I shivered, in spite of the tea’s heat. “I hate thinking of them lost and alone, perhaps locked away, perhaps worse. Did Mr. Fielding tell you he’d looked for them, that the director gave him false addresses, pretending that was where the children had gone?”

Daniel nodded. “Yes, I wrested that out of him before he disappeared into his church.”

“We must find them, Daniel.”

“We will.” He rested his hand on mine again. “We will.”

I withdrew my hand, but gently. “I know you are trying to comfort me, but it will not work, not about this. We cannot wait. Every day they are missing might be one more horrible night for them.”

“I know.” The hard light returned to Daniel’s eyes. “I was like those children once, Kat. I know exactly what they might be enduring.”

I regarded him with sympathy. “I am sorry.”

“I grew tough. I had to. That is why Carter’s death infuriates me so.” Deep anger flashed in his eyes. “He gave us a place of safety. We didn’t have to fear the night when we lived with him. We could sleep in truth, like children ought. The night he was killed . . .” Daniel let out a breath that held old anger and grief. “I could do absolutely nothing to prevent it.”

He’d told me the tale, and I heard his anguish anew. I squeezed his hand. “You were only a child. There was little you could have done—you’d have been killed yourself if you’d tried to defend him.”

“I know.” Daniel’s blue eyes were quiet. “Perhaps what I do now is meant to make up for my helplessness then. I can ensure others stay alive and safe, away from those whose only wish is to kill.”

“You do help,” I said with conviction.

“Some days, I believe that. Others . . .” Daniel rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger. “What I do makes me lie and trick and be every bit the confidence man I say Errol is.” His voice went soft as he met my gaze. “And when you look at me in anger, Kat, the person in my life I least want angry with me, I wonder if I can be anything but a liar and deceiver.”

My heart gave a jerking beat as he looked at me with his warm eyes. I wasn’t certain I understood entirely what he meant. He wasn’t lying now—this man sitting with me was the real Daniel, telling me of his past and his worries.

But what did I know about him, in truth? Daniel assisted the police, though at the same time claimed he did not work for them. He had several residences throughout London, he disappeared entirely at any given time, and he knew how to transform himself into different guises, all of which were believed by the people he put them on for.

What guise did he assume for me?