Well, that was all well and good for a boy and girl of the lower classes, or even among the offspring of merchants’ families. But a female royal who allowed a man to take liberties with her, a man who could never be her husband—such folly ruined her in society’s eyes and brought her family disgrace that would likely never be forgiven. His mind leaped toward possibilities he’d only vaguely feared before now.

What, exactly, had happened five years ago? His thoughts spiraled down to the bleakest of possibilities.

If Victoria knew about Donovan, and somehow learned of her daughter’s intimacies with him, she would have acted swiftly and decisively to prevent disaster. The only question was—how far had the queen gone to make the problem disappear?

“Supposing they did not simply walk and eat on the street with their classmates. Do you have any idea where they might have gone?” Byrne asked.

“At noon break?”

“Or other times.”

The man rubbed the knuckles of his hand with increasing agitation. “No. Of course not. If I’d known—”

“But if you were to guess,” Byrne prodded.

The professor shook his head, side to side, a great ox being led in a direction he didn’t wish to go. “I suppose the most likely place for a tête-à-tête would have been in one of the artists’ lofts where he was posing when he wasn’t working here. While Louise was still studying with me, Donovan stopped coming to model, you see. She seemed upset by this. Terribly so in fact.” The professor stood up abruptly but didn’t move from behind his desk. He studied the fleur-de-lis pattern in the blue-and-gold carpet. “Perhaps she went off to find him. She would have gone to the places he was most likely to be working or that she had frequented with him while he still worked here. I doubt he ever could have afforded his own room anywhere in the city. One of the artists likely would have given him a corner to sleep in.”

“Can you give me names? Anyone he might have worked for.” This was the precious connection he’d been waiting for. The back of his neck tingled with anticipation. Louise had been holding back, he was sure of it. Giving him only as much information as she thought necessary for him to track down her lover. Not daring to reveal too much for fear of his guessing the extent of her relationship with Donovan.

The professor sighed. “I can think of no one in particular. It’s been so long, you see.” He paced away from the desk, back again then away, hands clasped behind his back, deep in thought. “The boy seemed drawn to a brotherhood of experimental artists who called themselves Pre-Raphaelites. It was because of their avoiding the more modern styles and suggesting a return to a purer art before the famous Raphael did his fine work. But to my thinking, they were a strange and dangerous bunch.”

“In what way—dangerous?” Byrne stepped forward, wanting to shake the reluctant words out of the old man. He knew nothing of these artists, other than the general opinion that they had a reputation for loose living. He imagined a naïve, virginal princess becoming involved with such a group.

What had happened to her?

The professor said, “I believe there often has been trouble over their women. Affairs. Not that unusual, right? Made worse by the overindulgence of drink and certain drugs. The details, of course, I would have had no desire to learn. But I think the trouble among the artists in their group eventually split them up. I don’t know if any or all of them are still in London.”

“Can you give me a few names?” Byrne asked.

“Yes, there was John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, and others. Rossetti, he was what you Americans call their ring leader. Of course Donovan might have been posing for and boarding with someone else entirely. Who am I to keep track of these young Turks? But I believe if Master Donovan were in London today, he would still be looking for work as a model or else turning to something other than painting to survive.”

Byrne looked around the room, thinking: maybe, or maybe not. “You said he was an art student. What about selling his art? Was he any good?”

The old man gave a soft snort. “The boy had no talent. A pity really. I can’t believe he’d ever become a true artist. He saw painting as a trick, a way to earn money he didn’t need to work for. Donovan didn’t have the heart of an artist. I could see that much even then.”

Twenty-one

Byrne visited four other studios, looking for the artists the professor at the Kensington school had mentioned. All he learned was that painters were a notoriously slippery bunch. They seemed not to stay in any one location for long, moving after only a few months, often without paying their rent.

He finally found someone who knew Mr. William Morris. “He’s visiting friends in the city. Back from his country house in Oxfordshire,” an art dealer told him. Morris appeared to have found his calling and was raking in the rewards if he could afford a country estate.

“His paintings are selling well then?”

