"So how was your visit with Mr. Culvert?" she asked.
"Good. We went to the Domestic Service school in Clerkenwell."
"Oh? Lucy said Mr. Blunt came here while we were both out this morning. Did you see him?"
"I did. He wants you to schedule a séance. He's being haunted." It was perhaps best not to tell her that Jacob was the culprit. Somehow I didn't think she'd see the funny side to it. My sister prided herself on her morals and taking money for a séance where the ghost was a friend of mine probably bordered on unethical in her book.
"I'll pay him a call tomorrow, or this afternoon if the weather clears," she said.
"Keep your eyes and ears open for any suspicious characters." At her raised eyebrows, I explained what had happened at the school and everything Jacob had learned afterwards from the boys. She sat on the sofa and listened without interrupting me.
"Oh dear," she muttered when I finished. "Do you think Mr. Blunt knew about the Finch boy's visits?"
"It's hard to say."
Lucy entered with a cup of tea for Celia. "Wait a moment please, Lucy," Celia said, taking the cup and saucer.
Lucy's gaze flicked between Celia and me before finally settling on my sister. "Yes, Miss Chambers? Is everything all right? I've not done wrong, 'ave I?" Her forehead creased and she looked like she might burst into tears. "I've been trying so 'ard to do everything right, I 'ave. I'm so sorry if I ain't done it the way you like but there's so much to remember and-."
"Calm yourself, Lucy." Celia smiled serenely. "You've done a superb job so far. We're lucky to have found you, aren't we, Emily?"
"Oh, yes! Very lucky." I smiled too. Lucy seemed to relax a little.
"We want to ask you a question about the North London School for Domestic Service."
Lucy brightened. "Really? That's all? Oh I can answer anything you want to know then."
"I went there today," I said. "I met Mrs. White and Mr. Blunt."
"She's such a kind lady is Mrs. White, ain't she. So nice to us girls, she was." The omission of Blunt from her praise wasn't lost on me.
"Yesterday you said Tommy Finch visited his sister when she was still a pupil at the school. You said no one told Mrs. White about it, but I wondered if it's possible another adult there knew of his presence."
Lucy shrugged. "Could've."
"Might Mr. Blunt have known?"
She shrugged again. "Don't know. Maybe."
"But someone must have let him in to the building."