Chapter 11: Bath and the Whispering Wells

The coach to Bath departed Henrietta Street at seven in the morning, which was Stormcroft's suggestion, and arrived at Gay Street at half past two, which was the coachman's best effort under conditions that included one wheel requiring attention outside Chippenham and Mr. Fennwick requiring a different kind of attention somewhere near Corsham after he had made the error of reading his hydrothermal pamphlet on a moving vehicle.

Miss Chase was already at Gay Street when they arrived. She had come the day before, she explained, on account of a prior engagement—the nature of which she did not specify and which Petra suspected had involved reconnaissance of the sort that prior engagements rarely involved. She looked precisely as composed as she always looked, which, in someone who had risen before dawn in a city not her own, Petra found either admirable or alarming, and had not yet settled which.

"The Assembly Rooms open at ten tomorrow morning," Miss Chase said, before anyone had removed their travelling coats. "The Pump Room will be at its fullest between eleven and noon. I would suggest we arrive at half past ten, which is late enough to enter without particular notice and early enough to observe the pattern of the room before it consolidates."