A Broken Vessel

In this second mystery in Kate Ross's "Julian Kestrel" series, we meet Sally Stokes. Sally is what you might call a working girl, and to keep the work from getting boring, she’s created a little game, stealing a handkerchief from every gentleman who rents her favors. It’s nothing more than an amusement until one of her handkerchiefs proves to contain a note, written by a desperate woman who is, apparently, being held against her will. From which client’s pocket did Sally pluck the fateful rag? Sally’s easily bright enough to crack the mystery herself, but her brother is something of an expert in pocket-plucking. And even luckier, he is valet to Julian Kestrel, a dandy whose mind is even sharper than his trouser-creases, and who is easily as amused by playing sleuth as Sally is by the handkerchief-game.