“Don’t worry, you’ll be with me. I won’t let you fall off. And later, if you want to, the duke and I will teach you to ride. Would you like that?”

He nodded. She mounted, then leaned down and held her hand out. “Take my hand, and when I say three, you jump as high as you can. I’ll swing you up in front of me. One, two, three.” And Phillip jumped.

Joy singing in her heart, George rode back to Lakeside Cottage, Phillip sitting up proudly in front of her. What a lovely surprise this was going to be for Hart.

As they neared the house, she saw him coming over the brow of the hill from the other direction, something bundled over the saddle in front of him. “There’s the duke,” she told Phillip. “What a fine surprise we’re going to give him.”

Both horses rounded the hedge at the same time and came to a halt. “Good God,” Hart exclaimed. The bundle in front of Hart wriggled and, with Hart’s aid, sat up.

They stared, unable to believe their eyes. On the saddle in front of each adult sat a small grubby urchin. George looked from one to the other and back. Small grubby identical urchins.

“Phillip?” Hart exclaimed.

“Danny?” said George.

“Danny,” cried Phillip joyfully.

“Phil,” Hart’s urchin responded.

George and Hart stared at each other, then Hart shook his head. “We’ll get to the bottom of this eventually, I’m sure—”

“But first, food and baths all round,” George finished for him.

*   *   *

“We were playing a trick on Mr. Jephcott,” Phillip explained between mouthfuls as the two boys plowed through a mountain of food. Mrs. Harris had cooked up a storm, but she’d insisted on baths before dinner.

“We swapped clothes,” Danny said. “He never even noticed. He doesn’t even know which one of us is which.”

“Has he gone?” Phillip asked.

That was a point. “I don’t know,” Hart said slowly. “I haven’t seen him today at all.”

“Me neither,” George said. “In fact, I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

Hart glanced at Mrs. Harris who was hovering maternally over the boys, and gave her a silent signal. She nodded and hurried out.

“So we were both dressed in the same kind of clothes—makin’ him see double, you see—and I was all ready to cross the lawn—he was snoozing in the sun as usual—when someone grabbed me and shoved a bag over me head,” Danny said. “I tried to yell, but they shoved a rag in me mouth, and tied me up and threw me into some kind of cart and took off with me.”

“I saw it happen,” Phillip said, “so of course I followed.”

Hart frowned. “You didn’t call for help?”

The two boys exchanged glances. “No,” Phillip said. He was holding something back.