He led the way to the kitchen door—with no actual door attached—and peered around the jamb. Over his shoulder, I could see the wall of a hallway and the gold glint of a picture frame, the painting within too dark to make out in the gloom.

“No one,” Evan whispered, then crept out into the hall.

I followed, immediately seeing the glow of candlelight emanating from the two front rooms. Close to the painting now, I could make out its subject: a depiction of a man and woman in congress, the woman clearly not consenting to such activity. It seemed tonight I was to be confronted by the Act from all angles. I averted my eyes and quickened my pace behind Evan, who was making his way silently toward the front rooms.

We passed a doorway—closed—and came to the staircase, its steps leading both down to the basement and service rooms and up to what would have been the living areas, if this were just a normal house.

Evan paused at the basement steps for a moment and looked back, eyebrow raised: Want to go down or keep going?

I pointed ahead: the front rooms would have been where the men had gathered.

We passed the stairs and made our way to the front of the house and the two doorways opposite each other. We stopped short of them; the doors stood open. Evan pointed to the left one and I nodded—I would check it. He crossed over to the right side of the wall, flagon raised. We both edged closer to our doorways. I tilted my head to peer around the jamb, rapidly scanned inside the room, then drew back.

Bookshelves, card tables, chairs, more bottles. But otherwise, empty. It looked like any other card gambling room. Across the hallway, Evan’s shoulders had relaxed a little, the flagon once more at his side. His room must be empty too.

He joined me on my side of the hallway.

“It’s just like a normal club,” he whispered. “Armchairs, sofas. It’s a mess, but that is typical after a night’s revelries.”

I nodded. Not the scenes of sexual debauchery I had dreaded. Perhaps they were upstairs, in the bedrooms. “I’m going to take a closer look in here, then maybe we should go upstairs.”

“I’ll take the other.”

We parted ways.