It was as much a dichotomy as reconciling that he was a baseborn Bow Street detective and also the not-yet-proven-to-be-heir to an earldom.

“Your trap worked perfectly, Mr. Swann.” She inclined her head toward her uncle. “Except for the part where Bertie got shot. I do hope you’re faring well this morning, Uncle?”

Bertie nodded and poured her a cup of tea.

Daniel returned to his seat. “You must have played your part to perfection yesterday afternoon at Miss Montgomery’s. Earnshaw could not resist the opportunity to tie up yet another loose end. He had to believe that by today he would have erased all traces of his involvement, including silencing Mr. Coombe for good, and would escape unpunished. Just as well he didn’t discover that Mr. Coombe had already passed away earlier in the day, or he wouldn’t have come to kill him, falling into our trap.”

Juliette sipped her tea, her brown eyes shining with intelligence and satisfaction. “Mr. Earnshaw was already at Agatha’s when I visited yesterday. It was quite easy to allow him to see me returning the diary, talking about how Bow Street had finished with it and found nothing of interest to the case. I also told Agatha that you had mentioned that Mr. Coombe was coming back to himself and you intended to interview him on the morrow.”

She shrugged. “Mr. Earnshaw put a stack of papers atop the book, and when he excused himself, he picked up the papers and the book together. It was neatly done, and if I had not been looking for it, I would have missed it. As it was, Agatha suspected nothing. Especially as I had the original in my bag and put it on the table before I left. She will never know of the substitute stolen by Mr. Earnshaw.”

Daniel had to admire how far she had come in her spy craft in just a few weeks. It chagrined him to know she was more adept than he at the subtleties of intelligence work.

“You did well with the forgery, for the book Earnshaw took looks identical to the binding of the original. Who wrote the entries?” she asked.

“Owen Wilkinson. It turns out he’s a dab hand at copying signatures and writing styles. He does not know why I wanted them, but he was quick about creating them. I came up with some fairly innocuous entries for him to fill the book, and it seems they were innocent enough not to arouse Earnshaw’s suspicions.”

Sir Bertrand stroked his cheek. “Forgery is a useful ability in our line of work. Perhaps we can use Wilkinson in the future.”

Daniel kept his face neutral. He and Owen would most likely always have a scratchy relationship, but since seeing the boy’s living situation and the family he provided for, Daniel had more compassion and patience with Owen’s rough edges and prickly nature.