. Yet knowing what be did of Mr Tyers’s character, a subject discussed quite frequently in London circles, John was fairly certain that he would find him on the premises