“How did you meet Nurse Betts?” I asked, gentling my tone. “In the first place, I mean.”

“At the Foundling Hospital, of course.” The answer was ready. “As a member of the board of governors, I joined them for inspections at the Hospital, meetings with the staff. Nurse Betts was on hand to answer questions. She’s a well-spoken lass, and kind. I noticed her kindness. I was struck by it.” He turned appealing eyes to us. “You must understand that in my lifetime, both before I was respectable and after I became a vicar, I have encountered the most deplorable people. Those who pretend to be kind usually are scheming to take every penny you have and possibly your life. The exception has been Nurse Betts.”

“Ah,” Lady Cynthia said. “Love ensued?”

“Not quite.” Mr. Fielding’s laugh was breathless. “I have never allowed myself to trust enough for that. But I liked her, quite a lot. I first asked her if she’d take a walk with me, and as we strolled, we talked. Talked about many things. I saw her again, and again. For about, let me see, four months, we have been ambling through London’s parks and conversing about . . . everything. I’ve never suggested more to her—what do I have to offer? The living here is not much. She makes a better wage at the Hospital, in fact, and she dotes on the lads and lasses and doesn’t wish to leave them. Besides, she is an angel, and I—” Mr. Fielding gave us a self-deprecating smile. “Well, ladies, I am not. The collar notwithstanding.” He touched it as though it pinched his throat.

Mr. Fielding might deny falling in love, but the tension in his voice, his body, spoke the lie. I could see he cared deeply for Nurse Betts, and that fact made me like him better.

“You said you feared she has gone searching for the children herself,” I said.

“Yes.” His answer was quiet. “She is that sort.”

I subsided. Lord Russell had lied about the fostering, or at least his records did. Why? I knew the perils children could face in London, which was why the Foundling Hospital, as grim as it was, existed. The children were safe within its walls. Lonely and afraid, yes, but bodily safe.

If it were no longer the haven it should be, and Nurse Betts discovered this, she might be in grave danger, indeed.

But then, so might Mr. Fielding be. He’d marched into the office of the director and demanded to be told about the missing children. One would have to be terribly unobservant not to notice the connection between Mr. Fielding and Nurse Betts. Mrs. Compton in the kitchen had known, and now feared for her.

Something was going on in the Foundling Hospital, possibly something terrible. It made me sick to think of.