“It’s no matter, darling,” Elizabeth assured him. “Your mother and I won’t say a word. But you’re right. We should deal with her. I don’t suppose she mentioned when she would next be attending a séance.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked in confusion.

“Because the easiest way to stop her from bothering you is to have the spirits warn her against making this investment.”

“Didn’t the spirits tell her to make it in the first place?” his mother asked.

“Madame Ophelia told her to,” Elizabeth said. “My spirits might have a different opinion.”

“Won’t that make Madame Ophelia a little angry?” Gideon asked.

“Perhaps, but she also knows the investment is a con, so my prediction that it is dangerous will be correct,” Elizabeth explained. “Even Madame Ophelia won’t be able to argue with that.”

“And Elizabeth will once again be giving an accurate prediction,” his mother pointed out.

“What if she bans you from her séances after that?” Gideon asked.

“She’ll be even less likely to after another correct prediction, since it will convince her even more that I really can see the future and she can make a fortune off of me.”

“I don’t know how she could think that. Doesn’t she know I wouldn’t allow you to make a spectacle of yourself as a professional fortune-teller?”

“I’m sure she’s perfectly willing to destroy our marriage and help me obtain a divorce if necessary,” Elizabeth assured him.

His mother smiled sweetly. “But don’t worry, Gideon. It won’t come to that.”

—

Jake was turning into a regular Gideon Bates, early to bed, early to rise, although he doubted that Gideon stopped off at a pub on his way home from the office every evening. Having to report to an office so early in the morning was deadly dull, so he needed a little something to look forward to. Even still, it was only ten minutes after nine when he arrived at his rooming house that evening.

His landlady emerged from her own room to glare at him. “You have a visitor,” she told him with obvious disapproval. “She’s been waiting for hours.”

A woman? “Who is it?”

“She says she’s your sister,” the landlady said, not believing it for a second.

What would Lizzie have been doing here at this time of night? He hurried into the parlor, which was the room all the boarders used to gather and to entertain visitors of the opposite sex. But the woman waiting there was not Lizzie.

Jake frowned in confusion but decided to play along. His landlady would never permit a visit from an unrelated female, and he didn’t want to antagonize her. “Hello, sis.”

Freddie grinned slyly. “Where on earth have you been?”