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“Yes. It was beneath her shawl.”

Judith considered the information. Was there enough to convict her of treason?

She needed proof that the messages concerned military intelligence.

“Will you leave the brooch with me?”

Miss Hammond looked alarmed. “My sister expects me to deliver it.”

“Tell her you have done so.”

Miss Hammond rose. “Miss Finch, I would not wish to cause Augusta any trouble. She has been very good to me.”

Judith did not offer her opinion on how Lady Dunsmore treated her sister like a slave. “I need to see her account book. Do you think you could get it for me? I shall return it before she asks.”

“Are you certain? Augusta says she wishes to leave today.”

“Just pretend she misplaced it again if she looks for it.” Judith smiled reassuringly, although she herself felt anything but reassured. She considered the woman’s anxious face and the manner in which Lady Dunsmore spoke to her. Miss Hammond looked as though she might say more, but instead she drew her shawl about her and hurried away.

Judith remained beside the desk, turning the brooch in her fingers.

Could Lady Dunsmore be a traitor? The possibility seemed extraordinary and yet the more she considered it, the less extraordinary it became.

Her ladyship was forever demanding that servants carry messages, retrieve belongings, and attend to her dogs. She had every opportunity. She wandered through the house at all hours, complaining of draughts, uncomfortable chairs, and insufficient fires. She asked endless questions about the guests and repeated every answer with such enthusiasm that no one considered whether she might have wished to obtain the information in the first place.

Judith remembered an evening when Lady Dunsmore had questioned Lord Cranford about his correspondence with London. At the time, Judith had thought the conversation another example of her ladyship’s insatiable curiosity. Now she wondered whether Cranford had been deliberately encouraged to speak.

A sickening suspicion settled in her stomach. She had told Lady Dunsmore more than she ought.

Miss Hammond returned shortly, shaking and agitated. “My sister has stepped out with the dogs.”

She placed the small leather-bound account book upon the desk.

Judith nodded. “You have done well. You may hide in my rooms if you wish until enough time has passed for your delivery to have been accomplished.”

Miss Hammond scurried away, needing no further excuse.

Judith slipped the book into her pocket, intending to examine it somewhere she would not be interrupted. Yet the mention of the cabinet continued to trouble her. She knew the cabinet well enough. It stood near the entrance to the disused western apartments, where few servants ventured unless sent to fetch something from storage. If Mallory or another accomplice had been leaving correspondence there, the arrangement would have allowed messages to pass between members of the household without attracting attention.

Judith decided to examine it before sending for Baines. If she found nothing, she would lose only a few minutes. If she discovered evidence of another exchange, she might finally establish how the information had been conveyed. She took the brooch and account book with her and made her way towards the west staircase.

Judith found the second piece of evidence in the small cabinet beside the west staircase. She had gone there intending only to examine the place Miss Hammond had described. The cabinet stood in a recess ordinarily used for spare candles and household odds and ends, and she had passed it a hundred times without giving it a thought.

Now she opened its narrow drawer and discovered a false bottom. Beneath it lay a folded paper and a small brass key. Judith unfolded the paper.

It contained a list of dates and initials, together with references to movements of men and equipment. Some of the entries corresponded with information Baines had discussed in Sir Lionel’s study. Others appeared to concern matters which had never been mentioned openly in Judith’s hearing.

At the bottom of the page, a final instruction had been added.

The Finch correspondence is to be retained until required. If the officers interfere, the letters will provide sufficient cause for an examination of her activities, and you will see it placed in their hands should it become necessary.

Judith stared at the words. There could be no innocent explanation.

Someone intended to use her correspondence as a weapon, and Lady Dunsmore’s brooch had carried instructions through the same network. She folded the paper and slipped it into her pocket.

Then she examined the key. It was small, old-fashioned, and marked with a faded red thread.

Judith recognized it. Years earlier, when she had first undertaken the management of Blackthorn, Simmons had shown her a collection of keys belonging to the unused rooms in the western wing. Several had been misplaced, including the one to her aunt’s disused sitting room connected with the servants’ passages.