The next morning, Tess and I worked side by side until luncheon was served upstairs, and then I changed my frock for my half day out. I would meet Daniel and the others at Mr. Thanos’s flat first thing and then spend the rest of the afternoon with Grace.

I decided to walk to Regent Street on my own. Lady Cynthia would also be attending the gathering, but I did not want Mrs. Bywater to look out her window and see us strolling chummily down the street, so I left without waiting for her.

I set off north to Grosvenor Square and turned onto Grosvenor Street, intending to head east in a more or less straight line to Regent Street. I hadn’t reached the end of Grosvenor Street, however, when a hansom pulled beside me, containing Cynthia in her frock coat and tall hat.

“Get in,” she commanded.

“It isn’t far,” I pointed out.

“Far enough, and I’m not beastly enough to make you walk while I pass you by. Get in.”

Lady Cynthia was in a foul temper, I could see, and I obediently scrambled into the hansom. The cabbie at least waited until I’d seated myself before he careened the horse into traffic again.

Cynthia gazed at me with bloodshot eyes, which told me she’d imbibed a bit more last night than the small glass of brandy I’d given her.

“You were right to tell me to sleep, Mrs. H. Except for my blasted headache today, I am far less morose. Ready to take down so-called respectable ladies and gentlemen and shake Lord Russell Hirst until he lets loose the whereabouts of the young things.”

“Well said.” I patted her arm. “We will prevail.”

She gave me a nod. “I believe you will, anyway.”

Mr. Thanos’s new digs were in a large building in Regent Street, near Hanover Square and across from Argyle Place. The ground floor of the house held two shops—one a bookshop with leather-bound tomes on its shelves, the other a store that sold lovely porcelain from the Orient.

A fine address indeed. I wondered, as we descended from the hansom, about this patron from the Polytechnic, who could lend his lecturers such a regal place to live.

A polished paneled door between the shops opened to stairs leading to the flats above. The landlady took us up and into a sumptuous front room with a high ceiling, tall windows, and an ornate fireplace left over from the turn of the last century. The fireplace had been fitted with a coal fender, where a fire burned merrily, the red and orange flames cheerful against the gray day.

Mr. Thanos was taller and slimmer than Daniel, with dark hair he wore swept back from his forehead and warm dark eyes. He approached as his landlady departed, his smile wide as he held out a hand to me.