The Seer's Choice: A Novella of the Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney

had been left in the area to call in the Special Police should he try such extortion again. A dozen rumors had been followed to their ends, and a few of them had proven important. They’d had a productive week, all in all, even if they’d gotten nowhere with Miss Jardim’s assailant.
    Rafael couldn’t walk directly from the station to the Ferreira house to check on her. There was always the chance he might be followed. So he took a cab to Massarelos Parish and then caught a tram headed toward the Street of Flowers. He stepped off the tram a few houses past the Ferreira house and cut behind the houses to walk down the alleyway that served as a mews for the houses on that street. He felt foolish the whole while because he had no warning from his gift that the man in question might be pursuing him. But at the end of his quest, he stood in the Ferreira kitchens, sure he hadn’t been followed.
    He was rewarded for his caution by the sight of Genoveva Jardim coming down those kitchen steps, a broad smile on her usually solemn face. That told him her mother had received his message about her presence in the Ferreira house. “I wish I had answers for you, Miss Jardim, but we didn’t get very far on the case today.”
    “I didn’t expect everything to be solved in one day,” she admitted. “Now, Mrs. Cardoza has insisted on preparing a full dinner for me, and I don’t want to sit and eat alone. Please say you’ll stay.”
    “I’m not dressed for dinner,” he protested.
    “It doesn’t matter. She didn’t mean it to be a formal meal. And I don’t have anything to change into in the first place.” She took his hand in her own, just as he’d done the night before. “Please.”
    Apparently he was forgiven for his amusement at her expense. And she seemed to want him to stay, which made the idea most appealing. “Very well.”
    “Come along upstairs then, and tell me everything you’ve found out.”
    That would be a short discussion. But he gave in to the tugging of her hand and followed her upstairs anyway.
    

    Saturday, 2 May 1903
    Saturday didn’t present any new information. Rafael’s gift still seemed to think that Miss Jardim was safe for the moment, and the officers who’d stood watch over her boarding house hadn’t seen the threatening man again. No one at the boarding house knew of anyone who’d dislike Miss Jardim, leaving him again without any motive that might tell them who the man was.
    He ate dinner at the Ferreira home again that night, doing his best to entertain a growingly-restive Miss Jardim. But since his gift didn’t seem concerned about Sunday, he promised that he would escort her to Mass the next morning. And to dine afterward. She asked if he would be playing football, which was indeed in his plans, and if she might accompany him.
    This was definitely, Rafael decided, beginning to look like courtship.

Chapter 5
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    Sunday, 3 May 1903
    G ENOVEVA DIDN ’ T THINK she understood football any better today than she had the previous Sunday. She’d sat with Mrs. Gaspar again, who’d patiently explained this and that point, but Genoveva hadn’t been all that attentive. She didn’t particularly care about the rules of the game. It was obvious how much the captain enjoyed playing, and that was the important part.
    This week they played an English team and managed to finish one point ahead. Afterward the captain sought her out and chatted amiably with Mrs. Gaspar for a few minutes while Inspector Gaspar talked with a member of the opposing team. When Gaspar came running over, he and his wife invited them to join them for dinner later, but the captain glanced over at Genoveva. “I’m afraid we have a previous engagement,” he said. “Perhaps some other time?”
    “That would be lovely,” Mrs. Gaspar said, taking her husband’s arm.
    It was only after the couple had left that Genoveva realized that Captain Pinheiro had answered for both of them. “I was unaware that I had supper