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came down and he could see the wonder in her eyes. “You felt it, too. I thought perhaps it was just me, or that I was reading too much in to the moment—”
    “No. It was as…” He couldn’t stop his lips from twisting wryly. “Powerful as you thought. And as surprising.”
    An answering smile curved her lips. “I hadn’t thought of you before—you hadn’t thought of me, either.”
    “No.” He frowned at her, the her he could now see. “I can’t understand why.”
    “Does it matter?”
    He looked into her eyes, lit with a warm eagerness that was all he could ask, all he’d hoped for. “No. Not at all.”
    His arm slid around her; he drew her to him, and she came without hesitation. He lowered his head; their lips, eager to recapture the sweetness, touched, brushed—
    They both heard voices, then footsteps hurrying along the corridor outside.
    Reggie released her; quelling an uncharacteristically violent flash of temper, Anne stepped back and swung to face the door.
    Her heart was thudding, her lips throbbed.
    It took effort not to glare at Leighton when he entered.
    “Excuse me, sir, Miss Anne, but there’s an urgent message come for you, miss.” He proffered a salver on which lay a folded note.
    Anne took it. “Who brought it?”
    “A boy. He said the ladies at the house were in quite a state.”
    She unfolded the note, briefly scanned its contents. “Good heavens!” She heard the faintness in her voice, felt the clutch of sudden fear, felt the blood drain from her face.
    Reggie’s fingers closed about her elbow; he was there, beside her, strong, supportive. “What is it?”
    “Benjy. He’s been stolen away.” She could barely take it in.
    She offered Reggie the note, and he took it. She looked at Leighton, waiting for her orders.
    “The carriage—no, that’ll take too long. Find a hackney, and get my maid to bring my coat and bonnet, please.”
    “I drove here—my curricle’s in the street. I’ll drive you.” Reggie lifted his head and looked at Leighton. “Get the coat and bonnet—we’ll be waiting in the hall.”
     
    Reggie drove like a madman to the Foundling House.
    The first thing Anne noticed as Reggie drew up was the absence of children in the yards to either side. At this time of day, the yards should be overflowing with children, laughing and playing.
    Now they lay deserted.
    Inside was equally strange; a sense of suppressed panic reigned. Various women whose job it was to oversee the children hurried back and forth, footsteps echoing down the corridors. There was no sign of their charges.
    Anne went straight to the office and found Mrs. Keggs, pale and gaunt, collapsed in a chair.
    “Such a terrible thing, miss! That poor wee mite—whisked away he was by some gentleman! Some evil cur.”
    Anne dropped her bonnet on her desk. “Indeed—now it’s up to us to get him back.” Pulling up another chair, she sat and took the older woman’s hands in hers. At the edge of her vision, she could see Reggie blocking the doorway; the intensity of his gaze, fixed on her, kept her panic at bay. “Now tell us exactly what happened.”
    Mrs. Keggs gathered herself. “We only knew he was gone when we sat them down for lunch— he’d been playing with the others in the yards. According to what Robbie Jenkins and Petey Smythe told us, he must have been taken about an hour or so before that, as soon as they’d been let out after their morning lesson. Seems a black carriage was drawn up a little way along the street. When the boys raced down to the fence to climb it—you know how they do—the carriage rolled closer.”
    She drew in a breath. “According to Robbie and Petey, the carriage door opened, and a gentleman called Benjy by name—called him Benjamin. Beckoned him to come closer. Benjy went. He climbed over and down to the pavement, but he hung back at first. He and the gentleman in the carriage talked—Petey thought the man said something about Benjy’s mother. Then the