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sagged against the door with a muffled curse. “I appreciate your help, Hawkins,” he said smoothly. “Give my thanks to her ladyship.”
    Spitalfields. It was the first break he’d had in more than a year of frustration. Many of the more adventurous thieves employed a moll to distract the victim while his pocket was picked. What better distraction than a lovely young Gypsy telling fortunes?
    And yet, as far as he knew, no pockets were picked, and the Cat always worked alone. Perhaps he’d changed his ways.
    Still and all, Jessamine Maitland was an odd name for a Gypsy.
    “ Here’s your share of the proceeds, my girl.”
    Jessamine looked at the small pile of silver coins Josiah Clegg pushed in her direction, doing her best to control her shiver of distaste both for the money itself and the man giving it to her. It was early afternoon, and the Fives Diamonds was sparsely filled. No one paid any attention to the somberly dressed young woman and the Bow Street runner in the darkened corner.
    “ Did they have to hang him?” she asked, making no move to touch the coins.
    Josiah Clegg laughed with that cheerful braying sound that set Jessamine’s teeth on edge. “He ran away from his master, stole three silver tea spoons and an ell of watered silk. What else would they do with him?”
    “ He was fifteen years old!”
    “ Old enough to know better,” Clegg said with his usual lack of concern. He was a heartless man but far from stupid, and he must have sensed Jessamine’s distress. “Now, now, Miss Maitland, there’s no need for you to get all sentimental over the lad. He would have just done it again and again, and well you know it, and sooner or later some poor innocent would have gotten killed. You stopped that from happening. You should be proud of yourself, doing your duty to society.”
    She raised her eyes to look at Clegg. He was not unhandsome in a thick-lipped, swarthy fashion, and he fancied himself a bit of a lady’s man. He’d never attempted any liberties with her, presumably because he knew her gift was of more value to him than her rather ordinary physical attributes. Their unlikely partnership had stood him well, assisting in the rise in his fortunes, and he wasn’t about to endanger that.
    “ I don’t like it,” she said quietly.
    “ You came to me in the first place, miss,” he reminded her. “You were the one who wanted to help.”
    “ I couldn’t ignore what I saw in the cards,” she said in a small voice. “That man... that creature murdered nine children. He had to be stopped.”
    “ And so he was. With your help and mine. And you ended up with a generous share of the reward for capturing him, didn’t you? You can’t say that’s come amiss.”
    “ I didn’t do it for the money.”
    “ Of course not,” Clegg said smoothly. “You’re a lady fallen on hard times, but a lady nonetheless, and we all know ladies do nothing for money. Still and all, your charitable work with the Bow Street runners has made your purse just a bit heavier, hasn’t it? And doubtless that pleases your mother and pretty little sister. What was her name... Fleur? Taking little thing. Quite a delectable little handful, I would think.”
    Jessamine froze. The very thought of Clegg even knowing Fleur’s name frightened her. It shouldn’t have. Clegg made it his business to know everything, and what eluded him he chased after until he discovered the answer.
    She was afraid of the man. She had no proof of his evil, just an instinctive feeling that came to her at odd moments, through the cards, and through her dreams. “You’ll leave her alone,” she said fiercely.
    There was a glint of smug amusement in Clegg’s dark face. “Of course I will, Miss Maitland. I wouldn’t want anything to upset you, now, would I? And if something happened to your sister, it might distress you so much, you’d have trouble concentrating on the cards. As long as you’re so very helpful to me and to society, I’ll