CHAPTER FIVE
The black London cab took a circuitous journey from Heathrow Airport toward the city center. The sun had just set, the last of its red and yellow ribbons reflecting off low-hanging clouds. Rachel was familiar enough to know where she was and to trust the cabby’s judgment. They coursed along the southern boundary of Hyde Park, then the tree-lined avenue between Green Park and the Queen’s private gardens of Buckingham Palace. They slowed to a stop at a traffic light, and a crowd of tourists crossed the road, snapping photos. Doctor Polidori would have recognized these grand avenues, malls, and parklands. Many of the Georgian buildings of his time still defined the majestic streetscape. He might have been taken aback by the new façade of Buckingham Palace, with its now-famous ba
