‘Then I will have to learn it for myself.’ Though she had at first planned to go to Brussels and apply to Mr. Gilman in person, Jane decided to take advantage of the Chastains’ departure. ‘Might I send a letter with you to one of Vincent’s clients?’

‘You cannot believe that anyone is worried about business now.’

‘No. But I can rely on him to get word back to my parents.’ This was close enough to the truth that Jane felt few qualms about dissembling. Even had she not felt so untrusting of everyone and everything at this moment, Mr. Gilman’s secret was not hers to divulge.

M. Chastain acceded to this plan, though unwillingly. Mme Chastain protested vehemently that Jane could not be allowed to stay, questioning whether her reason was intact. But the steadiness of manner which Jane had perfected to mask her feelings served well to make these arguments seem invalid. Her purpose, she explained, was to discover Vincent’s whereabouts, then arrange to have him ransomed. She could not explain that he was a spy for the British Crown, but that fact gave her comfort that he would be ransomed, if she could but discover his location.

As soon as she could, Jane absented herself, returning to her rooms.

Her first order of business was to fulfil Vincent’s last wish. No. She would not think of it as his last wish, for that implied that he could have no others in the future. Rather, this was a request he had made of her before departing for a time. His absence, though deeply troubling, was but temporary.

Keep this safe. Resolutely, she rewrapped the glass Sphère in velvet. Then, rather than returning it to its place on the table under the window, she opened her wardrobe and buried the ball in one of her bandboxes, beneath a hat. If the need arose, she could gather the bandbox and flee. For the moment, though, she must acquaint Mr. Gilman with the circumstances of the last day.

Jane pulled paper from the drawer and sharpened her pen, considering. While she could make an attempt at the code which Mr. Gilman and Vincent employed, she did not know it well, and to write that Anne-Marie was an inferior Cotswold ewe sired to a Scottish Blackface failed to capture the nuances of the situation. To get them across she must write in plain text, and while Jane might trust M. Chastain to deliver the letter directly to Mr. Gilman, she had no such discreet route to receive a reply.