‘I see. I …’ Simon picks up a dry pen and fiddles nervously with it. She wonders if he is remembering those plundered Edinburgh graves. ‘I advised you against that practice for some very specific reasons,’ he says in his professional voice. ‘Foremost, I consider it a trick, but that is not my only objection. It is the … exposing of the mind, if you will. Those women give themselves over to a suspension of common sense. They encourage nervous agitation. No doubt there is a feeling of freedom to it all, but surrender of conscious control is not … something I would wish for you. Your health has never recovered from the pneumonia. It should not be tested in any fashion.’

She considers telling him what she has seen at the séances and decides it is better not to. It is one of those phenomena a person must experience for themselves.

‘You had my best interests at heart, as you always do, Simon. The elder of the women involved is indeed a grasping, mercenary thing, full of affectation. But the medium herself … She’s a child, an innocent child, and I have caused her such trouble.’

‘How so?’

Her cheeks warm to recount the circumstances. She will exclude the part where she climbed in through the window, if she possibly can. ‘Oh, Simon. You will hardly credit how foolish I have been. I could not afford the fee for a séance, but I thought I might get some clue, something to help me find Cedric … So I persuaded the little medium to see me in private without her sister’s knowledge. We were caught and I am so afraid that the girl will be treated unkindly for my error.’

‘I see.’ Simon turns the pen in his fingers. ‘That is most … regrettable. Yet I suppose the child did disobey her guardian, and must be punished as she sees fit. Distasteful to the feelings as it is, we have no right to interfere …’

‘The sister is not her legal guardian, though. The child has a father living. Do you recall me mentioning a man with phossy jaw?’

His forehead wrinkles. ‘We … spoke around the topic, I believe.’

‘And that is another blunder I have made.’ She makes a steeple of her hands and leans her nose against it. This whole conversation is an exercise in mortification. ‘Forgive me, Simon. It is not only strangers I have caught up in this mess. I may have implied that … you … might operate upon him … in return for the child’s services.’

Simon presses his lips firmly together.