“That was part of the fun, acting in such a way that we would be the last people anyone would suspect of being the Masked Bandits.”

“You did that very well. You almost fooled me. But didn’t your family notice that you’d changed? Surely you weren’t always the absentminded entomologist.”

“I went off to England for boarding school when I was eight and stayed for university. I only came home for holidays, so they barely saw me for nearly ten years. Lily was the one who would have noticed a difference, but she died while I was gone. After her death, I’m not sure Robert would have noticed if I’d returned acting like a circus clown. The children were too young to remember me from before.”

“Why bugs?”

“I’d always been interested in them. I’m not saying that if I had my choice of careers, I would have studied bugs, but I like them well enough that it wasn’t too painful to spend so much time talking about them. The charade was easier before Robert died. Then I only had to play the obsessed amateur scientist in public. When I moved in with the children, in a house full of staff, I had to begin living the lie.”

He saw a police carriage ahead and turned the corner. “We’re getting close now, aren’t we?”

“You know the old theater on Eighth, just east of Broadway?”

“That’s it? You’re sure?”

“I’ve been there several times.”

He gave me a sidelong glance, then said, “Your charity project a couple of weeks ago—you were on the Battery when the troops fired on the children, weren’t you? That was why you were so shaken when you got home.” It was a statement of fact, not a question.

I nodded, even though he was focused on the road and wouldn’t see. “Yes. We were acting on information I overheard when I was at the governor’s house for that dinner party. The rebels decided to counteract the governor’s show of force and prevent a confrontation by having children there. I don’t think anyone counted on the soldiers being so spooked that they’d fire on the children.”

“That was what made the difference,” he said softly. “I’d been playing at revolution before, paying lip service to the cause. But that changed things. I don’t want my brother’s children growing up in a world where that could happen.”

“You almost got caught last weekend, though.”