“I suppose I understood enough to take us a little closer,” Emily said, “though we didn’t so much solve this mystery as vanquish it after it uncloaked itself. If I had lost my sister to that fiend, I would never have been able to forgive myself for not seeing it all. You see, Mr. Barraclough, I didn’t understand until then that a woman could be capable of such cruelty.”

“It seems we underestimate females in every quarter,” Zerubabbel said with a small smile.

“What were you doing that night, if I may ask?” Emily’s eyes widened. “Were you part of Clifton’s debauchery?”

“I most certainly was not.” Barraclough examined Emily’s face for a moment, weighing her up before he went on at last. “I was visiting my beloved, my Agnes, who, forgive me, I have loved as a man loves a woman these last fifteen years.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “And now I see why you are such a private man, Mr. Barraclough. But why will you simply not marry Agnes? You are both free?”

“Agnes was married already—she’d done so very young and regretted it at once,” Zerubabbel said. “Every so often I check for the man’s health. As yet, he is still living. Still, we are settled as we are and hurt no one.”

Emily thought for a moment. “Mr. Barraclough, may I tell you a secret of mine in exchange for yours?”

“You may,” he replied gravely.

“I did solve one mystery entirely, but it is such a delicate matter that I have vowed to speak of it to no one, and it is most vexing because none shall know that I am terribly clever.”

“You may burden yourself upon me,” Zerubabbel said with the merest twitch of his mouth.

“The mystery of John Rafferty.” Emily lowered her voice. “A boy we assumed for good reason to be the child discovered in the chimney. However, once it was established that the poor child was Lady Hartley’s unfortunate son, I could not stop thinking of what had become of John Rafferty. And then I remembered something Mr. Markham had told me, about the workers’ cottage where John’s mother still lived. I wrote to her at that address and asked her a simple question. The reply came this morning, and I am proved to be correct, though I burnt the letter at once and will carry its contents to the grave. Just as soon as I’ve told you.”

“What did you discover?” Zerubabbel asked patiently.