Page 27 of The Trick of the Treasure
“What sort of something else?”
“Domestic service, dressmaking, millinery, teaching, bookkeeping, baking… We have former residents of the establishment in all of these positions and more.”
Bibby was frowning. “What d’you get out it, then?”
“The membership fee of our clients.” Constance shrugged. “Also, friendship, as a rule, and the guilty feeling of perhaps doing some good in the world.”
Bibby laughed, which lightened her sharp face and lent her a moment’s appeal. “You’re funny. Not like any reformer I ever met.”
“Well, we avoid those, too.”
Bibby’s eyes began to widen as they moved through Mayfair toward Grosvenor Square. “Lummy… Look, ma’am, I don’t know what to do. I never lived anywhere like this, never thought I’d… Well.”
“What do you dream of, Bibby?” Constance asked softly. “What do you long for when times are bad?”
“My locket.”
Reprehensibly, Constance almost laughed. “Nothing else?”
“Lots of things,” the girl whispered. “But none of it’s real.”
“Look, stay with us a few days and see how things suit you. You needn’t decide right away. When you’re well enough, you can just muck in with the housework. Here we are…”
Having deposited Bibby with Sarah, who was her lieutenant of the establishment, and ordered a square meal for their newest recruit, Constance went to her own private rooms to change into something more suitable for a morning call on the Devine household. At times like these, she missed Janey, who had been her lady’s maid, because she had to shout for one of the other girls to close the fastenings of her gown.
Aware she was early for a morning call, she prepared to be turned away at the door, while leaving her card. What she did not want was to be intercepted by Ben Devine’s mama, for she had no intention of inflicting her scandalous person on the unwary. She had already done so on the Lloyds, of course, but still…
The maid who opened the door of the Devines’ modest townhouse curtseyed but said at once, “Mrs. Devine is not at home, ma’am.”
“Actually, it is Mr. Benjamin Devine I am hoping to see.” Constance presented her card and walked inside before the maid got over the surprise and shut the door in her face. The girl bridled, but Constance’s cool assumption that she would be obeyed—entirely assumed—appeared to work.
“Please wait here, ma’am,” the maid said, indicating the hard chair in the hallway.
Constance did not have long to wait.
Benjamin Devine came clattering down the stairs less than a minute later. “Mrs. Silver! Please, come inside and tell me how I might help you.”
He led her into a pleasant room where the fire burned and the low sun shone through the window to give an impression of welcome. He did not close the door, but conducted her to a chair far enough away from it that they would not be overheard by lurking servants. Or parents.
He looked a trifle anxious as he brought a chair over to join her.
“I’m sure you know,” Constance said, “that Mr. Grey and I are inquiring into the disappearance of property from Mr. Lloyd’s strong room. At the moment, I am merely collecting observations from those who were in or around the house that evening.”
His expression of polite, slightly worried interest never changed. He was a better actor than he looked.
Constance sighed. “Perhaps it will save us some time if I tell you that I am already aware of your assignation in the garden with Miss Jemimah.”
Devine’s shoulders relaxed. “Not the sort of thing a gentleman wants to bandy about.”
“Certainly not in front of her father.”
“I assure you, my relationship with Miss Lloyd is everything that is proper and respectful.”
“Aside from clandestine meetings.”
“That was only the once,” Devine said hastily. “Because of her father’s return that day, everyone thought it best that I should not call at the house. But we wanted to meet, so…”
He trailed off and Constance left it there, hoping she had made her point. “As I said, I am only interested in your observations. While you were in the garden, did you see anything at all unusual? Anyone lurking in the mews lanebeyond the garden? Strange sounds? Any lights on in the house that should not be?”
