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“Why?” The housekeeper looked at her with suspicion and not a small amount of fear.

“Will you not give me your hand?” she said softly, cajolingly, as one might speak to a skittish pet one was trying to lure out of hiding.

“What do you want it for?” Mrs. Crawley had turned petulant, and Gideon had lost his patience with her.

“I think I can help you, Mrs. Crawley,” Electra persisted.

The housekeeper folded her arms and tucked her hands into her armpits. “No, thank you, miss. Fine as I am.”

Gideon wanted to shake sense into her. “Mr. Piper here looks like he’s been in a catfight. What has happened?”

“He tried to snoop and I pushed him away. Caught his cheek with my nail. Didn’t mean to,” she said in a surly tone.

“Where is Iris Delacourt?”

Mrs. Crawley’s eyes bulged at the name. “I didn’t know all of it. All right? I didn’t. When I came here, I knew things were odd. But for a long while, I didn’t know why. Mr. Kerrigan, he’s an odd man.”

“Where is she?” Electra demanded, then shocked him by walking forward and grasping Mrs. Crawley’s hand.

Mrs. Crawley didn’t pull away but she stared at the spot where Electra held her arm. “You won’t harm me, miss?”

“I am trying to help you, Mrs. Crawley, because if you lie, you will be an accessory to all the crimes Mr. Kerrigan has committed. You will hang.”

For a moment, Electra fell silent, and Gideon saw her spine stiffen.

Then Mrs. Crawley attempted to pull away.

“Calliope Collier,” Electra said, her voice low. “He had her here too.”

Gideon’s gut clenched.

The housekeeper began to tremble and shook her head, then finally wrested her hand from Electra’s.

He took a step closer to Mrs. Crawley, trying hard to remain calm. “I will ask you for the last time before having you arrested, where is Iris Delacourt?”

The woman’s face screwed up, as if she was in agony. “He took her!” she wailed. “He took her to Fourcross. Iris Delacourt. He wouldn’t tell me her name at first, but I guessed it. He kept them in the secret room.”

“What secret room?” Gideon couldn’t keep the anger from his tone.

“On the other side of the library, there’s a hidden room with bare walls. He asked me to put a meal there twice a day. I thought maybe he was…keeping an animal.” Her eyes darted away from him, and he didn’t believe her one whit. “But then I heard her crying.” Her face twisted in a terrible grimace. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“You might have considered going to the police,” Gideon bit out.

“Easy for you to say, sir.”

“No, Mrs. Crawley. It is merely the right thing to do.”

“We need to go to Kent,” Electra said, releasing the housekeeper’s hand and stepping in front of him, as if to draw his attention away from the fury the servant had inspired. “Now.”

Gideon looked into her eyes and felt resolve replacing ire. “Piper?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go out and find the foot patrolman.” Gideon opened his notebook and quickly penned a note. “Give him this note. A detective constable will be coming here, Mrs. Crawley, and you are to show him that hidden room. Keep nothing back. You will already be charged as an accessory to the abduction of a young woman. And possibly an accessory to murder.”

“No.” She crossed her arms, hunched her shoulders, as if trying to become smaller or perhaps comfort herself. “I never hurt them. I had nothing to do with taking them.”

“You aided him in keeping them captive.”