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“Ballachulish. He’s from Scotland and he is smitten with our mother,” Jenny explained.

“We met Lord Aberdeen last night, and his new wife is the sweetest woman. She’s our age, Eliza, and seems to be very progressive in her ways.

They even say the Earl and his wife dine with their servants.

She invited us for a small gathering at their home after the theater, and their friend Lord Ballachulish was there and seemed quite taken with Mama. ”

Fanny smiled. “You see, perhaps he’ll whisk me away to his castle and you’ll not have to worry about me welfare.” The last part she said in a Scot’s brogue that had them laughing.

“I thought you denied receiving his attention?” Eliza said.

Fanny shrugged and rose to her feet. “I’m off to get dressed.

Before I forget, Camille sent a letter.” She gestured to the writing desk in the corner.

“She’s marrying Mr. Thorne in a few weeks, which means we’ll lose the house.

Start gathering your things because we’ll have to move in with Cora when she does. ”

This was no surprise. Ever since he had proposed marriage to her earlier in the year, everyone had known they would marry as soon as possible.

The only issue with this was that it meant that the Doves were effectively being evicted from her dower house, which would revert to the Hereford heir after Camille’s marriage.

Until Eliza and Jenny were married, they had nowhere else to go but to Cora’s.

The next couple of weeks would be taken up with packing their trunks and moving to the Devonworth townhome.

“Eliza, darling, your beau sent you a letter as well.” Fanny swept out of the room.

“Well, I suppose that’s that.” Life would go on even though she feared that she’d left her heart behind in that coffeehouse.

Eliza went to find the letter from Mainwaring on the desk.

This was the second letter she’d received from him.

He’d sent the first one from France and had complained about the richness of the food.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to read this one, knowing what he had gotten up to in Italy.

“Care to tell me about last night?” Jenny’s eyebrows rose almost comically high.

“What do you mean?” Eliza studied the writing on the envelope as if it held the key to avoiding the conversation she knew was coming.

“I know you weren’t home. I came to your room to share a rumor I heard. You can either tell me now where you were or I’ll badger you until you give in.” Jenny crossed her arms over her chest in a display of her willingness to sit there for as long as it took.

Eliza sighed. Flopping down on the sofa next to her sister, she recounted the night out with Simon in the sparsest of terms. She couldn’t share how she felt for him.

After Jenny admonished her for how foolish she had been to do such a thing, she dropped the scowl and smiled. “But you had a good time. Right?”

“It was fun.”

“Fun?”

Eliza shook her head. “That word doesn’t do justice to it. It was…I don’t even know how to talk about it. He was more than I ever imagined…” She didn’t know what she meant by that.

Jenny stiffened at her side and watched her. Eliza could feel the intensity, but she refused to meet her sister’s gaze. “Are you falling in love with him?” Jenny asked.

Eliza was worried that was exactly what was happening, but she could hardly admit that to herself, much less Jenny. It would seem foolish. She didn’t really know him, even though she felt as if she did.

“I want to see him again,” she said instead.

“Eliza, what happened last night? Did you…?”

“No, we kissed, but nothing more. Not physically, at least.” There had been so much more. When they had talked, she felt that he’d listened and she had gotten to know him. She wanted to know more of him. She sensed there was so much that she didn’t know.

“Then what will you do? You can’t go back to Montague Club.” Something in her expression must not have mollified her sister. “Eliza, you risk getting caught every time you go back. Unless that’s your plan. Do you want to be caught so that the decision to marry Mainwaring is taken from you?”

“No, of course not.” She didn’t think she wanted to get caught. “I just…” She had an insatiable need to know him. It was like an invisible string kept pulling her to Simon and she didn’t know what to do about it. She refused to break it.

“Eliza, I fear that I should warn you that as much as you like this man, you don’t know him.”

“I know that.”

“Good, then you do realize that risking your future on what might amount to a fling isn’t very smart?”

She did. It was why she refused to listen to the fury of that dark angel that urged her to go to him. She would go about her life and lock Simon Cavell into a corner of her heart where he belonged.

“Yes, of course I do.”

“Good. Now, let’s go get ready. Lady Aberdeen has asked us for tea and I’d like for you to meet her.”

“I’ll be there directly once I read this.” She held up the letter from Lord Mainwaring.

Jenny rose to leave, but Eliza called after her, “Wait! What was the rumor you wanted to tell me last night?”

Jenny grinned devilishly and sank back down beside her. “I overheard Lady Hanford and Mrs. Thistle discussing Lord David.”

Eliza vaguely recognized the names of two Society widows. Lord David had been briefly linked to one of them by gossip, but she couldn’t remember which one. “What about him?”

Her sister leaned closer. “I can’t be certain, but I believe one of them said that he had an adornment.” Jenny raised an eyebrow as if Eliza should know what she meant.

“An adornment? Where? Jenny, what does that mean?”

“There.” She vaguely gestured in the area of her groin. “His private area.”

“No.” Eliza covered her mouth in shock. “It’s not possible.”

“I didn’t think so, either.”

“How would that even work?” Eliza asked.

“It must be quite painful.” Jenny started laughing and Eliza followed suit.

“I don’t believe it,” Eliza finally managed.

Jenny shrugged. “I can’t decide if I do or not, but I for one will be looking at him very differently the next time I see him.”

They both devolved into laughter again until Jenny managed to stand. “I must go ready myself. Don’t be long.”

She hurried out, leaving Eliza alone.

Eliza sighed and retrieved the pewter letter opener to cut through the envelope and pull out the single sheet of paper.

A sense of dread settled in her stomach while she did.

It always did when the subject of her fiancé came up.

She scanned the letter quickly. He wrote that the food was too spiced for his taste and that he couldn’t wait to come home to her.

He made no mention of his coffeehouse visits.

He signed the letter with his title. Had he even given her leave to use his name? No, he hadn’t.

Their life would be a series of niceties while he trotted off to coffeehouses.

She was sure of it. She closed her eyes and forced a calm that she was far from feeling.

It would be so very foolish to throw away a quarter of a million dollars on something that wouldn’t amount to anything. Jenny was right.

She resolved to move on from Simon, but as she stood, her gaze lingered on the stack of clean parchment waiting to become letters. The urge to write to Simon nearly had her sitting back down. No, she would move on from him faster if she made herself forget him.