Will bet it had, him and his father on deck together. He waited, and after a moment Kim went on, “We talked a little. Mostly me. I told him some things. What I was doing for the Bureau; about Waring; about you. I wanted him to know who I am. He can despise me on that basis if he cares to, but at least it will be accurate.”

Will took a deep breath. “If he doesn’t realise what you did—”

“I think he noticed,” Kim said over him, dry as dust. “Certainly he listened. Or at least he didn’t speak over me. He may have been thinking about something else.”

“What’s happened with Chingford?”

“Well, he’s woken up.” That was a relief: Will had hit him pretty hard. “His nose will never be the same but that’s unlikely to be his chief concern. We have him tied up in the ladies’ cabin. The girls are on deck, at the back. I think Phoebe’s been talking to my father.”

That would serve the Marquess right. Will reached for Kim’s hand. “What happens when we get back?”

“Chingford’s going to need a doctor. We’ll have to contact the Bureau, and the police.”

“What about this letter Knowle’s supposed to have left?”

“If it exists, there’s nothing we can do about it. I doubt it, though. He was playing to win, not lose.”

“Was that his grand plan? Getting people’s fathers out of the way?”

“Patricide as a money-making opportunity, and I suspect as a perverse form of vengeance on ‘good society’, by encouraging such a taboo act. The scheme was clearly close to his heart.” He made a face. “I suppose I can see why he came to loathe my sort so.”

“He could have got another job,” Will said. “And that’s what Pisces stuck on, and Waring? They were all right with a plan to start a plague in a city, but not with killing posh old men?”

“So it seems.”

“Christ.”

“Mmm. One might almost feel Knowle had a point.”

“None of them had a point,” Will said. “What the hell is wrong with people?”

Kim just shrugged. They sat together for a while, listening to the wind and waves, the snap of the sails.

“What was that story the girls had?” Will asked after a few moments.

Kim perked up slightly. “Oh, that’s hilarious. Worth the price of admission. It turns out Chingford’s been married for nine years, to a barmaid.”

“You’re joking.”