Chapter One
Solomon Grey wokewith a start as his carriage halted. He could only have nodded off for the barest instant, but it was enough to disorient him. It took him a moment to reach for the door and alight.
“Just go home,” he instructed his coachman. “I’ll send if I need you again.”
He turned his weary steps toward the black-painted door, beside which a brass plaque proclaimedSilver & Grey. Although it was technically daylight, the sky was the dreary, dark gray of February and a fine, cold mist of rain fell on his face, which at least woke him up a little. He let himself in with his key.
Mechanically, he hung his hat and his overcoat on the stand beside the door and walked into his office.
“Good morning, Solomon,” Constance said.
Instantly, the world brightened, as though the sun had come out. He smiled in surprise, opening his arms. “Constance.”
She arrived in a pleased little rush, giving him her lips and the sweetness of her embrace. Well, they were engaged to be married, and had been for some weeks now, so it was a perfectly proper greeting, if one sadly missed recently.
The trouble was, in this new business they shared, they were the victims of their own success. Word had spread that Silver and Grey were the people who could solve the most difficult and delicate of problems, from pilfering employees to missing family members. Since they didn’t like to turn anyone away—unless itwas a private matter between husband and wife—they had been flooded with work all winter. Which meant that they had divided the cases and rarely worked together anymore. Solomon missed that.
When he would have hugged her closer, she drew back a little, searching his face. She touched the skin beneath his eyes and cupped his cheek, a frown tugging at her brow.
“You look tired, Solomon. Are you not sleeping?”
Not without you. “I had a few matters to sort out at St. Catherine’s.”
A large building on St. Catherine’s Dock served as the headquarters of his other business, an empire of shipping and trade that was the source of his considerable wealth.
“Trouble?” she asked.
“No, just a few things I had neglected.” Delegation was never quite complete—or right, in some cases.
She linked her fingers to his and drew him toward the comfortable chairs by the fire. On the low table was a teapot, china crockery, and a plateful of scones.
“Our new cook at the establishment is proving to be a roaring success,” Constance said. “Her scones are delicious. Let me butter you one.”
He watched with simple pleasure as she poured his tea, cut a scone in half, and buttered it.
He bit into it immediately to please her, and it melted around his tongue, the fruit within sharp and sweet and demanding his full attention.
“My compliments to the new cook of your establishment,” he said sincerely. “Do I know her?”
Constance’s establishment washerother business, a discreet and very expensive brothel that she owned and managed as much as a charity for desperate women as a house of pleasure.
“Bibby,” Constance replied. “She had been learning from our old cook, who left us last week for one of the more expensive hotels, and she clearly has flair.”
Constance was always proud of her girls who made happier lives for themselves. Solomon was proud of Constance.
It was only as he finished the scone and reached for his teacup that he noticed there were three cups and saucers and three plates on the table. “Are we expecting someone?”
“Dr. Chadwick at half past nine? The man who believes his whole village has a problem? We decided we should both see him.”
“So we did.” There was no point in pretending he hadn’t forgotten, so he merely rubbed his tired head in the hope of restoring some liveliness there and recalled with some difficulty her current case. “Did you find the lost brooch?”
“Under her bed. Her servants are not dishonest, just lazy. I read them all a lecture and collected my fee. How is the bank fraud?”
“Solved. I have my report to write today and then I believe I am clear.”
“Then we are both free to investigate Dr. Chadwick’s problem,” she said. “If his whole village is involved, it might well take both of us.”
“I hope so,” he murmured, and her eyes widened in surprise, even as a smile began to spark there. “I miss you.”
