Blue Hand

Digby Groat

Digby Groat moves through London as a man of business — transferring leases, managing his mother's affairs, presenting himself as heir to the Danton millions. But everyone who knew him as a child remembers the same thing: a boy who pulled wings off flies and begged to watch the Friday slaughter. His contempt for the war, his weak heart, and his readiness to sign away what isn't his mark him as the story's central menace, the man Jim Steele is determined to stop before he succeeds.

Jim Steele

Jim Steele should be content pushing papers for Septimus Salter, but he can't let go of the Danton case: a missing heiress, a child who may have survived, and a man he openly despises. His war record and easy charm open doors, yet his stubbornness keeps him poking at a mystery his own employer thinks is closed. When he meets Eunice Weldon over tea, the search stops being abstract — and the danger becomes personal.

Eunice Weldon

Eunice Weldon met Jim Steele when she bandaged his burnt hand at the Regent Street studio where she works, and their daily teas have grown into something neither quite names. She is practical, warm, and unimpressed by duchesses — but she has just accepted a position as Mrs. Groat's secretary, which places her under the same roof as Digby. Her parentage, her birthplace, and her new employment all quietly converge on the Danton case, whether she intends it or not.

Mr. Salter

Mr. Salter runs a modern London practice in the dress of 1850, and he has spent years quietly tracking the Danton disappearance while his clerk Jim Steele chased it openly. He teases Steele with the name Lady Mary Danton and the riddle of the Blue Hand, refusing to explain until the right moment. His caution and his private inquiries make him the story's keeper of secrets — and the man who decides when Steele is ready to hear them.

Mr. Villa

Villa belongs to the shadowy circle around Digby Groat — Spaniards, pilots, and men with reasons to fear English gaols. His death is discussed on a terrace with the same cool calculation as a flight schedule, and it tells you everything about how Digby treats his own people. The discovery of his body is one more thread pulling the conspirators toward exposure, even as they prepare to flee Kennett Hall.

Jane Groat

Jane Groat grew up at Kennett Hall as Danton's daughter, and her old friend Mrs. Weatherwale still keeps the letters from the days she fell in love with a Spanish man. She is now Mrs. Groat, mother of Digby, and her signature is required on documents she may not fully understand. Her past holds the key to the Danton inheritance, and her present silence — or complicity — is one of the story's quietest and most troubling puzzles.