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be the first time I have been accosted. As you can imagine, my admirers are legion.”
    “Admirers?”
    “They tend to balk at twenty inches of steel.” Rising slowly, Lady Law’s diminutive form did not seem ruffled in the least. “It was nice to meet you,” she said, pocketing the goggles as though leaving to run a leisurely errand. “I will exit first, on foot, and leave my Hi-wheel for you. Direct my driver straight to the Pegasus. Mr. Grant seems hell-bent on keeping you to himself and you would be wise to indulge his protectiveness.
    “Before I go, is there anything you wish to give me—any recollection of Georgina at all—to help me gain a foothold in the case? Anything she may have said, any unusual acquaintance she may have made, a debt, a fanciful tale, anything out of the ordinary?”
    “Umm…um, no, not that I know of. She was a good girl. I didn’t know her friends very well. Rupert, her latest boyfriend, seemed harmless enough. I can’t imagine she’d get…I know she wouldn’t get mixed up in anything untoward.” Julia stifled the sudden urge to lash out at something.
    “All right, Julia. You stay safe now and I will be in touch. Enjoy your flight.”
    “You…you too. Take care, Lady—”
    “Harriet. You may call me Harriet.”
    Julia’s mind raced between the door and the hidden parasol blade. She reiterated, “Harriet.”
    “Yes. All my friends call me that.”

Chapter Five
    Her pulse throbbed, but Julia waited in her seat until first Lady Law, then the mysterious stooping man in the green bowler hat left the church, a few moments apart. Who was he? Did he mean her harm? If so, why show himself at all inside the church? Why not simply wait outside and take her by surprise?
    The meeting had been a cordial one and Lady Law—Harriet—had revealed more about herself than expected. That, too, now struck Julia as a little odd. Almost nothing about the case itself had been discussed, nor Georgy for that matter. Not the most propitious beginning to an already late investigation.
    An old couple and a vicar exited via the main doors. Reassured, Julia gave the sign of the cross and then followed them out, holding her breath while she scurried down the steps to the steam-powered Hi-wheel. “Driver, wharf number fourteen, please. Quick as you can.”
    “Right you are, miss.”
    She climbed in and put her goggles back on. A deep, prolonged sigh left her light-headed, even a little giddy as the machine accelerated, its steam cylinders hissing, the crank wheels and pistons working overtime to spin the front wheel. The man in the green bowler hat and his accomplice were nowhere to be seen. Where had Harriet led them? Up an alleyway? Would she use her blade or merely flash it to scare the living daylights out of them? What a woman! But who the deuce was she really ? Beneath the Amazon-in-a-corset, what made her tick? Fighting crime and all that ballyhoo sounded good for the headlines but, woman to woman, there was something missing in Lady Law. Julia hadn’t put her finger on it right away, but the realization hit her now as though she were watching her mother’s face in those last moments in their old house—a chill feeling of finality, overwhelming them both—before their move to a new life condemned to the breadline. Julia shuddered. She had seen Lady Law’s cold poise before, felt that same bitter anchor tug at her in those few years before her mother’s death. Yes, Harriet Law was missing something. One of the things that Georgy had possessed in abundance.
    Hope.
    Lady Law was a woman sharpened to an angry point—a blade inside a parasol—and she had found something better than hope to see her through. She had a mind and a talent no one could touch. That made her formidable, cold…and perhaps impossible to truly know.
    Julia tried to settle against the thinly cushioned backrest as the vehicle clattered over the cobblestone. She looked forward to seeing Aloysius Grant again, but how