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Dyer.”
    “That Thomas Dyer has already left your employ. We might have tried to trace the blackmailer through him, but even if we found him, we would still be no closer to your letters. Our only hope would be to discover something actionable, something criminal about this man ‘J.F.’ to use against him, for if we try to arrest him for his current crime, he will carry out his threat and mail the letters to your husband. When the time comes, we can attempt to negotiate with him and bring the price down, but short of that, there is not much that we can do now.”
    Adelaide sank against the cushions and closed her eyes. “I know you’re right; that is what I expected you would say.”
    “And what did you expect, Miss Joyce?” Mr. Porter asked, turning suddenly to me.
    “I—had no expectations, sir,” I responded. “I came to accompany my cousin.”
    “Indeed,” growled the agent. “How irregular. This is quite a sordid business for one so young.”
    “Dora is not easily shocked or overwhelmed, Mr. Porter,” Adelaide countered icily. “She has been my support through this sad affair.”
    Porter shrugged and rose abruptly from his chair. “Cartwright, you may look into this matter as you please. There is not much for me to do here.”
    I half-rose to face him, and, ignoring Adelaide’s heavy hand upon my shoulder, cried out, “But, sir, you have dismissed us without even trying! What of Hunt’s, the servants agency that recommended Thomas Dyer to my cousin? Should you not inquire at Hunt’s registry and see if he has put his name back on the lists? If the blackmailer and the servant have worked together in the past, then perhaps we can use that knowledge.”
    I might have stopped there if Porter had given me the briefest nod or murmur of acknowledgment, but he had picked up a newspaper and had started thumbing through the pages without looking in my direction. “Lady Forrester, your cousin is quite an excitable little thing,” he rumbled. “It is none of my concern, of course, but I have always felt that young girls cannot be too careful about their surroundings. They are so innocent, you see, and their innocence makes them both blind and vulnerable. Perhaps she would have been better off at home.”
    I had not expected that. It was true that I had not liked this so-called “detective” from the first; he was not the man I had hoped to meet. Still I had been prepared to sit quietly and judge him as favorably as he deserved. After all, it was not his fault that he was not Sherlock Holmes, and he was not responsible for my disappointment. But there was no reason to be silent now. My blood had been slowly rising to my face throughout the agent’s speech, but it was his final words that brought me to my feet. I was vaguely conscious of Adelaide’s restraining hand and the chagrined flush on Cartwright’s cheeks, and then my world went red. All of my cousin’s gentle training, all of my aunt’s good manners slipped from me like a threadbare cloak, and I let my outrage and hurt spill over.
    “I may be small, Mr. Porter, but I can see as far as you, and even farther,” I retorted. “A girl is better off nurturing her blindness, that is your position, is it? But then, sir, I could not give you the benefit of the doubt. I would be forced to think that this poor temper is your natural state and not due to the fact that you have not had a drink for near two days. Oh, don’t worry, the tremor in your hand is very fine, and you hide it rather well. An innocent girl would never notice it.”
    “Dora!”
    I really should have ended there. But I had discovered more about him, and he was staring at me now with such a look of baffled rage that I could not stop myself. “You were critical of my cousin from the first!” I continued furiously. “Why did you judge her like that and turn away? She never injured you. And yet the story of her old romance obviously upset you so much that you could not speak to her