‘Mr Quinton has Jarvis in his sights because he empties the doctor’s pockets every night,’ she said. ‘Meanwhile Mrs Lyndsay continues to believe one of the new housemaids is to blame. She came from the Lock Hospital, and as far as Mrs Lyndsay is concerned, she is a fallen woman and therefore morally irredeemable.’

Raven thought that any such accusation levelled at Jarvis was absurd, but the notion forced him to confront just how limited was his knowledge of the man. For all he knew, the butler could have been getting away with helping himself for years, particularly as Dr Simpson paid no mind as to how much money was in those pockets.

‘I suppose we know little of what Jarvis does when he’s not working at Queen Street, do we?’ he said. ‘Though it hardly seems likely he’d be spending Simpson’s money in some den of vice. But Edinburgh is a place where all men have secrets.’

‘Indeed. So what might be your covert agenda?’

‘Me? Surely I am not under suspicion?’

‘If I were a detective, you’d be the first I would question. Someone who is always complaining about his financial situation. Bemoaning your lack of opportunities to earn more while Dr Simpson is ambivalent even when a thousand pounds is dangled before him. You would surely fit the bill for someone inclined to steal from his employer.’

Raven was relieved to see that she was smiling as she said this.

‘I suppose if anyone might get to the bottom of it, it would be this Quinton fellow,’ he observed. ‘I doubt I have ever encountered anyone wound so tight or so humourless, but I suspect those traits are the perfect antidote to Simpson’s tendency towards the chaotic. What do you know of him?’

‘Only what I have heard from Mrs Simpson. He keeps himself apart from the other servants. I know that he is married and lives with his wife in a house on Castle Street. He and Mrs Quinton have fostered a baby, a little boy called Rochester. Mrs Simpson arranged it.’

‘Rochester?’ Raven scoffed.

‘Yes. And I really don’t think you are in a position to criticise given names.’

She was laughing now, a sound Raven found immeasurably pleasing.

‘Perhaps you could try to find out more about him?’ she suggested. ‘You are better placed than I since he shuns the company of those below stairs.’

Raven thought it unlikely that the bloodless creature he had been introduced to would deign to converse with him either, but did not wish to appear unhelpful.

‘I will try,’ he said, hoping he did not sound as noncommittal as he felt. ‘In the meantime, I have some progress to report on our investigation.’