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The line went dead.

Eleanor’s stomach dropped. Whatever this was, it did not sound good. She wasn’t sure that she could handle bad news just at the moment.

“You alright?” Samson asked, peering at her face.

“Quite fine,” she murmured, getting her car keys out of her pocket. “Just… a quick errand.”

She flashed him a smile and strode away, heels clacking on the tiled floor.

ELIZABETH WAS ALREADY standing when Eleanor stepped into her neat office, looking uncharacteristically tense. A thick file lay open on her desk, its contents spread out in neat, methodical stacks.

Eleanor shut the door behind her. “Elizabeth, what’s going on?”

Elizabeth took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to say this, Nor, so I’m just going to tell you. Marren is suing you for the house.”

For a moment, Eleanor could only blink, then a smile spread across her face and she started to laugh. “Oh dear,” she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

But Elizabeth’s face didn’t change. “I’m not kidding,” she said. “I’m absolutely serious.”

A sense of cold dread began creeping up Eleanor’s spine. She stopped laughing. “No, no, you’re joking.”

“I wish I were.” Elizabeth pulled out her desk chair and sat down.

“But…” Eleanor tried to have a coherent thought. “But, that’s absurd! He can’t possibly think… What’s going on here?”

Elizabeth slid a document across the desk. “Read it yourself.”

Eleanor took the paper and scanned through the legal jargon. It made no sense to her, she couldn’t focus. The only words that drilled into her brain were the ones right at the top.Claimant: Stephan Marren. Defendant: Lady Eleanor Brewster.

Her insides seemed to roll around and she felt dizzy. “But… how?”

“He’s claiming that as the only living male heir, he has a legal right to the estate,” Elizabeth said.

Eleanor’s head snapped up. “Male heir? What? But there’s a trust, there are terms, how could you not see this coming?” She was aware that she was snapping, that she was blaming Elizabeth. But she had to blame someone.

“You’re correct,” Elizabeth said quite calmly. “We all know the terms of the trust backward and forward. But, to be honest, you were the only living inheritor we ever considered. If you’d been ineligible to inherit, if you hadn’t married, for example, we’d have dug deeper and tried to find a suitable heir. But Marren was never on our radar. He married your grandmother’s younger sister. We’d have looked for cousins and first cousins before we even glanced at him.”

“This is like the Middle Ages,” she said.

“You’d be surprised just how often archaic inheritance laws are still pulled out in cases like this,” Elizabeth said. “My honest opinion is that he doesn’t stand much of a chance. You’re adirect blood relative of the last owner of the house, and you’ve fulfilled the obligation of the trust by marrying. However, this is a nuisance suit that’s going to cost you a lot of money and a lot of time.”

Eleanor’s hands curled into fists. This was exactly the kind of underhanded scheme she should have expected from her devious great-uncle. He had no real claim to the house, but he thought if he made things difficult enough, she might be pressured into giving up. Well, he’d severely underestimated her. She was not one to back down from a fight.

“I’ll take him on,” she said, her voice cool and steady. “I won’t let him win. This is ridiculous and nonsensical.”

Elizabeth gave her a small, approving nod. “Good. Because this will be a battle.”

Exhaling slowly, Eleanor tried to get a handle on her anger. “Very well. We’ll do what’s necessary. Now, is that all? Or is there some other delightful disaster that you’d like to inform me about?”

She’d been expecting Elizabeth to smile, perhaps to ask her to lunch, but instead, the woman hesitated.

Eleanor felt anxiety creeping all over her skin. “What?”

Elizabeth took a breath, closed her eyes, and appeared to come to some kind of decision. Because when she opened her eyes again, she said, “There’s something else you need to consider. You’re married now.”

“I’m fully aware of that fact,” Eleanor said. “It’s how I got the damn house in the first place.”

“I know that,” Elizabeth said, obviously trying to keep her patience. “But whenever legal proceedings against a member of a married couple come into play, there’s extra considerations to be taken into account.”