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cleverest man in London.”
    Westcott made a choked sound.
    â€œTo my knowledge, you were not misinformed,” Radford said.
    She bit her lower lip, bringing the chipped tooth into sight for a tantalizing instant. “How odd,” she said. “Because I should have supposed that even a man with a very small brain and only the dimmest awareness of Society’s million unwritten rules would realize that I’m not in a position to engage detectives. Ladies, you see, Mr. Radford, are not permitted to hire professionals, except in a domestic capacity.”
    â€œRight,” he said. “I wonder how that slipped my mind. Perhaps it was your appearing here in cunning disguise. Most intrepid of you.”
    â€œI’m in disguise because ladies are not allowed to haunt the Temple in search of lawyers.”
    â€œBut you do see how I might have thought otherwise,” he said. “Looking at you, I might suppose an upheaval in social mores had occurred while I was busy elsewhere, getting criminals hanged—­or not, as the case may be.”
    â€œMores have not changed an iota from what they were in my mother’s time,” she said. “If anything, they’ve grown stricter. My grandmother—­but I digress, and I know your time is precious. You seek justice for five innocent children, a Herculean task. I apologize for taking you away from that worthy challenge for even a moment. If you have no useful advice for me, I’ll leave you to it.”
    â€œMight you offer a reward?” he said. “Or is that not allowed, either?”
    She gazed searchingly at him this time. She must be trying to read him. That would take some doing, since he wasn’t fully present, in a manner of speaking. He stood apart from himself as he always did—­or tried to do. Today he was having to work harder than usual at merely observing the proceedings.
    â€œDo you know nothing whatsoever about ladies and the rules they must live by?” she said.
    â€œYour ladyship would be amazed at how little he knows in that regard,” Westcott said. “Haven’t seen him much at Almack’s, have you? Never marked his presence at Court? A person would never guess his father was the Duke of Malvern’s heir presumptive—­”
    â€œAs though that signified in the least,” Radford said sharply. “The beau monde and I are not well acquainted, for obvious reasons, I should think, they spending little time in criminal courts, and I being gainfully employed therein.”
    â€œThen I had better explain, lest the next lady you encounter decide you are deranged or brainless,” she said.
    â€œDo you suppose that’s of any consequence to me?” he said.
    â€œI should think a lady’s opinion of you would carry some weight were she considering your ser­vices to prosecute a villain,” she said. “Or, say, in a case of homicide, if she hoped to avoid the gallows.”
    â€œIf you kill anybody, Lady Clara,” he said, “I shall be only too happy to offer my ser­vices.”
    â€œIf I kill anybody,” she said, “I shall be far too discreetly ladylike about it to get caught. But I thank you for the offer.”
    He looked into her unusually attractive face and believed her. “May one ask—­”
    â€œOne may not,” she said. “That would spoil the fun. In the meantime, I ought to point out to you that a nobleman’s daughter may not hire detectives or post rewards for missing children. If we were permitted to do such useful things, why, where would it stop? Why should we not hire detectives to help us find husbands? Or post rewards for same? I daresay we should have a better chance of finding our soul mates in that manner than you seem to think I shall have in finding Toby Coppy.”
    â€œI should think advertising would save a deal of bother,” he said. “All those nonsensical social