“All right. I’ll be waiting in the den,” her father replied.

  Eleanor waited to see if either of them would speak to her, but since the duke headed for the front door and her father headed off toward his den, that meant she was free to do as she wished. Relieved, she hurried up to her bedchamber. Thank goodness that was over. She didn’t know what she would do if she had to spend any more time with the duke.

  She spent the next two hours reading a book. The quiet activity helped to settle her nerves. It had been a difficult day. If she could figure out what bothered her about the Duke of Winnett, then she could understand her aversion to him. There had been times when she’d wanted to whack Byron on the head, but she hadn’t felt as if she might vomit if he touched her.

  A knock came at the door. She marked her place in the book before she went to answer it.

  “Mr. Tumilson has requested to see you,” the maid told her.

  Recalling that he had been passing by the townhouse earlier that day, she set the book aside and followed the maid down the stairs. She went to the window and was glad to see that the Duke of Winnett had left. She turned and approached Byron.

  He stood in front of the settee, his eyebrow arched. “Is there a reason why you ran to the window as soon as you entered the room?”

  “I wanted to make sure the Duke of Winnett was gone.” She sat with him on the settee and poured tea into their cups. “He was here much longer than I thought he’d be.”

  “And that displeases you?”

  “I don’t want to marry him. My father gets along so well with him that I worry he’ll make me marry him if I have no other suitors. So far, no one has requested to pay me a visit.”

  He accepted the cup from her. “I’m sure you won’t have to marry the Duke of Winnett. Your father wasn’t excited about that prospect when I talked with him last evening at the ball.”

  “You talked to my father about the Duke of Winnett?”

  “It wasn’t much of a conversation, but you’ll be relieved to know that your father would rather you to marry someone else.” He took a sip of his tea.

  At once, she felt immensely better. It was one thing for her father to tell her he was hoping someone else would come along, but if he said this to Byron, then he meant it.

  “I have more good news for you,” Byron said as she sipped her tea. “I have concluded that Stacey is no longer a suspect.”

  Eleanor gasped, set down the cup, and hugged him. “Thank you!”

  He jerked in surprise and spilled some tea on himself.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” She released him and gave him a cloth napkin. “I was just so excited that I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing.”

  “Yes, I know.” He gave her a smile to let her know there were no hard feelings and wiped the tea off of his pants. “I knew you’d like that news.”

  “I do. I love it! The members of Ladies of Grace will be here tomorrow, and I think they’re going to ask me to join their group. This is perfect! Now I can say yes and know you won’t ruin things for me.”

  “For what it’s worth, I’m glad that Stacey isn’t the culprit.”

  She picked up her tea and took another sip. It would be nice to have friends. “I finally feel like I belong in London.”

  He took a good look at the doorway before he lowered his voice and asked, “Would you like to meet my sister? I can assure you that she and Mr. Duff are decent people, and they’re within your social and economic group. Once your father realizes that, he’ll say yes anyway.”

  This came as a surprise. She didn’t think Byron would do anything without her father approving it first. Did that mean she would be able to get him to listen to her instead of relying on her father’s opinion about something?

  She would like to be able to do something independent of her father. She had a mind of her own, and she’d like to use it. Maybe meeting Byron’s sister would be a way to start doing that. She nodded. “I’d like to meet your sister. When will you take me to meet her?”

  “You said Ladies of Grace will be here tomorrow, so why don’t I arrange for you two to meet the day after that? One of the members in Ladies of Grace is Mr. Duff’s sister.”

  “Really? Which one?”

  “Lady Powell, or, as you think of her, Heather. If you’re going to be a member of her group, I see no reason why she wouldn’t agree to introduce you to my sister.”

  “If she takes me to your sister’s, will you be there? I’d feel more comfortable if you were. I barely know Heather, and I don’t know your sister at all.”

  “I can be there. And I think it’s a better idea for Heather to come by here to take you there so that your father doesn’t question it.”

  Of course, if it turned out Eleanor wasn’t going to be invited to join Ladies of Grace, then this whole plan was going to be moot. But if they didn’t want her to join the group, wouldn’t they just write her a missive or simply ignore her? She took a deep breath to settle her nerves. So much depended on how tomorrow went.

  “Is something bothering you?” Byron asked.

  “I didn’t realize how anxious I was about tomorrow,” she admitted. “I’m assuming that they’ll let me in the group. I really don’t know if they will or not.”

  “They seemed to like you at the dinner party. I’m sure you’ll get in.”

