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Kimball let me wear the suit of livery he had me put on, my lord,” Frederick replied. “He engaged me because he thought it fit me best.”
    â€œJust so. Unlike so many, you know how to wear a cravat. Rare in someone your age. Of any age, come to that. Commendable.” Lord Schofield tugged at the cravat tied around his own neck and cleared his throat. “Tell me about this orphanage. How did you come to be there?
    â€œIt all happened before I can remember, so I only know what I’ve been told,” said Frederick. “The orphanage at Lincoln’s Inn is much the same as any other orphanage, I am sure. I was sent there when me mum—my mother—died having my baby sister. My baby sister died too.”
    Lord Schofield looked grave. “No other family?”
    Frederick shook his head.
    â€œWhat of your father?”
    â€œDon’t know as I had ever one, my lord. Will that be all, my lord?”
    â€œNo, it will not be all.” Lord Schofield gazed piercingly at Frederick, as if he were trying to see right through him. “I wish to ask you to assist me with an experiment. Do you have any objection?”
    â€œWhat sort of experiment?” Frederick asked, then coughed and added hastily, “I mean, no, my lord. No objection, that is.”
    Lord Schofield regarded Frederick with approval. “It is only good sense for you to inquire. The experiment I have in mind will not harm you in the least. If what you have told me is true, we will be finished in five minutes, and I suspect it will seem to you to have been an utter waste of both your time and mine.”
    Although very much against the idea of helping a wizard do anything, Frederick couldn’t think of any safe way to refuse. “Very well, my lord.”
    Lord Schofield turned for the door. “I shall conduct the experiment in my study. Follow me. Don’t speak unless you must, and at all costs, don’t touch anything .”

    Together, Frederick and his employer made their way to Lord Schofield’s workroom. As his lordship unlocked the forbidden door and let them into the room where he did his wizardry, Frederick felt a thrill of excitement.
    It was a spacious room, lit by a large brass lamp like a turnip with tentacles. The floor was bare. Except for a long table in the center of the room, there was hardly any furniture. The walls were lined with shelves of books and scientific equipment. If he closed his eyes, Frederick had the sense the room was crowded, as if there was a party going on just outside of his range of hearing.
    Marveling, Frederick let his gaze travel around and around the room. On the shelves with the books he recognized a clock, a set of scales, a globe, and what looked like a lizard in a green glass jar.
    Frederick knew it was wrong to point, but he couldn’t stop himself. “What’s that?”
    Lord Schofield finished lighting the lamps. “I told you not to speak unless you must.”
    â€œBut what is that thing?”
    Lord Schofield sighed. “Once it was a lizard. Now it is merely a travel souvenir. If you have no further questions, I will begin. Stand over there. Don’t move. Don’t say another word until I tell you that you may.”
    Frederick took his place near the table and watched in fascination as Lord Schofield drew a circle around Frederick with a bit of blue chalk, muttering the whole time. When the circle was complete, Lord Schofield made another circle, far smaller, a few feet away. Then he put the chalk on the table, held one hand in the air, put the other in his pocket, and said some words Frederick didn’t understand.
    Frederick’s ears popped and abruptly the smaller circle was no longer empty. Standing inside it was a creature like a grumpy little man, hardly up to Frederick’s knee, dressed all in green.
    â€œOw.” The little man glared at Lord Schofield. “I was asleep, you know. No call to haul me