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The kitten inside was very small and pure white, but it was obviously well cared for. There was a tiny pink bow around its neck, with a label that read,With Compliments, for the Duchess of Radcliffe.

Alicia picked up the tiny thing and held it against her. A rush of affection spread through her as the kitten stopped mewling and settled into her arms, beginning to purr.

When she looked up at the housekeeper, the woman’s eyes were far softer than she had ever seen them.

“My friend said she would send the kitten to me,” Alicia muttered awkwardly. “I suppose she kept her word. I will keep it in my rooms so it does not get under your feet, Mrs. Timmons. I assure you.”

The housekeeper had not taken her eyes off the little bundle in Alicia’s arms.

“Perhaps I could ask the cook to steam some fish for it,” she suggested gently, her hand moving as though to stroke the kitten, then drawing away.

Alicia quickly held it out, and the housekeeper smiled fondly, tickling beneath its chin.

“I had a kitten growing up just like it.”

“Well, you may visit her as often as you please,” Alicia said happily. “And thank you for the offer of the fish; that will do very well.”

Alicia took the kitten upstairs and placed her on the windowsill in her room, watching her pad about on unsteady legs.

She could not be more than a few weeks old, but she was interested in everything.

Alicia spent the rest of the day organizing her room so that the kitten could not escape, and trying to find a way to irritate her husband with the help of her new furry friend.

Perhaps I could bring her to the breakfast table and have her lick the butter.

“I suppose I shall have to think of a name for you,” she said as the little creature trotted toward her and lay down beside her leg. “Perhaps I should call you Lady Radcliffe—he will surely hate it.”

The kitten mewed and settled down to sleep.

Seth had been searching the house for almost three days but had not been able to find the correspondence from his friends.

They had always exchanged letters during the summer, and heknewhe had received several from Gordon, talking about the woman he had been seeing.

Seth had searched for her in vain over the years, butNicole Forsythedid not exist. The name she had given him when they had met on that fateful night was a false one. In all his investigations, he had never found a trace of her.

His subsequent search for their correspondence was merely an afterthought, a question of which box he had placed the letters in for safekeeping. But as he searched and found nothing, he grew angry.

He should have taken better care of them. They were the only letters he had from Gordon, and somehow he had lost them in the great halls of his manor. Heaven knew where they were; he had looked everywhere.

He was on his way to the parlor to carry out a final search when he heard a high-pitched sound come from the stairwell at the rear of the house.

Seth slowed his pace, frowning as the irritating sound continued. Had a bird trapped itself there?

Walking to the door, he opened it, only to step back as he saw Alicia’s brown hair below him. She was reaching through the banisters and plucking a kitten from the top of a barrel, where it had been stranded in the dark.

“I take my eye off you for a single minute and you manage to get yourself into trouble,” Alicia said, her voice taking on a babying tone as she cradled the kitten in her arms.

Seth made sure that if she looked up, she would not see him, but he watched them from the edge of the door. He was utterly confused as to where the kitten had come from.

It was pure white and very beautiful, with large blue eyes and long legs. He had always liked cats, but he felt that if he ever had one, it would disrupt the order of the household, not to mention get lost in the endless corridors he navigated each day.

Seeing Alicia again struck him with a strange mix of guilt and desire.

He had missed her, he realized. In his haste to find evidence of the existence of Gordon’s mistress, he had barely seen his wife.

In recent days, he had breakfasted alone and dined at his club, loathe to spend time on anything but his investigation.

Now, however, he felt foolish for ignoring her.