  “Was there something one of them said or did that makes you think so?” He was a Runner. Maybe he noticed something she didn’t.

  “Well, you impressed their husbands, especially Piers. I’d think half the battle of getting into the group is meeting the approval of the husbands. Why else would they have the dinner party where everyone was together?”

  She considered that angle as she sipped her tea. He might be right.

  Her father came into the room and offered Byron a greeting before he shut the door. He approached them but spoke to Byron. “Did you discover anything about the person who intends to harm my daughter?”

  Byron set his cup down as her father sat in the chair next to him. “I removed someone from the suspect list. Lady Whitney has no ill will toward Eleanor. That means she is safe to join Ladies of Grace.”

  “But there is someone who tried to harm her,” her father protested.

  “Yes, I am convinced that the fall at the theatre and the wheel on the carriage weren’t accidents.”

  “You’ve been to two balls where you watched her all evening, you’ve been to a dinner party, and you went out for a walk with us. Certainly, something must have caught your attention.”

  “Well, yes, but I can’t say who that person is until the time is right.”

  Eleanor’s eyes widened. There was another suspect?

  “If you suspect someone, I have a right to know,” her father argued. “I’m paying you for this.”

  “I realize that, but if I say something right now, I might jeopardize the case,” Byron replied, his tone pleasant but firm. “I take my duties as a Runner seriously. One thing I can’t do is give away any piece of information until the time right.”

  Her father didn’t look pleased, but Byron’s expression was so resolute that her father ended up backing down. Eleanor was impressed. She hadn’t seen anyone who had managed to get her father to relent. Her father was a wall of stone. When he decided something should be a certain way, there was no changing his mind. Not unless one’s name was Byron, anyway.

  “When will you tell me who this other suspect is?” her father asked.

  Byron shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “I mean exactly that. I don’t know. It’s impossible to say when this person will make a move that requires me to act. Right now, all I can do is watch the person.”

  Eleanor’s eyebrows furrowed. She had noticed Byron passing by this townhouse earlier. That was when the Duke of Winnett was here. It had looked as if Byron was going to go up the steps when he saw the duke’s carriage. After seeing it, he proceeded down the street. She had assumed he had wished to wait until they didn’t have company before talking to them, but what if the duke was a suspect? What if he didn’t want the duke to be around when he spoke to them? But why should the duke worry him?

  The duke worries you. Something is wrong with him. You feel it. Maybe Byron senses it, too.

  “While I will accept your answer for now, I hope you don’t make me wait too long to find out who you’re watching,” her father told Byron. “I can’t pay you forever.”

  “I won’t need long to narrow things down.”

  “It’s already been a month, and you haven’t solved the case,” her father pointed out.

  “Some cases take a while. This particular person is intelligent. There hasn’t been another threat to Eleanor’s life because this person has changed tactics.”

  “What tactics would that be?”

  “I have my suspicions, but I’d rather not say until I’m certain. Suffice it to say, since this person changed their strategy, I need to change mine.”

  Her father didn’t look pleased by the answer but nodded in acceptance.

  Eleanor bit her lower lip. Would the sudden interest the Duke of Winnett had in her qualify as a chance in tactic? He hadn’t paid any attention to her before Mr. Jasper’s ball. But why would he want to marry her if he originally wanted to kill her? That didn’t make any sense.

  “Is there anything else you came by to say?” her father asked.

  “No, that was it.” Byron rose to his feet. “I should leave.”

  Her father walked him to the door, but she remained sitting as she contemplated what it might mean if it turned out that the Duke of Winnett had nefarious intentions.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Eleanor’s stomach did flipflops all through the morning as she waited for two o’clock to arrive. This was it. She was about to find out if she would be a member of Ladies of Grace.

  She put on one of her best gowns for the occasion, even though she didn’t think they would go anywhere. Then she spent an entire half hour pacing in the drawing room. She couldn’t sit. All sitting did was make her more anxious. At least when she was walking, she could work off some of her nervous energy.

  From time to time, she would look out the window, in case one of the ladies arrived early. She thought it was the fourth time she looked out the window when she saw the Duke of Winnett’s carriage coming down the street. She paused and held her breath. He wasn’t coming here again, was he? Did her father invite him over for another game of chess? Her father hadn’t mentioned anything about him stopping by to visit her again, and she was certain her father wouldn’t allow him to visit while she was expecting the members of Ladies of Grace to stop by.

  The carriage went past her townhouse. She nearly collapsed against the window. That was close. So far, she’d received no missives from any of the gentlemen at the ball asking to see her. That was a disappointment. Even if she hadn’t taken a fancy to any of them, they would be better than the Duke of Winnett.

