Chapter 3

“Please don’t be thinking poorly about my lady. She’s not the kind to be out and about with men all the time. I guess she must have fallen in love, but she won’t say. All she’ll say is she were alone with the man in a small house in Spitalfields. She were required to leave the house in a hurry and left her necklace behind.”

Dickens said, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Barkis. This is not an unusual case. Even though society imposes high moral standards on the love lives of respectable women, love must not be denied.”

“Indeed.” Mr. Forster glanced in Mr. Dickens’ direction. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Dickens’ face turned pink. “Now, John, no tales out of school, please.” The writer’s reputation with the ladies was rising as fast as his literary fame.

Blathers looked at me and raised his bushy eyebrows. I shrugged my shoulders. Blathers frowned. I nodded. Blathers’ head moved up and down in agreement, and he spoke, “Mrs. Barkis, Mr. Duff and meself is thinkin’ we may be able ta be o’ service to your lady. Can ya arrange a meetin’?”

“I can, and I will. I do hope you and Mr. Duff are armed. I think there has already been a murder.”