summer. He likes working with horses. But he should go to school, too. It will be easier in the country to mix the two if he takes to the life.”
He smiled. “How many other waifs have you taken in? Besides me.”
She blushed. “You are silly. But oh, Dragan, I have lots to tell you! I’m nearly finished here. I thought we could take Nick to a tearoom as a reward for working so hard, and I’ll tell you everything I’ve learned.”
“I’ll be happy to escort you.”
Accordingly, they were soon seated at a quiet corner table of a cheerful tearoom, and while Nick ate steadily, Griz spilled out everything she had learned from Miss Derryn and from Horace.
He listened with steady attention, and when she had finished, sat back in his chair. “So, she worked for your brother and was warning me. But you think Gabriel did not visit his betrothed that evening?”
“Or that he was late, or something else happened. There was definitely a strange stiffness in both women’s manner when I mentioned him calling there that night. But I couldn’t poke further without appearing rude. I will pursue it, though.”
“So, you think Gabriel was Nancy’s gentleman?”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“It would explain her murder. Presumably, he needs this marriage to Miss Derryn.”
“I think so.” Griz sighed. “The trouble is, she needs it, too. She is so happy to have him, it will hurt her if he is taken for murder. And then, the infidelity will not be easy.”
“Do you think she knows?”
Griz frowned. “I think she knows something. Not enough to prevent her marrying him.”
“It’s a theory that works with what we know, but we have no proof. Also, how did she know I would be at the theatre that night?”
“Perhaps she didn’t know. She came to meet Gabriel, saw you enter the opera house, and decided to warn you before meeting him. Only he was early.”
“But the man Junie saw was not Gabriel.”
“Gabriel’s friend?” Griz suggested with less confidence. “In which case, someone else knows the truth. And we would have two people running away from the scene before I got there. Or a hired assassin we will never find.”
“Junie thought him a gentleman. Besides, if Gabriel got someone else to commit the crime, why would he not have been with his betrothed? There is also the connection to Art, which is not yet obvious to me.”
“Or me,” Griz admitted, while Nick looked up from his cake at the sound of the name, looking from one to the other. Griz smiled reassuringly. “Art was building his criminal business, it seems, by shopping his rivals to the police. Gabriel was the one who insisted Goddard, the main rival, was spreading sedition. Horace didn’t really believe it, but it was enough to persuade the police to raid the rookery.”
“After which, the evidence of sedition disappeared,” Dragan said slowly.
“And Goddard is prosecuted for all his other crimes. Perhaps because the pamphlets were planted, because they would be traced.”
Dragan drummed his fingers on the table. “We need to speak to Art.”
Both Nick and Griz stared at him. Griz said tartly, “Art tried to kill us just for asking questions. Why would he speak to us?”
“He wouldn’t if he knew who we were,” Dragan agreed. “But even at the time his men chased us from the alehouse, the reaction seemed excessive. Murdering two strangers and a child who made him money, just to prevent us knowing…what?”
“A connection to Nancy?”
“To the police,” Dragan said. “As he saw it. To Gabriel, in fact. Art must pay Gabriel money. We need to know when and how, and that is our proof.”
“Proof of corruption,” Griz objected. “Not of Nancy’s murder.”
“Oh, I think Art might give that up if cornered,” Dragan said distractedly. “He won’t accept execution for murder if he can get a lesser sentence for lesser crimes.” His eyes refocused on her, and he stood abruptly. “Shall we go?”
***
“Go where?” she finally asked when they had dropped Nick in Park Lane and watched him scurrying down the area steps to the kitchen. “And should I change?”
“Ah. I never thought of that. I’m assuming you know where Gabriel lives?”
She stared. “He has rooms near St. James, but he will be in the office.”
Dragan’s lips quirked, and with sudden understanding, her breath caught. She didn’t know if it was shock or laughter.
“I can probably awe his landlady into letting us in,” she admitted. “but he will be bound to find out. Unless we can make up some excuse.”