Touched by Angels by Alan Watts

friends, associates, both business and pleasure, acquaintances, enemies too, and any gentlemen’s clubs he has membership of.”
    They spent the next half hour compiling this farcical list, and one of the entries made Bride’s heart skip a beat when it was mentioned, because he knew he’d coaxed from them exactly what he wanted. The Strand branch of Coutts & Co Bank.
    In next to no time, Tom Bride was trotting down the long driveway to that hideous workhouse, so excited, he had almost forgotten the pain he was in.
    They wanted to see him in three days’ time for an update and had stressed again, in carefully worded phrases, that they couldn’t care less how he accomplished his mission, or how much discomfort might have to be solicited from their nephew to that end.
    He nearly laughed out loud. If all went to plan, they would never see hide nor hair of him again. In any case, he couldn’t bear another ogling from Alistair King.
    There was no time to waste, so he strode off quickly, with Sir Rupert’s eyes tracking him from the window of his study.
     
     
     
     
     
     

Twenty-four
    When Lil and Robert stepped out of Bryant & Sons Bespoke Tailors, they were, for all the world, two entirely different people.
    Now, they blended more effectively with the refinement surrounding them.
    She had made several other purchases too, a small striped suitcase and a large alligator skin handbag, for carrying the valuables from both the Gladstone bag and the safety deposit box, when or if they acquired access to it.
    After this, they made their way to Mrs Swinglehurst’s Hatters Emporium, where they were greeted effusively by Mrs Swinglehurst herself, the jolliest and fattest lady Robert had ever seen. Lil chose a broad, burgundy velvet hat trimmed with green feathers. They also visited a jeweller’s, where she purchased a gold bar brooch, flanked with leaves and pearls and a slim gold wristwatch, encrusted with tiny diamonds.
    Lil was getting jittery as they made their way to the Strand. She knew Bride might be on their tail and that, even though they were disguised, he would have an eye trained to look beneath any veneer.
    When they arrived at the bank, where she had been considering trying to bluff her way through, they saw a massive clock celebrating the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria over the granite portals. She had never been in a bank in her life.
    As she stood there, dithering, Bride was watching from much closer than they would have imagined.
    He was leaning against a lamppost, pretending to read a newspaper, as he peered over the top periodically. Having already guessed her intention to try and sham her way, he could see her hesitating.
    He noticed though, that while the boy carried a small suitcase, the woman toted a large handbag, in which she clearly intended putting the valuables if she succeeded.
    He grinned with relief when she finally wandered off, trembling with nerves, not knowing that he too was being watched by other eyes from not so very far away.
     
    ***
     
    As soon as he had left the workhouse, Sir Rupert had voiced his suspicion that Bride might not be quite as dedicated to their cause as he seemed. He simply could not believe their nephew would fail to show up at that address.
    Was it possible he already had the safe key, and only needed the name of the bank, the piece of information they had been so easily duped into parting with?
    Alistair had been oblivious to this rather unsettling possibility before his brother had mentioned it. To deepen the mystery further, he pointed out that Bride would still need the safe’s number and only the missing fob could supply that, which he clearly did not have, otherwise he would not have needed to get the name of the bank from them.
    Now though, having followed him all the way there, where he had been convinced he would go inside, Sir Rupert King was relieved to see that instead, Bride was loitering outside, appearing to watch a well-to-do woman and child.
    He