Maggie remembered a time when Reeve had offered Cora’s position to her and deduced that the governess couldn’t have been in residence long. “Are you making any progress with Elisabeth?”

Cora shook her head. “No, but then, I’ve been in this household for only a fortnight. She’s a strange child, Elisabeth. She’s intelligent—I suspect she can read, at least a few words. When I brought out my alphabet cards, with an apple for A and such, she looked at me as though I were a fool. But she mouthed the letters, even if she wouldn’t say them aloud.”

“She must have suffered some kind of trauma, though I can’t imagine what it would have been,” Maggie said thoughtfully.

“It certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with Mr. McKenna,” Cora replied. “The man’s the soul of kindness with that child.”

Maggie felt cold and lonely all of a sudden, and she wrapped her arms around herself and answered, “There was a woman here—Loretta Craig was her name—and it occurs to me that she might have upset Elisabeth somehow.”

“Miss Craig,” Cora reflected. “I’ve heard the maids talk about her. Maybe they know something that would help me reach Elisabeth.”

The distant jangling of a telephone reminded Maggie that she’d planned to contact Lady Cosgrove and ask for Tansy’s address. After excusing herself politely, she hurried off to follow the sound.

The chase led to an enormous room boasting a billiard table, a cluttered desk, hundreds of books, several settees, and a number of leather chairs. She stopped cold in the doorway as Reeve snatched the receiver from its hook and growled, “Yes!”

Maggie watched as his brawny back went rigid. “I want no excuses, Wilkins,” he said after a few more moments had passed. “If you have to turn every pub in Melbourne on end, you do it. I want my brother found.”

The man on the other end of the wire was talking so loudly that Maggie could hear him, though she couldn’t make out the words. Reeve grew more and more annoyed as he listened, then boomed, “Damn it all to hell, I don’t care what it costs! And I expect to find a report waiting when I come back!”

The receiver crashed into its hook beside the telephone and Maggie turned to flee, only to be stopped by a clipped, “Not another step, Yank.”

She was frozen by the glacial words, but she didn’t have to speak. She lifted her chin and remained stubbornly silent.

Reeve had to come around and face her, and he did, his eyes snapping, his hands on his hips. “Did you want something? A different room, perhaps?”

Maggie raised her chin another notch. “My room is fine,” she said. Reeve McKenna would roast in hell before he got a word of complaint out of her. “I merely wanted to use the telephone.”