23 May 2018 (Fighting Boswell)
It’s now mid-afternoon. Audrey writes to the Cavalry Club, and to the regiment, on Cassandra Agency paper, to say that the Agency has discovered that someone is passing himself off as a club member / member of the regiment; the plan is to provoke Boswell into doing something rash.
Gertrude, Bessie and Millie travel to Bessie’s caravan, and collect some herbs. Gertrude and Bessie then go out looking for an old silver-backed mirror, and manage to find one, though it’s expensive.
Millie calls the GRO from a phone box, and Ramsey is called to the phone; he’s clearly being overheard, but is interested in her mention of a very persuasive person, and agrees to meet. Audrey and Lin Tan also attend that meeting; Ramsey clearly finds the idea of such a being quite terrifying, though he maintains is cool, and he confirms (while cursing the Victorians for their abuse of the word) that “fairy” is probably the best description, very much the same sort of thing that the group saw in Great Queen Street. There are a few mentions of such creatures in the records of what is now part of the GRO; they tend to want specific things (for example gold, as distinct from money), and “suffering” seems like an entirely plausible thing to want. He recommends negotiation or bribery, but if they have to fight, salt and red-hot iron seem most likely to be effective; and fern-seed should make one invisible to it.
Lin Tan also mentions the distortion in the wall in Croydon.
Gertrude goes away to get hold of some fern spores, while Bessie fills some folded cloths with salt, so as to be able to shake them out quickly. The group sets up watch outside the Cavalry Club on Pall Mall; around 7.30, someone walks up who’s glowing with shine the way Boswell was, though by the way he walks this is an older man. (It’s still not possible to make out his features past the glow of magic.) Gertrude gets a look at him in the mirror; seen there, he’s bipedal, but recognisably the wrong shape to be human. He goes into the club, exchanging a few words with the doorman.
The group waits until about 9pm, then decides this is a good time to look at Boswell’s flat. This turns out to have been emptied; the bureau is standing open, and there’s a lack of normal background shine. Footsteps are audible outside, and someone steps in to ask “are you there, sir?” while Bessie and Lin Tan hide in the dark; he goes away, and Lin Tan follows, as he returns to the basement and what seems to be a porter’s cubby, muttering something about “three weeks’ rent”.
Gertrude comes into the flat and very quietly does a detailed search; all the plausible hiding places have been cleared out, and there’s no dust.
On the way back to Pall Mall, Gertrude gathers some gummy plane leaves, and sticks fern-seed to Bessie and Lin Tan.
About 11.30, Millie and Gertrude leave to get some sleep.