“Really, though! It’s wonderful! Look at all this, here at my disposal! And I am free to work through the night … all night … every night I choose to do so … and no one bothers me.” He cast a loving gaze around at his domain. “I am free to explore, to examine, to test, to … well … it’s just wonderful, is what it is. I would offer you some tea? It’s brewing in one of the burners.”

“No thank you, I just had a cup. As I said, I won’t take much of your time but I wanted to say thank you for what you’ve done.”

“Thank me? Oh Matthew! I should thank you! This is my dream come true! The dream of any chemical researcher! And the professor says I’m to go with Belyard day after tomorrow to Swansea to the medical supply house there, so I can stock up on some elements that are in decline here. So really … my thanks to you, sir, for making this all—”

The door from the outer area suddenly opened.

Julian came in. He stopped short.

“Matthew,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know you were here. The front door was unlocked. Pardon me, I’ll come back later.”

“Hello, Mr. Devane,” Firebaugh said coldly, still bearing the scars of his wounded ear and the cut down his forehead into the right eyebrow. “Now please leave, unless you’d like a taste of my latest mixture.”

“What might that be?”

“It will in time be an improvement on common laudanum. At present it is poisonous enough to kill four horses. Come on, I need a test subject.”

Julian smiled. Matthew was unnerved by it and didn’t know exactly why. Julian wore a long gray fearnaught coat and a companion to his dark green tricorn sat rakishly upon the blonde hair growing from his scalp. The black gloves on his hands bore a slight sheen of blue.

“I trust Berry is completely herself again?” Julian asked Matthew.

“Yes, thank God. And the doctor, too, of course.”

“And no chance of further complications?”

“None,” huffed Firebaugh. “I know my chemicals, sir!”

“Excellent,” Julian said, his voice still quiet. “Leave us, Matthew.”

Now Matthew’s senses were at full alarm. “Julian, what are you—”

“I thank you, Matthew,” said Firebaugh, “for bringing me here and giving me all this bounty, but this beast deserves no appreciation! If it hadn’t been for him, Elizabeth Mulloy would still be alive! A fine young girl, dead because he wished a hostage!” Firebaugh turned his back on Julian and grinned at Matthew. “He’s a born killer … the type to kill young girls and, I’m sure, little boys as well!”

Julian was on him in three strides.

The knife was already out.

It glinted in the lamplight.

It carved another grin from ear-to-ear below the one on the doctor’s mouth.