“Paintings?” The man laughed. “No, sir. Everyone knows he’s made a wild success of his furniture and beautiful wallpapers. Very popular his designs are.” Byrne hadn’t known. Evidently the man’s fame hadn’t yet spread to America.

When the butler at the house where Morris was staying reluctantly agreed to summon the artist to the door, Byrne quickly explained his reason for calling.

“I knew Donovan, of course,” Morris told him, planting himself in the threshold in lieu of inviting Byrne inside. “Many of us used him.” He blushed, as if there were something shameful beyond the obvious advantage taken of a young man in desperate need of money. “As a model, of course. As I recall, yes, there was an incident with a young woman.”

“Go on.”

Morris rolled his eyes toward the smudgy sky. His lips tightened, gaze became guarded. “As this is between men of the world, might I be frank?”

“Of course,” Byrne said.

Morris looked back over his shoulder into the house, as if contemplating continuing his story in the comfort of his host’s drawing room. But after a disdainful second glance at Byrne’s leather duster, all the dustier for his recent treks across London, Morris stood his ground in the doorway.

“Like most young artists, the fellow had his pants down around his knees more often than belted.”

No surprise there. “Understood. But I’m most interested in his friendship with a specific young woman who was well connected.” Until now Byrne had chosen to mention to Morris neither Louise nor her mother. To spread it around for whom he was working would inevitably generate gossip. He’d trusted her old teacher to want gossip even less than he.

“Yes . . . yes . . . quite so. Connected.” Morris began inching the door closed, looking paler by the second. “But I really can’t speak to that topic. You’d better go see Rossetti. It was at his studio, you see.”

“What was at his studio?” Byrne braced the toe of his boot against the door to stop it from closing all the way. Something in the man’s tone alerted him.

Morris’s jowls flushed a deep red, making him resemble a turkey with its crimson wattles. He straightened and stepped back from the doorway, signaling the end of their conversation. A proper gentleman was expected to stand back from the door and return to the street with grace.

Byrne threw a shoulder into the disappearing space between door and jamb, making it impossible for the man to shut him out. “What happened there?” he repeated.

Morris shook his head violently and coughed into his hand. “Listen, my good man, it’s just . . . I’m not at liberty to say.”

“Why not?”

“I’d rather not become involved, you see. Go see Rossetti. He’s gone back to the old place near St. Paul’s. Anyone in the neighborhood can point out the house. Now, that is the end of it, sir.” The man’s eyes flared with indignation. “Remove yourself from the property, or I shall summon the police.”

Byrne let him close the door this time. Short of throttling him, he’d get no more out of William Morris. Not that he was hesitant to use force on Louise’s behalf, if pressed to it. But he hadn’t yet run out of options.

It was now eleven o’clock in the morning, which he thought a perfectly decent hour to go calling on anyone, even a late-sleeping artist. He gave new directions to the driver of the hansom cab he’d requested to wait for him. But when he tapped on the door to the third-floor apartment in the building he’d been steered to by a young crossing sweeper, no one came to answer.

He fisted his hand and pounded louder. Covert noises issued from behind the door. It was clear whoever was inside had no intention of answering.

Byrne looked down at the knob, saw that it appeared to have been damaged, as if someone had forced the latch. When he laid his hand on the knob, it turned easily. He let himself in.

A large, black object flew at his head, missing by inches. And then only because he’d ducked.

He turned to see a cast-iron skillet crash into the wall beside him and land on the scarred wooden floor with a ringing thud.

“Oh, sorry there,” came a voice from across the room. “Thought you were the landlord come for the rent.”

“That sort of greeting would seem to encourage an invitation to vacate your rooms.”

“Yes, well, in this part of the city one has to take a firm hand with these people.” A portly dark-haired man with matching mustache and curling goatee looked around the edge of a canvas at him. He held a palette in one hand and picked up a brush in his skillet-heaving hand. Stepping back, he considered his project and spoke without looking back at his guest. “If I let him step in here anytime he wishes, he might take it for granted he can intrude upon my work at will. I’ve told him he must announce himself.” He gave Byrne a look. “Appointments are appreciated.”