“Where did you learn to work a counterweight?”

Silas’s lips tightened. “Where men paid for my labor.”

Pike entered behind him. “He does not need conversation.”

Daniel looked down as Silas passed. The right heel left a diamond print with one corner missing. Silas carried the proof on his feet. But Daniel did not know whether Crowe was a conspirator, a frightened laborer, or a man paid to commit one small act without understanding the larger purpose.

That night Daniel slept on a cot outside the forge, a chain attached to one ankle. The guard set his lantern on an overturned barrel and snored. Through the open shutters Daniel could see the drying house dark against the sky. He imagined the counterweight falling; he imagined the gallery crowded; he imagined the noise afterward and Pike pointing at him.

Then he remembered Catherine’s expression in the breakfast room. She had demanded his removal, but she had looked surprised when Pike mentioned the trader. She had said nothing about the new bracket. An accusation could be hers and a murder plot somebody else’s. The two did not have to be the same lie.

Daniel slept little, because each possibility threatened a different person and required a different response.

4. A WOMAN WHO HAD MADE HERSELF A WEAPON

Mercy Bell came to the forge at first light carrying a bundle of stained rags. The guard had been called away to inspect a broken fence, leaving Daniel with a boy named Aaron who was meant to watch the path rather than the prisoner. Aaron stood outside listening for footsteps.

Mercy knelt to wipe grease from the equipment. “Your sister says you need a wheel tooth.”

“It is a phrase. I need to know where Lady Catherine was after she left the shop.”

Mercy’s hand stopped. “I cannot tell you everything.”

“Tell me one thing you know.”

Mercy pressed the rag against the floor. “She came upstairs crying angry tears. Not frightened. She went into her room and locked the door. The bracelet was on her wrist when she entered.”

Daniel closed his eyes for half a second. “You are sure?”

“I unfastened the cloak. I saw it scrape the door.”

“Did she leave again?”

“No. I stayed in the hall until two because she kept asking me to bring hot water, then sending it back.”

“Who had access to the room?”

“Her maid, me, Mr. Pike. And anybody holding the duplicate key he keeps because he says the lady loses things.”

Daniel looked up. “Pike had her bracelet?”

“Maybe. But I heard a conversation through the adjoining room. She said, ‘I will say what you ask. I will not have blood on my hands.’ He said, ‘Then keep them clean.’”