A woman sat in a creaking rocker, a child of perhaps two years in her lap, another leaning against her side, his head coming to about her shoulder. A girl of about six or seven huddled on a pallet, a shawl drawn over her head, and a boy of ten or so sat beside her. A table took up the center of the room, and a small shelf of crockery was all the kitchen the abode could boast. Two pallets on the floor and a rope-strung bed in one corner. And just the one chair.

Shame licked at Daniel. And a feeling of kinship. The lodgings he had shared with his mother when he was small had resembled this level of poverty.

Owen stared at him, defiance in his stance, daring him to say something. “This is my mother. Mum, these are two of the men I work with at Bow Street. Mr. Beck and Mr. Swann.”

A single room, five children, one woman. No father?

“We’ve got a job for you. It pays extra since it’s outside your normal duties.” Daniel decided then and there he would pay the boy out of his own pocket if need be. “We need a guard for a patient at St. Bart’s. It would mean working through the night. I’ll make it right with Sir Michael, but the man needs a guard.”

Owen reached for his coat. “Do I start tonight?”

Chapter 16

“SURELY ALONZO WILL RETURN NOW. If the urgency remains at their property in the Caribbean, he can hire a manager to take care of it. He’s been gone a week, and it seems forever.” Agatha linked her arm through Juliette’s as they strolled through Hyde Park. Behind them, Agatha’s maid walked at a discreet distance, providing proper chaperonage.

It was too early for much activity in the park, with the peak time of five in the afternoon still hours ahead. For now, they had the gravel path mostly to themselves, only occasionally passing a nurse taking an infant for an outing to get some air, or a lady’s maid hurrying through the park on some errand for her mistress.

Crisp sunny air streamed through the branches of the trees, where tight buds formed pale-green knots on the limbs. Flowers pushed brave tendrils up through the earth along the path. Hopefully, no frost would kill the plants before the cheerful yellow blooms appeared.

“If he’s somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, he will not know what has happened until he makes landfall, and then not until another ship has followed with the news. It will be weeks, at best, before he can return.” Juliette hated to dash her friend’s hopes, but a swift return of her fiancé seemed unlikely.