knees. The whole room was filled with the smell of new bread. Daniel was outside in the garden running around with a hoop and Pitt could hear his crows of delight through the open window.
He put his arm round Charlotte and kissed her cheek and neck and throat, regardless of the flour and entirely ignoring Gracie.
'We've solved it!' he said after several minutes. 'We caught the woman last night-in the act. Garnet Royce played decoy for us. She flew at him with a razor, and I jumped off the cab box to stop her, and Royce shot her, more or less to save me.'
Charlotte stiffened and tried to draw back, fear rushing up inside her.
'No,' he said quickly. 'She wouldn't have gotten me; I had already struck her with a truncheon, and there were others coming. But it must have looked bad to Royce. Anyway, she was completely insane, poor creature, and this is better than a trial and a hanging. It's all over. And I'm a chief inspector.'
This time she did pull away. She stared up at him, her cheeks flushed, her eyes wide, questioning.
'I'm proud of you, Thomas; you more than deserve it,' she said. 'But is it what you want?'
'Want?' Surely he had totally hidden his reluctance, his dislike of leaving the streets.
' 'You can have the honor of being asked, and still refuse,'' she said gently. 'You don't have to take preferment if it
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means sitting in the station directing other men.' Her eyes were perfectly steady and showed no shadow of wavering, nor any trace of regret for her words. 'We don't need the money. You could stay as you are, doing what you are so good at. If you had been directing others instead of speaking to the people yourself, would this case be solved now?'
He thought of Maisie Willis and the violets, the long cold hours spent on the cab box, and the moment when he had realized the M.P. who had accosted him for a ride had fresh primroses in his buttonhole.
'I don't know,' he said honestly. 'It might be.'
'And it might not! Thomas,' she said, smiling now, 'I want you to be doing what you enjoy and are best at. Anything else is too high a price to pay for a little more money, which we don't need. We can meet our expenses, and that is enough. What would we do with more? What is more precious than being able to do what you want?'
'I've accepted it,' he said slowly.
' 'Then go back and tell him you have changed your mind. Please, Thomas.'
He did not argue, he simply held her very closely for a long time, happiness singing inside him, beating like the wings of a great bird.
Grade picked up her bucket and, humming a little song to herself, went out the back door to empty it down the drain.
'Tell me about it,' Charlotte said presently. 'How did you catch her-and who was she? Why did she do it? Why members of Parliament? Have you told Florence Ivory? Have you told Aunt Vespasia?'
'I haven't told anyone; I thought you'd like to.'
'Oh yes-yes I would. I wish we had one of those telephones! Shall we go on the omnibus and tell her? Would you like a cup of tea first? Or are you hungry? What about luncheon?'
'Yes, yes, no, and it's too early,' he replied.
'What?'
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'Yes we'll go and see Aunt Vespasia, yes I'd like a cup of tea, no I'm not hungry, and it's too early for lunch. And your bread is rising.'
'Oh. Then put on the kettle. I'll finish kneading the dough, and you can tell me who she was and how
