Chapter Five
Icarus traveled post to Basingstoke on the sixth, arriving at dusk. On the seventh, he walked around the market town, inquiring after Mr. Green at the inns and looking for a hostelry for himself and Miss Trentham. By noon, he’d found a suitable establishment—on a quiet backstreet, modest but clean—and booked rooms for himself, his wife, and his wife’s maid for four nights, plus a private parlor. He didn’t find Green. That afternoon, he posted back to Frimley, halfway between Basingstoke and Chertsey, where he canceled Miss Trentham’s booking from Frimley to Andover the following day, and arranged instead for a carriage to convey himself and his wife to Basingstoke.
On the morning of the eighth, he hastened to Chertsey. Midday found him in the yard of the King’s Head, dressed
