Hester and Scuff ate first, a very late luncheon of cold game pie, vegetables, and—as a special treat—a very light shandy.

Scuff finished his glass and put it down, licking his lips and looking at her hopefully.

“When you’re older,” she replied.

“ ’Ow long do I ’ave ter get older?” he asked.

“You’ll be doing it all the time.”

“Afore I can ’ave another one o’ these?” He was not about to let it go.

“About three months.” She had difficulty not smiling. “But you may have another piece of pie, if you wish? Or plum pie, if you prefer?”

He decided to press his luck. He frowned at her. “ ’Ow about both?”

She thought of the errand they were on, and what had driven them to it. “Good idea,” she agreed. “I might do the same.”

When there was nothing at all left on either plate, she paid the bill. Scuff thanked her gravely, and then hiccuped. They walked down to the river and started looking for ferries, fishermen, anybody who hung around the water’s edge talking, pottering with boats or tackle, generally observing the afternoon slip by.

It was more than two hours, pleasant but unprofitable, before they found the bowlegged ferryman who said he had carried a gentleman from the city over late on the night before the morning Mickey Parfitt’s body was found in Corney Reach.

“Aw, I dunno ’is name, lady,” the ferryman said dubiously. “Never ask folks’s names—got no reason ter, ’ave I? Don’ ask where they’re goin’ neither. ’Tain’t none o’ my business. Jus’ be civil, talk a little ter pass the time, like, an’ get ’im ter the other side safe an’ dry. I recall, though, as this gent were a real toff, knowed all kinds o’ things.”

Hester felt the grip tighten in the pit of her stomach, and suddenly the possibility of profound tragedy was real. “Truly? How old would you say he was?”

The man bent his head a little to one side and looked at her, then at Scuff, then back at her again. “Why yer wanna know, missus? ’E done yer wrong some’ow?”

She knew what he was thinking, and she played on it without a moment’s shame. “I don’t know, unless I know if it was he,” she answered, keeping the amusement out of her eyes deliberately. She wanted to laugh. Then she thought of all the women of whom it would be true, and the amusement vanished. A knot of shame pulled tight inside her for her callousness.

“Don’t think so, love,” he said sadly, biting his lower lip. “This feller’d be a bit too old fer you.”