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Gideon laughed at that, longer and harder than he’d laughed at anything for a very long time. “Do you think I have time for planning such things? I have been rather busy with settling matters in a murder inquiry.”

When he’d burst into laughter, she’d smiled and chuckled too. Now there was color in her cheeks and amusement dancing in her eyes, and he found that was far preferable to talking about the case that had occupied his mind over long days for the past week or so.

“I’m focused on my work, for now,” she said a moment later.

“Your psychical consultations?” he asked.

“And assisting with the occasional murder investigation,” she said archly.

Gideon groaned and gripped the glass of wine the waiter had poured.

“Don’t look so pressed,” she teased. “I have been helpful.”

“You have, yes.”

“But?”

“Every time you become entangled in a murder investigation⁠—”

“You are extremely grateful for my assistance?”

He worried incessantly. That’s what he’d intended to say, but the mirth between them was too appealing to sour it by sharing his anxieties.

“Your help has been invaluable.” Gideon had no desire to encourage her involvement in future cases, but he couldn’t deny that fact.

“I will take that.” She smiled, but then turned serious again. “The truth is I still have a great deal to learn about my abilities,” she admitted. “The vision I saw of you in Lance Pennington’s study happened when I touched Mrs. Devlin, not you or Lance Pennington. It is odd. And it wasn’t a divination of any danger, which I suspected my visions were.”

Gideon considered how extraordinary it would be, and perhaps disorienting, to possess such abilities. “However it works, what you are able to do is remarkable.”

For a moment, she stared at him silently, her eyes slightly widened, her breath seemingly stalled as if his admiration for her psychic gifts stunned her.

Then her mouth curved in a smile and a glint of mischief lit her eyes.

She lifted her glass in a toast, and he took up his glass with trepidation, fearing she was already looking forward, too eagerly, to the next time she could use her remarkable gifts in an investigation.

Instead, she said, “Happy belated birthday, Gideon.”