Madame and Persephone had gone into the mysterious other room and a quick glance showed that whatever equipment had been in there was now stowed in a couple of wooden crates. A small safe stood at the far end of the room, and Persephone was on her knees, turning the dial.

“Put the money in here,” Madame said, picking up a carpetbag and dumping its contents unceremoniously onto the floor. It was packets of blank paper, banded the way a bank would band currency.

“What’s that?” Elizabeth asked, recognizing the most basic type of boodle, which would just be used to approximate the weight of actual cash when the bag was switched.

“Nothing,” Madame said, sliding the bag across the floor to Persephone. She began transferring bundles of cash from the safe to the bag.

“Papa will be so angry,” Persephone muttered.

“I’ll handle him,” Madame said.

“I suppose we should go, then,” Elizabeth said.

“Not yet,” Madame declared. “You must take the money.”

Elizabeth didn’t even bother to hide her astonishment. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you have to return it. We won’t have time to do it before we leave.”

“But I don’t know who you took it from.”

“I will give you a list.”

Before Elizabeth could even think, Madame had snatched a ledger from the top of the safe and torn out a page. “It isn’t all there. Robert lost some of it in a deal yesterday, but you can divide up the loss among them.”

“You trust me to do this for you?” Elizabeth asked, getting a little misty at the very thought.

“I think you know what will happen if you fail, and my blood will be on your hands. Do you want to carry that burden?” Plainly, she thought more highly of Elizabeth’s character than she had any right to.

“Of course, she doesn’t,” Anna said. “We’ll figure it out and return the money to its rightful owners.” She snatched the ledger page out of Elizabeth’s hand and scanned it. “Oh my, no wonder you were frightened.”

Persephone had finished her task and she closed and buckled the carpetbag. Madame snatched it up before Persephone had even risen to her feet.

“Here,” Madame said, thrusting the bag at Elizabeth. “Take this and return the money as quickly as you can.”

Elizabeth took the bag and nodded. “I will, I promise. And I wish you luck. I hope with all my heart that this will change my vision.”

“Just go,” Madame said, “before I change my mind.”

Elizabeth and Anna had started for the front door when it burst open and a man stepped in. Everyone froze for a long moment before the man said in a very unfriendly tone, “What is going on here?”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN