“Because I am usually good at assessing a man’s character. Or a woman’s. Have to be, don’t I?”

“As a vicar?” Mr. Thanos asked, bewildered.

“He means as a confidence man,” Daniel broke in, voice dry. “Tricksters learn their marks quickly, and then decide their strategy for duping them.” He turned to Mr. Fielding. “I’m surprised you didn’t tumble that there was fraud going on. You usually have a nose for it.”

“I agree. And here, I’d thought—” Mr. Fielding broke off, as though realizing we stared at him.

“Here, you thought you could swindle them?” Daniel asked without surprise. “Of course. Why else would you convince them to elect you to the board of governors? How did you plan to do it? You once told me you helped look over the accounts. Why, so you could fiddle them?”

“I never had the chance to.” Mr. Fielding’s response was bitter. “The books were guarded like the crown jewels. Now I know why. It took the fear of horrific scandal to convince Russell to turn them over to us at all.”

“What about Nurse Betts?” Daniel asked. “Did you take up with her to find a way to skim from the funds?”

“Daniel,” I admonished. The jab was unkind, though probably not inaccurate.

“At first.” Mr. Fielding drooped as he admitted this. “I was trying to discover how the whole charity was run. In places like the Hospital, money is often lost between funders and the staff who actually spends the cash. If I latched onto the free-floating brass, who’d be the wiser? I wouldn’t be taking money from the children, you understand. Just the sundry funds that went into budgets that were never spent.”

“And then you fell in love with Nurse Betts,” I said gently, before Daniel could make another remark.

Mr. Fielding dropped into a chair by the fire. “I did. So help me God, I did.”

He spoke as a man surprised he’d experienced a softer emotion, surprised he could feel such grief. I sent Mr. Fielding a look of sympathy, and Daniel closed his mouth, understanding in his eyes.

Mr. Thanos cleared his throat. “But look here—there’s no mention in these books of bawdy houses at all. Some of this is in code, which I will need to break, but the words I can read make note of a farm. Nothing about brothels, I am happy to say.”

“Farm might be their word for brothel,” Mr. Fielding said. “Can’t bring themselves to name it.”

“Possibly,” Mr. Thanos had to concede.

Daniel took up his cap. “Keep going through the books, Thanos. I will double your regular fee if you can do it by morning. Kat and I are going to find out whether those children were truly in that house in Seven Dials.”

Mr. Thanos nodded and turned back to his desk, already absorbed in the problem.