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A licia was not sure why, but for the next few days, she saw very little of her husband.

She had intended to enact her plan in earnest but was held back by her concerns and worries.

Seth, for his part, seemed distracted, spending hours in his study.

One day, she had walked past and glanced inside—as the door was wide open—to find Seth on his knees, sifting through a huge pile of correspondence, looking furious.

She had hurriedly walked away, wondering what had triggered the dark mood he had been in since his trip to London, unsure how to lighten it.

A few days after her meeting with Bridget and Katie, the housekeeper suddenly requested that she come to the entrance hall. Alicia was adding a triple-laced collar to one of her latest creations when she received the summons.

When she came downstairs, she heard a high-pitched, frightened noise coming from the basket at the housekeeper’s feet.

Alicia stared at the wicker basket in horror, having completely forgotten Bridget’s promise to send her a kitten.

“This arrived for you, Your Grace,” the housekeeper said, her serious expression unwavering as Alicia bent down and opened the basket.

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 he knew he had received several from Gordon, talking about the woman he had been seeing.

Seth had searched for her in vain over the years, but Nicole Forsythe did 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.

She was as stunning as ever, even in the gloom of the stairway. He found himself yearning for the touch of her hand, picturing the way her eyes melted with desire when he overpowered her.

He had jerked off too many times to count with the memory of his fingers buried in her sex, her gentle sighs as she had given herself to him.

He closed his eyes, listening to her voice as she spoke to the kitten, a strong pull telling him to go to her, to be with them.

“And where, may I ask, did you get that kitten?” he spoke up, his voice echoing down the narrow stairway.

Alicia looked up, but her eyes were hard and angry, as if she had already known he was standing there, watching them.

She rose, cradling the little bundle of fur against her chest. “I did not think you would notice, Your Grace. You have barely noticed your wife for the past few days.”

Seth’s throat constricted as she moved toward him, the scent of blooming flowers wafting to him.

“I have been busy,” he replied testily.

“So it would seem.”

She made to move past him, but his arm flew out without conscious thought, trapping her between his body and the staircase. The kitten mewed.

“Have you missed me, Duchess?” he asked, his voice a low growl in the tight space.

Alicia’s eyes flashed. “Hardly.”

He moved against her. “Are you quite sure?”

Alicia’s breath hitched as his lips hovered above hers.

Her mouth opened as if in an invitation for him to push his tongue inside it, taste her sweetness, and revel in her sighs.

But then she took him by surprise, pushing his arm and stepping around him, almost making him topple forward and down the stairs.

She turned, her nose stuck haughtily in the air, a loose lock of hair tumbling down her shoulder as she glared at him.

“What exactly has you so occupied, Your Grace?” she asked.

“Seth.”

“ Your Grace. ”

Seth bared his teeth in frustration at her stubborn expression.

“It is not your business,” he muttered, and he had to hold back a groan as her eyes flashed again.

She scoffed loudly and turned away, marching up the stairs without a backward glance.

Seth was seconds away from storming after her, barging into her room to teach her a lesson.

I will show her what she has been missing, and she will not forget again!

He shook himself, inhaling deeply, irritated when her scent filled his lungs, mind, and body all at once.

I cannot be rid of her in this damned place.

He walked past the stairs, forcing himself not to follow her as he continued on to the parlor.

It was a good thing that she was unhappy with him. She should grow used to being left for days at a time—he had work to do and could not be distracted by his wife at all hours of the day.

Their marriage was to guarantee his inheritance, nothing more.

It was best that they existed side by side, but rarely met as man and wife. That was how many marriages worked, and more often than not, they flourished.

Any connection would be fleeting. They always were.

He opened the door to the parlor and walked quickly into the room. It was covered with dust sheets, but it was the chest in the corner he was interested in.

He knelt beside it, pulling off the covers and opening it with a loud creak. His mind raced with images of his past.

He had always found it strange that Gordon had agreed to meet the woman on the school grounds. It was a risk, and although their group approved of those to a point, Gordon had been more cautious than the rest of them.

What did he see in her that was different?

Rummaging through the papers, he scared off a few spiders that fanned outward from the bottom, but there were no letters here either.

Slamming his palm against the side, he swore, standing up and pushing the lid shut with a loud bang.

Where are they?

The sound bounced off the walls and made the chandelier overhead tinkle forlornly.

At the melancholy sound, Seth’s eyes flicked up to the ceiling, and something occurred to him.

There is one place I have not looked, but I have not been up there in a long time.