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Growing up in the Steel, Penny learned well how to battle for her survival and protect those she loved.

A trapped animal was the fiercest of creatures.

She gained skills only developed in the darkest corners of the filthiest cells.

Strike first. Strike hard. Find the vulnerable spots.

Groin, throat, armpit, eyes, toes, fingers.

Penny did whatever must be done to win. To keep herself and her mother safe.

But she couldn’t protect Harriet by scrubbing floors in a Belgrave mansion while her mother cowered in a dank, dark, stone cell.

Just imagining her mother’s suffering was enough to refuel Penny’s determination.

Finding evidence against Lord Renquist and earning her reward money was the only way Penny could rescue her mother.

She would do what she must to get Harriet out.

Because Penny was still a trapped animal, even if her cage had clean floors, sparkling windows, and a warm bed.

Watching Constable Sweet pack tobacco into his pipe, gratitude and guilt filled her in equal measure.

He wouldn’t light the thing until he was on his way home, but the sweet scent of his particular blend filled her with a sense of comfort.

If it wasn’t for the constable’s help getting Penny her first position as a maid in a middle-class household ten years prior, she would still be in a cell with her mother.

‘These rich toffs in the House of Lords would rather have poor people rotting in prison – or even better, decaying in graves – than begging on the streets.’ Penny shook her head, her foot tapping incessantly on the stone steps leading down from the kitchen to the mews.

A frigid wind blew across the cobblestones, tugging at her hair and whipping her wrapper around her legs.

‘The dirty bastards deserve to be tossed out of their fine houses, work in the muck with the rest of us, and understand what it means to have nothing… be nothing… before they make their fancy laws to “help London’s most unfortunate”. ’

‘Careful, lass. That sounds awfully close to treason.’

Penny clenched her teeth and breathed deep through her nose, willing herself to remain calm, cold, calculating.

Her rage would help no one if she allowed it to diffuse her focus.

Penny had worked hard to school her emotions, be carefully neutral, hide the lessons she learned in prison, and move up the serving ranks as a demure and obedient domestic.

But in this unguarded moment with one of her most trusted friends, hatred slipped out unbidden.

‘I forgot myself, Constable Sweet. Sometimes, it just seems so hopeless.’ With her anger dissipating, depression sought to take its place. She pushed against the blackness, refusing to become despondent when so much depended on her being successful in this mission.

‘Little dove, you know it’s a waste of time to focus your energy on those rich blighters. Keep your mind here, on your investigations. You’re a right sharp tack. You’ll find a way.’

Constable Sweet’s affectionate words warmed the cold ball of frustration twisting in Penny’s belly.

He made a worthy point. Railing against the rich bastards who cared nothing for the inconsequential – like Penny and her mother – wouldn’t help her find evidence against the Marquess of Stoneway.

She needed to focus on discovering irrefutable proof to put a noose around the neck of one of these Devil’s Sons.

‘You’re right. Of course you are. I shall redouble my efforts.’ Penny forced more confidence into her voice than she felt.

‘The letters are the key, Penny. You’ll know them by the seal. These men all use the same seal on their messages. If you can find those letters, it’s proof he’s one of ’em.’

Penny nodded. ‘Head of a crow, body of a wolf, tail of a snake. Yes. I know. If the letters are here, I swear I shall find them.’

‘I only wish I could do more for you. I’ll keep my ear to the ground at the station, let you know if I hear anything that can help.

’ Constable Sweet rubbed a hand through his thinning, grey hair.

‘You know, dove, I might have some blunt to share if I hadn’t married a woman addicted to new dresses and fripperies. ’

Penny smiled despite the dire circumstances.

Constable Sweet often complained of his wife’s extravagant tastes, but he didn’t fool Penny.

The dear man would do anything for his lady-wife.

They had been a love match, something as rare as gold in Penny’s limited experience.

She shook her head, a mahogany curl escaping her cap before she viciously tucked it away.

‘No. You’ve already done so much for us. I couldn’t take your coin.’

‘Even if I had it to give.’ Constable Sweet’s lips twisted in a wry smile. ‘But my dear Mrs Sweet likes her lace and finery, and who am I to deny the woman when she’s given up so much to be with me?’

Penny had never met Constable Sweet’s wife, but she knew the woman was once the daughter of a count.

She refused a prestigious marriage to a viscount to follow her heart and wed a common man.

Constable Sweet would bend over backward to keep her happy.

It was the kind of romantic relationship one read about. If one could read.

One day, I will learn my letters. When Mother’s safe, and I’m settled in a fine house as a lady’s maid.

It was a fond dream, much like Constable Sweet and his wife’s marriage.

They almost gave Penny reason to believe in romance.

Almost. But sacrificing personal autonomy on the altar of matrimony seemed too great a risk.

It certainly hadn’t worked out for her mother.

Penny’s father took more than her mother’s heart with him when he died in the Middlesex House of Corrections.

He took her chance of ever having safety.

Security. Freedom. Penny learned young and well the only person she could depend on was herself. Her wits, work ethic, and cunning.

