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“It’s as much a surprise to me as it is to you, I can assure you,” Constance confessed brightly. “I have certainly never thought of your brother in that way before, and he isn’t at all the type I was imagining for myself, as you know. I was really more in mind for a mysterious desert prince or perhaps the master of a den of dangerous thieves. But Neil is already here, and I needn’t get myself kidnapped or don trousers and run away from home to find him.”

Ellie tried to protest—though she hadn’t the foggiest notion of what to say. Only a soft, strangled noise managed to escape from her throat.

“I think I half expected that when I saw him again, he’d still be that scrawny stick-in-the-mud who was always shouting at me to stop sprinkling confetti between his bedsheets—but he has actually turned out rather well,” Constance continued, oblivious. “He’s quite attractive in a vaguely helpless sort of way—especially since he has done away with that wretched attempt at a mustache. He’s always been clever, and those spectacles have a certain charm. And you might not believe this, Ellie, but I have discovered that he’s actually quite fit under all that tweed! Who would have ever thought?”

“His…tweed…” Ellie began. Horror trapped the words in her throat.

“Most importantly, he isnotin the market for a fortune,” Constance added. “I couldn’t possibly choose a lover who has actual ambitions of trying to marry me. That would be a disaster! But with Neil, I am certain that he would prefer our affair remain incognito. After all, it would hardly reflect well on his career prospects as an academic if he gained a reputation for seducing heiresses!”

Ellie was feeling dizzy. She grabbed the side of the window frame for support.

Constance’s eyes narrowed, glinting with an even more frightening spark of interest. “I suspect he might even be a bit wild once you peel off all those scholarly pretensions.”

“No!” Ellie finally croaked out, shaking her head. “You can’t possibly… Neil isn’t… There’s nowildunder his… his tweed! Hisanything!”

Constance folded her hands comfortably on the curve of her belly, her feet swinging happily as she gazed up at the ceiling. “Really, the more I think about it, the more he seems like the perfect candidate.”

“Please…” Ellie forced herself to breathe. “Please tell me that you aren’t serious.”

“Of course not!” Constance retorted.

Ellie let out a low, desperate sigh of relief.

“I am merely considering the idea,” Constance went on, casually obliterating Ellie’s moment of calm. “After all, I have it on good authority that scholarly men make for far more attentive and generous lovers than athletic types.”

Ellie vividly recalled the sensation of strong, calloused hands gliding up the skin of her thighs.

“I… do not think that is necessarily true,” she picked out awkwardly.

“It would be good for both of us,” Constance declared authoritatively. “I would be able to engage in a bit of much-needed oat-sowing before my inevitable marriage, and Stuffy could loosen up a bit. Maybe learn how to go along with things instead of always looking as though he’s about to faint.” Constance flashed Ellie a measuring glance. “You know—a bit like how you’re looking right now.”

Ellie coughed, her throat suddenly dry.

Constance sprang upright. She went to the pitcher on the nightstand and poured a glass of water.

“I understand that we are engaged in an urgent enterprise.” Constance pushed the cup into Ellie’s hand. “But once that’s all settled, I’m sure I can find an opportunity to turn my wiles on him.”

Ellie choked on the water.

“Well, you can hardly imagine thatNeil’sgoing to take the initiative, can you?” Constance replied as though Ellie’s gasping were a question. “He’s hardly the type forthat. I mean, he nearly had a fit back in London over that incident with the taxidermy mermaid and the museum, and that was only a bit of fun!”

Constance’s damp, glossy waves fell in abundance around her shoulders. Her Egyptian garments hugged her generously curved figure in all the right places. Her big brown eyes were framed by a rich, thick fringe of lashes, while her skin was the warm, flawless gold of a desert evening.

If Constance set her mind on getting Neil into her bed, she’d pursue it with the fearless tenacity of a terrier… and Neil wouldn’t stand a chance.

Trying to talk Constance out of the notion using cool logic and rationality wasn’t going to work. In fact, in Ellie’s experience, it would only serve to make Constance even more determined.

If Ellie had any hope of preventing Constance from enacting her horrifying scheme, she would have to take a different approach. Swallowing her shock and mortification, she crossed to the vanity, plucked up a brush, and yanked it through a length of her hair.

“If that’s all,” she said, keeping her tone forcefully casual, “do let me know when you’ve made up your mind about it.”

Constance gave her a deeply skeptical look through the mirror. “You are going to give yourself a terrible frizz. And is that all you really have to say about it?”

“What else would I have to say?” Ellie slapped the brush back down on the table. Plucking the Bible up from the floor, she dropped onto her bed with it, holding it up like a shield. “You’re both intelligent people,” she concluded from behind the safety of the pages. “I’m sure you’ll sort it out.”

Constance gave her a suspicious look as Ellie pointedly fixed her attention on Leviticus.

“Well, then,” Constance finally replied. “If that’s the case, I shall.”