“Anyone can purchase a suit and find a collar.”
Mr. Fielding’s amusement returned. “Yes, dear lady, I am. My name is listed among those who took a degree at Balliol. I did not gain top honors, I am afraid, but I finished. I was also granted the living in Shadwell—those records can be checked.”
“Why the clergy?” I asked. “You were allowed into a prestigious university, and you chose to study to be a clergyman?”
“I knew I was not clever enough for maths or the sciences,” Mr. Fielding answered readily. “Not certain I could pull off law either, having faced enough severe barristers as a youth for my comfort.” He gave me a serene smile. “Have you not considered that in divinity studies, I perhaps found my true calling?”
“No, rather you strike me as a man who seizes opportunities.”
The laugh he let out was more genuine. “I am indeed.” Mr. Fielding took my hand in a firm grip and shook it. “Thank you for seeing me, Mrs. Holloway.”
“Not at all.” I withdrew from the clasp immediately. “But you do not need to come to the house to quiz me for information. If I learn something about Nurse Betts or the children, I will tell you. Or Daniel will.”
“I doubt I’ll have any news from my brother,” Mr. Fielding said, resigned. “Old wounds run deep.” He gave me a brief bow. “Good day to you, dear lady.”
I gave him a cordial farewell in return and stepped back to let him depart.
As he opened the sitting room’s door, he resumed the befuddled expression of a minor vicar dazzled by, and a little wistful about, his visit to a great house of Mayfair. Mr. Davis, ever alert, appeared from the shadows of the back stairs with Mr. Fielding’s wraps and escorted him to the door.
Mr. Fielding was as good as Daniel about taking disguises, I mused as I watched him fumble with his coat, allowing Mr. Davis to help him. But Mr. Fielding had subsumed himself far deeper into his part than Daniel did in his, and I wondered if that made Mr. Fielding the more dangerous of the pair.
* * *
* * *
Elsie returned to the house as Tess and I were readying the evening meal for the table. The scullery sink was full again, as Tess and I had used plenty of bowls and pots to prepare the meal.
Elsie generally had a bright disposition, prone to singing or humming as she worked, but this evening her expression was troubled.
“I’m glad I went home today, Mrs. Holloway,” she said as I stacked more crockery on the table next to the sink. “Home” to her meant the Foundling Hospital. “I spoke to Mabel—had a good old chat with her. The maid Bessie has been worse than ever, snarling and grumbling one minute, paying no attention to anything the next. Nearly dropped a basin of water all over a matron, and didn’t that get her screeched at?”
“Hmm.” I wondered why Bessie was so out of sorts. It could be any reason, but I was growing interested in this surly maid.
“Mrs. Compton is very worried, Mrs. Holloway,” Elsie went on. “She sought me out when she learned I’d come for a visit. She’s afraid that other children have gone missing now, and asks if you’ll come talk to her about it.”
14
She is afraid they have?” I repeated, my heart growing heavy at the news. “Does she not know for certain?”
Elsie vigorously scrubbed a patch of sticky oil from a pan. “I asked Mabel. She thinks the two—a boy and a girl—were taken in by a kind family. But that’s what they thought about the others.” She poured more water she’d heated on the stove into the sink. “It’s terrible, Mrs. H. What if something happens to Mabel?” She turned eyes brimming with tears to me.
“Now, don’t take on so.” I wanted to reassure her, but wasn’t certain I could. “I will find out what is happening, I promise you. How old are these children?”
“Eight and nine, Mabel says. Mabel was being sister to the little girl.” Elsie wiped her eyes and returned to scrubbing. “She hopes you’ll find the villains and kick them in the balls. Exactly what she said.”
I had kicked a villain in his bits, or tried to, Monday evening, when I’d fought off the laboring men. It had been satisfying.
“I will,” I said stoutly.
Elsie summoned a smile, and I went back to the kitchen. I could promise many things, I realized, but whether I