About this story
Instead, Cecil's frightened family draws him toward locked doors, a sick man's business and a disputed inheritance. Each offer of help brings another withheld explanation, leaving the former soldier to work out whose interests his kindness is serving.
How it opens
Bertie Payne had left the army for charitable work when a child's dash into Constitution Hill brought him between a hansom and a frightened family.
The boy would have been under the wheel if I had waited for someone more qualified to act.
Colonel ErringtonYou acted quickly, Bertie, but a rescue can bind a stranger to a household before he knows its troubles.
Colonel Errington had been summoned from Paris by his father's paralysis, while the young aunt tried to keep Cecil and Charlie safe.
AuntieCecil is my charge, and his mother will ask why a gentleman has taken such interest in us.
Then I will return the child safely and ask no favour except that he be watched more carefully.