I did not participate, the subject being rather close to me. During my first months at this house, a young Irishwoman had been killed, for which I still blamed myself. That incident had led to Daniel and I revealing a Fenian plot against the queen. Daniel had been in Ireland recently, and today, when the prison wall had been felled by the Fenians, he’d been very quick to the fray.

What had Daniel to do with Fenians? I wondered, my heart speeding as I gathered ingredients for the evening meal. Or had he simply happened to be at Scotland Yard this afternoon, and joined the constables in their rush to the prison?

He’d been sent to Scotland at one point, and also to Paris, where he’d worked with Miss Townsend. Daniel disappeared from London frequently, and I did not always know where he’d been sent. I reasoned that all these journeys did not necessarily have to do with unrest in Ireland.

I had once believed Daniel worked for the Foreign Office because of his many journeys out of England, but he’d openly told me I was off the mark.

Perhaps the police held him in a sort of reserve, I pondered, until they needed a man for very dangerous jobs, such as rounding up Fenians or bringing down thieves of stolen antiquities. That would explain why Daniel truly did work as a deliveryman, so he could earn a living while he waited for the police to need him again.

“Mrs. H.!” Tess’s cry startled me out of my woolgathering.

I prevented myself just in time from pouring a stream of oil into a bowl of sugar, and I quickly set down the carafe.

“Maybe I should see to the dinner,” Tess said, taking on the gentle tone one uses for the infirm. “You’ve had a shock.”

“I am perfectly fine.” I redirected the oil to dress the greens I’d torn up and added a splash of vinegar and salt. “You have already done much today.”

Tess subsided, but she kept a sharp eye on me as we progressed to the white sauce for the cauliflower, and then the fish in clear butter.

*   *   *

I did not expect Daniel would visit me that night, and he did not. I remained in the kitchen anyway, sipping tea and writing my notes until very late, until I had to give up and turn in.

The next day was my day out, Thursday, but I needed to visit the market—as I hadn’t actually done so yesterday—and Tess and I departed for it very early. We stocked up on much produce, bringing home fish and greens I thought the freshest. After we returned, Lady Cynthia came down, accompanying Miss Townsend, who’d arrived once more to resume her drawing.