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who was one of the very top lawyers in London at the time and a bit of a shadowy figure.’
    ‘Shadowy how?’
    She shrugged. ‘Government connections. Some have said he was a spy. What she was in touch with him for, nobody knows, because then the Gilbert Drummond thing happened and—’
    ‘You’re losing me completely.’
    ‘Sorry. Gilbert Drummond was a new teacher Elizabeth had hired to work at her school that July. He was twenty-six, handsome, dashing, but volatile. The story goes that he fell obsessively in love with her, and in September he finally declared his passion for her. When Elizabeth rejected him, he became convinced she was in love with someone else, went off in a rage and got a horse pistol … and you can guess the rest.’

Chapter Five
    ‘He shot her,’ Ben said.
    Kristen made the shape of a gun with her index finger and thumb, aimed it and clicked her tongue. ‘Single slug to the heart.’
    ‘So that was the end of that.’
    ‘Except there’s a mystery to it,’ Kristen said.
    ‘Even more mystery?’
    ‘I told you, I can get information out of a stone. I’m the only researcher I know of who’s found out that Gilbert Drummond couldn’t have fallen in love with her at all. He was actually gay, and his conviction for murder was a complete set-up. The real killer knew that Drummond wouldn’t bring shame and public scandal on his family by revealing the truth about himself, even though he was facing the gallows for a crime he didn’t commit.’
    ‘Very noble. So who did it?’
    ‘A paid assassin called William Briggs. As for who employed him, well, I’m still working on that one. Or …
was
.’
    ‘1851,’ Ben said. ‘Wasn’t that the same year old Stamford torched his house and killed himself?’
    ‘Actually, it wasn’t just the same year – they died in the same month. Just two weeks apart, Elizabeth on September sixth, her former husband on the twentieth.’
    ‘Maybe he did it out of grief for her,’ Ben said.
    Kristen wrinkled her nose. ‘Seems a bit out of character, don’t you think?’
    Ben pondered for a few moments. ‘Anyway, I don’t know much about writing books. But it sounds to me like you’ve got a great thing going here. Drama, murder, injustice, scandal, intrigue – why give up on it?’
    Kristen hesitated, as if uncertain what, or how much, to tell him. ‘It’s like I said. Because something else came up.’
    Ben could see the shadow of anxiety, intermingled with excitement, that had entered her face. The nervous light that had come into her eyes was similar to the expression she’d worn earlier when checking her messages. ‘You told me that this research trip had thrown up something unexpected,’ he said. ‘Are we getting to those trade secrets now?’
    She nodded. ‘You see, a few days ago I … I
found
something.’
    ‘Found something?’
    ‘Yes. Something that changes everything. The reason I’m stopping with the book. If my hunch is right and this comes off, I might never have to write another book again.’
    ‘You didn’t find the leprechauns’ gold, did you?’ Ben said with a dry smile.
    ‘No, I found something very real. Information that nobody else knows, that’s been kept a secret for a very long time. Just stumbled on it in the middle of my research, totally by chance, almost like it was sitting there waiting for me. Something big, and I mean
big
. I can’t say more than that. No offence.’
    ‘None taken,’ Ben said. ‘But I’m curious. Earlier on you didn’t want to tell me anything at all about your secret. Why tell me this much now?’
    ‘Because of what you told me,’ she said. ‘About how you helped people. People who might be in trouble.’
    ‘I said I used to. What’s the connection?’
    ‘Would you … I mean, would you still …?’
    He looked at her. ‘Go on.’
    ‘Just that … this
thing
I found out … there’s, well, a potential risk involved. Quite a bit of risk, if I’m honest.’
    ‘How big a risk