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FOR THE next week, life at Ashford Hall continued without many visible changes.

Arthur was distracted by preparations for the ball, a million little details needing his stamp of approval before they could be put into motion, and Charles and I were busy with our work on repairing the damage the poaching case had done.

We spent many a day studying the map of the surrounding areas, finding our next home to visit, collecting details about both the historical poaching case and the newer one, using Charles’s substantial charm to undo the ill effects of James’s interference.

It was hard but rewarding work, and the breadth of what we were undertaking meant that Arthur and I had little time together aside from stolen kisses in empty rooms and occasional moonlit walks.

The day before the ball finally came and I was sitting with Ida on the front lawn, the weather far too nice for me to be cooped up in my room as I transcribed my hurried notes from house visits to notebooks that would serve as the proper documentation for the case.

Ida was reading a novel, lying on her stomach and leafing through the pages, and we were both quite content when the sound of hoofs reached us.

I looked up from my papers, a carriage approaching, and Ida merely glanced at it before returning to her novel.

“It’s Lady Wright and her children,” she said, and I started slightly, looking at her.

“How do you know?”

“I recognize the horses,” she said. “And Charles said yesterday that they would be staying the night before the ball to avoid the congestion. She is their aunt, after all.”

I considered this; Charles had mentioned to me before that James was their cousin—and that the Nelsons were James’s cousins by way of his father—but it hadn’t occurred to me that the families shared a close relationship after what James had pulled.

“What is James hoping to accomplish with Arthur?” I asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Charles told me that his older brother is the lord now that their father died but that James was lacking a title as it’s going to his nephew now. Is he truly that hard up?”

“Not at all,” Ida said. “When our uncle died, he had provisions in place for all of us. He was the only man in the family, so my mother was well looked after, and trusts were set up for Rudy and I as well. He did the same for James as the military does not pay enough to keep up the lifestyle James has grown accustomed to. Whatever he’s doing to Arthur, it’s because he isn’t content with what he has.

He wants more, and it’s not as if he wants Arthur’s title or even his money.

He just doesn’t want Arthur to have it.”

“And Arthur still allows him to visit? Still invited him to the ball?”

“He didn’t invite James ,” she said, slipping her bookmark into place and closing her book over so she could sit up and face me.

The carriage was rounding the drive now, approaching the steps, and already I could see Felix and one of the footmen coming down the stairs to meet them.

“If he’d failed to invite Lady Wright and her daughter, then it would have caused trouble with Lord Wright, James’s brother.

He would have asked why his mother and sister weren’t invited when he arrived tomorrow, and if Arthur had said it was because of James, it would turn into a political nightmare.

It is better to have James here for a few nights than to risk offending someone who is not only a member of the family but a peer as well. ”

“But James is the reason you had to call off your engagement,” I said, unsettled by the total lack of justice in what was transpiring.

I was doing what I could to reverse the damage that James had done, but if he was a continued presence for the Ashford family, then I couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t cause trouble in the future. “Does that not bother you?”

Ida tilted her head to one side, looking at me for the first time with true confusion furrowing her brow.

“You are so strange,” she said finally. “Arthur’s position, and my position to a certain extent, is dictated by the political choices we make, not by a sense of justice.

There are trusts, legalities, that are meant to keep us toeing a line that we cannot step over.

I would call off our engagement a thousand times over if it would keep them safe, but it doesn’t mean that James can be cut out of this family entirely.

The strings connecting us are too tangled. ”

“So he just gets away with it?” I asked, and Ida shrugged one delicate shoulder, looking towards the carriage as it came to a stop. “That’s not right, Ida.”

“Some things are just meant to be swallowed,” she said, looking back at me. “There’s nothing to be done about someone like James.”

I couldn’t begin to believe that, but I gathered up my things nonetheless and followed her to the carriage.

Felix glanced at me before opening the carriage door, helping out Lady Joanna Wright; she was tall and stately, her graying hair done in a flattering updo with minute curls around her handsome face, her dress made of finer fabric than I could easily identify.

