In the morning, Cecilia found Miss Rangaswamy in the parlor, the hinged gilt tryptic frame open in her lap.
“Good, you’ve found your frame. Mr. Martin brought it back last night after you’d retired for the night.”
“Yes, yes. I was tired, but I did not sleep,” Rani said. Fatigue grayed her complexion and echoed in her voice.
Cecilia crossed the room to sit by her side. “It is not to be wondered. You are sick with worry for your little Krishan, though you have stood up to everything with commendable fortitude.”
Rani shook her head, and when she looked up, her eyes glistened with tears. “I think over and over in my head how it might have been different.”
Cecilia patted her hand. “Such thoughts are useless. We must move on from where we are. And didn’t Mr. Martin say that the kidnapping would have happened one way or another? If events occurred in another manner, you might have been injured, or worse.”
“You think this is true?” Rani asked.
“I know it is true,” Cecilia countered. “I forget you weren’t there to talk to Mr. Martin last night. He believes Soothcoor’s nephew has been sold as an apprentice to a chimney sweep.”
Rani wrinkled her nose, and her brow furrowed. She tilted her head. “A chimney sweep? What is this?”
“A man who cleans chimneys. In the city, we use more coal for heat, and coal creates a mess in the chimneys. They need to be cleaned to prevent fires.”
“And this chimney sweep, he cleans the chimneys to prevent fires?”
“Yes, but in the city, the chimneys are not straight, and they narrow above the fireplaces, so the chimney sweep takes on boys as apprentices to help him clean the chimneys. They are called climbing boys, as they climb the chimneys and work their way through the maze of chimney flues to clean them.”
Rani shook her head. “Krishan would not like to do that work. He would be afraid.”
Cecilia sighed. “Most boys are. The sweep has ways to force them up the chimney, and sometimes he lights a fire under them to keep them going.”
“No!” “Rani’s face paled. “And Mr. Martin, he thinks Krishan has been sold to this chimney sweep? How does he know this?”
“Remember the young boy who sent Mr. Thornbridge to you?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Martin recruits boys like him to be on the watch and listen to what goes on around them. Men don’t pay attention to a child in the area.”
“Oh, like Mr. Thornbridge and Mrs. Dunstan tell me when you pretend to be sick.”
Cecilia laughed. “Yes, it is the same with children and sickly, whining woman. Men don’t pay attention to them. One of Mr. Martin’s recruits saw the transaction. He only paid attention when he heard the child speak, as his voice and accent were different. He said the boy tried to fight and run away, but they tethered him to the man selling him and then to the chimney sweep.”
“Sahib say slaves are not allowed in England.”
“Yes, this is true,” Cecilia said. “However, the exchange of money for a child to be taken into an apprenticeship is common. It is not considered the same as slavery. An apprenticeship contract generally runs for seven years, and it is thought to provide the child with a useful trade. But it is not a safe trade, and many climbing boys get stuck in chimneys, fall down a chimney, or have some other horror occur to them.”
Rani wrung her hands together and visibly shuddered.
Cecilia lay a hand over Rani’s. “We will find him. I have a plan.”
Rani looked up at her. “How?”
“I learned last night that it is typically the housekeepers or the butlers that arrange for chimneys to be cleaned. Through the good offices of Mrs. Dunstan and Mr. Charwood, we will recruit the upper servants in London to arrange for chimneys to be swept. It is a good time to do so with many families away for the holidays. They will be given flyers with the picture of Krishan so they can identify him. Those flyers will be here soon. And James and I are offering a five-hundred-pound reward for finding Krishan.”
“That is great wealth!” Rani said, her eyes wide.
“Yes. It might even entice the chimney sweep who has Krishan to claim the reward if he learns of it. Mr. Martin’s network is spreading the word.”
“Excuse me, madam, the flyers are here,” said Charwood from the parlor door.
“Excellent!” Cecilia exclaimed, rising from the sofa. “Please bring them in.” She pointed to the side table as she walked toward it. “I should like to see them. Did the boy bring them?”