Wits, work ethic, and cunning she needed to employ with far more vigour.

She would find the letters linking Lord Renquist to the Devil’s Sons and their horrific crimes.

She would turn them over to Constable Sweet and collect her reward.

Then she would free her mother and get her settled into a common lodging until Penny could afford better.

She would find her dream job as a lady’s maid in a wealthy house, a position paying significantly higher wages than those of a simple house domestic. She would finally be at peace.

I was a good lady’s maid. Even if I only worked for Lady Drake a short time.

Constable Sweet’s connections helped secure her a place in Major General Beaufort Drake’s household a month after her mother’s imprisonment.

She worked for his then fiancée, Miss Millicent Whittenburg.

The young lady wasn’t what Penny had expected.

Resourceful, courageous, and ever so kind to Penny.

It was a shame the whole job had been a ruse.

Still, Miss Millicent – now Lady Drake – had been so pleased with Penny’s work, she wrote a glowing letter of recommendation despite being upset at her maid’s departure.

Penny would have stayed if she could, but that was impossible.

Her job as Millicent’s maid was the first she’d taken with an ulterior motive.

To find evidence against the Devil’s Sons.

Constable Sweet cooked up the idea and helped place her in Major General Drake’s household, granting Penny closer proximity to Lord Reynard Renquist, the Marquess of Stoneway’s younger brother.

Reynard was rumoured to have ties with the Devil’s Sons despite his friendship with the honourable Major General Drake.

She was close to proving Reynard’s connections, but her investigation into the matter was rudely interrupted by the man’s untimely – and in Penny’s opinion – highly suspicious death.

Unfortunately, coming close to proving something didn’t mean sixpence to stitches.

Reynard was dead and Penny hadn’t been able to connect him to the Devil’s Sons.

If she had completed that mission, the reward money would already be hers and Harriet would be sleeping in a warm bed with food in her belly and clean clothes on her back.

But Penny had failed, and her mother suffered the consequences.

Her new mission was the brother. Major General William Renquist, Marquess of Stoneway.

By all reports a much more wily adversary.

It only made sense Reynard’s older, more dangerous, more mysterious brother was likely a member of the Devil’s Sons.

He must have paved the way for Reynard’s admittance into the filthy fraternity despite the younger brother’s lack of wealth or power…

two things William Renquist held in abundance.

Two things the Devil’s Sons demanded from their members.

‘Constable Sweet, I know I failed in our first mission. After everything you did to get me my position in Lord Drake’s household – and now what you’ve done to place me here – I’m forever in your debt.

I won’t let you down. I’ll find evidence against this wretched man.

I swear it.’ Her voice shook with the weight of her determination.

Evidence against a member of the peerage as high as a marquess – only one step beneath a duke – would gain Penny her much-needed blunt and allow Constable Sweet to rise in the ranks of the Metropolitan Police.

They already agreed Constable Sweet would present any evidence she found and give her the reward money while he took the prestige of discovery.

It was a fair trade as Penny had no desire for notoriety and Constable Sweet was in no need of the money.

‘Never you mind about what I’ve done. None of it matters if I can’t keep you and your mother safe.

Lord knows you’ve suffered your fair share.

’ Constable Sweet lowered his gaze and shook his head.

‘No little dove deserves to grow up in a prison.’ He and his lady-wife had never been blessed with children and he’d often likened Penny to the daughter he’d never had.

He hunched into his coat, pulling a woollen scarf higher around his ears.

‘You best be getting out of this cold and back to your room before that Mrs What’s-’er-face catches you.

The last thing we need is for you to get dismissed. ’

She nodded. ‘I was able to sneak away after bedtime two nights past, but the confounding woman caught me just as I was leaving the servants’ quarters.

’ Penny almost had her ears boxed, but quick thinking saved her, as it usually did.

‘I told her one of the other maids had left her penny dreadful in the kitchen and was too scared to come down and retrieve it, so I offered to do so. Mrs Harding sent me back to my room and told me if she found the novel, she would toss it in the fire where it belonged.’ Lovely woman, Mrs Harding.

A delicate flower caught by whimsy and wrapped in maternal instincts. Penny almost snorted at her own joke.

‘Go on with you, little dove. Get inside where it’s warm.’

Penny’s lips twitched into a soft smile. ‘I’ll never forget everything you’ve done for me, Constable Sweet. If it weren’t for you…’ She let the sentence die.

‘Stuff of nonsense. What have I done that any other blighter wouldn’t have? I’ve known you since you were a wee mite. I’ll always do best by you, dove.’

A light caught Penny’s attention through the wavering glass of the kitchen window. Someone was coming down the hall.

‘Quick now! Off you go. We can’t have Mrs Har-ser-what’s-it catching you out ’ere with the likes of me.’ Constable Sweet pushed on the latch to the kitchen door and scooted Penny inside. She watched him scuffle into the darkness before swiftly turning to face the dreaded Mrs Harding.

Penny needed an excuse. Fast.

The lantern light grew brighter as heavy footsteps echoed on the wooden floor.