Next came her carbon copy, who I took to be the unmarried daughter, Hattie; she was really quite pretty, and I recalled a tidbit of gossip I’d heard earlier in the season that she was being courted by a young marquess of some repute.

It made sense, and I hoped that the ball would prove the final piece of the puzzle to bring the two together.

Last out of the carriage was James, dressed in what I assumed was his finest suit, his hair perfectly coiffed.

To be honest, he was handsome; he just had a dreadful personality.

He met my gaze without flinching, almost taunting, and I did not look away until Felix spoke.

“Lady Wright, Hattie, this is Thomas Whitmore, Charles’s school friend and the acting family lawyer. He’s been staying with us this summer.”

I looked at Felix, surprised at the last modifier he’d placed on my name, but he showed no sign of having said anything strange, and I was soon pressing deferential kisses to the back of both women’s hands in greeting.

Lady Wright was looking at me closely, and once the introductions had passed and we began to make our way indoors, she took me by the arm and had me lead her inside.

“Whitmore,” she said, and I knew what was coming next.

“That isn’t a name I’m familiar with, I’m afraid. What title does your father hold?”

“Oh, he hasn’t one,” I said. “He’s a retired military man.”

“And yet you went to Eton?” she asked, her surprise all too clear. “That’s quite unusual, isn’t it?”

“I was quite lucky in receiving a scholarship,” I said, glancing back as we reached the doors and finding that Ida and Hattie were arm in arm, heads bowed together and no doubt discussing something far more important than what was happening to me.

“And my grades ensured that I was able to go to university as well to become a solicitor.”

“And you’ve been staying here all summer?”

“Yes, Charles was gracious enough to invite me,” I said, and she made a small noise of clear disapproval; I immediately knew where James had gotten his unpleasantness from. “This is the first summer I’ve been free to visit. It’s quite lovely.”

“It’s really very unusual for Arthur Ashford to allow guests in such a way,” she said, like Charles had somehow bamboozled his brother into allowing me into the manor. “Will you be in attendance at the ball?”

“I will,” I said. “Rudolph Nelson actually brought me back from London to ensure my presence.” I added the last bit solely so she understood exactly how much I had ingratiated myself into the life at Ashford Hall since arriving, and by the way her lips pursed, I could see I had hit home.

We had reached the grand staircase, and Felix and the porter appeared from some hidden entrance, carrying the luggage.

“It was lovely to meet you, Lady Wright.”

“You as well,” she said, lying through her teeth, and I took my leave of her, intent on seeking out Charles and telling him what had happened with Lady Wright.

I made it as far as the door that would take me to the garden when I was stopped by a clearing of a throat and turned to discover that James had found me.

We looked at one another for a few long moments, and then he spoke, considering me with clear dislike. “How was London?”

“Perfectly lovely, thank you,” I said, surprised that he had so quickly confirmed my suspicions about why I had been called back, but not letting on that I was caught off guard.

Whatever game he was playing, I knew I could outwit him.

“It was nice to get the opportunity to defend a client in court, even if it was sooner than I had anticipated. How has your summer been since you were here last?”

“Fine,” he said with the sort of voice that told me that it hadn’t been fine, that he had no doubt spent the last few months planning on how he could get back at me for being the reason he was driven out of the house earlier than he had anticipated.

He stepped closer to me, his hands in his pockets, and cocked his head to one side.

His attitude now, arrogant and entirely aloof, spoke to someone who still thought they had the upper hand, and I wondered if he had been working as hard as Charles and I had been over the last few weeks.

“I heard something when I was last in town.”

“Oh?” I asked, and immediately I was struck by a feeling of nameless dread. “You were in London?”

“I spoke with Mr. Garretty,” he said, and the dread grew a name.

“He was quite surprised to hear that you were working as Lord Ashford’s private solicitor, particularly as he had been fired from the same position.

I wonder why you didn’t disclose that information to him when you were in town working on your case. ”