  She was about to resume her pacing when she saw Byron walking down the sidewalk. He was on the opposite side of the street from her townhouse, so she didn’t think he intended to stop by. And she was right. He kept on walking.

  That was strange. He didn’t live in this section of London. If she remembered right, her father said Byron lived in the poorer side of town. Not quite middle class but not on the streets, either, had been the way he’d worded it. She had no idea where that was, but it couldn’t be anywhere near here.

  Curious, she followed the path he was going. His steps slowed, and he went to sit on a bench. What was he doing? She studied him and saw that, while he had brought out the newspaper from under his arm, he glanced over in a certain direction. She was unable to see what had his attention since the window pane was in her way. After a moment, she decided to open the window so she could poke her head outside. To her surprise, the Duke of Winnett’s carriage hadn’t gone much further down her street. It was parked five townhouses down from her residence. Her gaze went back to Byron who, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be interested in the paper.

  Except he wasn’t. He was interested in the Duke of Winnett. She brought her head back into the room and closed the window before he noticed her. So the Duke of Winnett was a suspect! It was no wonder he refused to tell her father the identity of the person he was watching. The Duke of Winnett was too close to her father. Her father would never believe the duke capable of harming her.

  But she would. Ever since she met him, she’d had an uneasy feeling about him. Now she knew there was something to that feeling. It might not be something she could put her finger on, but something about him was wrong.

  She caught sight of the Duchess of Ravenshire’s carriage. With a gasp, she hurried to summon the butler. She didn’t have to think about Byron or the Duke of Winnett right now. She had more important things to tend to. She gave a quick check in the mirror to check her reflection. She had to admit the Duchess of Ashbourne’s advice on what to wear did make her feel pretty.

  The butler came into the room just as she turned from the mirror. She instructed him to bring black tea with an assortment of spices that the ladies could use to give it flavor. Then she went to the settee to wait for them. She debated whether she should sit or stand. In the end, she decided to stand. If she sat, it might make them think she had no interest in their group. Standing was the better option. It was certainly better than waiting right by the doorway. If she had chosen that, she’d look pathetic. Yes, she wanted friends, but she didn’t need to let them know how much she wanted them.

  The footman brought Tara, Stacey, and Heather into the room.

  “Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” Tara said as the three ladies approached.

  “I’m happy to have you here,” Eleanor replied. “Please, have a seat.”

  Tara sat next to her on the settee, and Stacey and Heather sat across from them.

  “The butler will be coming in with the tea soon,” Eleanor said, hoping they didn’t detect the slight trembling of her hands. “I asked him to bring in a variety of spices. I know black tea can be bland.”

  “We’re not hard to please,” Tara assured her with a smile. “Black tea with something sweet is perfect.”

  Eleanor felt some of her tension ease. Maybe this afternoon wouldn’t be so difficult after all.

  “You might as well come out and tell her the good news,” Heather told Tara after a long moment of silence passed between everyone. “You’ve held her in suspense long enough.”

  Tara chuckled. “All right. Eleanor, we are happy to announce that you have been approved for membership into our group.”

  Though Eleanor had thought they might say it, she had to resist the urge to do something stupid, like jump up and down and cheer. Fortunately, she managed to restrain herself from looking foolish. “I’m happy to be a member.”

  “I can’t tell you how relieved we are to have found you,” Tara replied as the butler came into the room. “We have tried to find a lady who’ll fit in with this group, but it’s not as easy as it looks. We don’t just want someone who meets with the Ton’s approval. We want someone we can get along with. You are the kind of lady we’ve been looking for.”

  As soon as the butler was leaving the room, Eleanor began pouring tea into everyone’s cups, careful not to fill them too close to the brim in case she made a mess. She was so excited that she couldn’t manage to hold the teapot steady. When she was done, she set the teapot down and gestured for them to put whatever they wanted into their tea. She, meanwhile, chose to avoid putting anything into her tea, lest she slip at the last moment and get cinnamon or nutmeg on the table. She’d been doing well enough to pour the tea without incident.

  “We weren’t always so careful with the membership of the group,” Tara continued. “We used to only look at who had a good reputation, but after we had a couple of members we couldn’t all get along with, we realized we needed stricter requirements.”

  Heather nodded while she put some mint into her tea. “You’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to buy an expensive gown and throw it away after wearing it one time.”

  “That was only a rule when Lady Eloise was in charge of the group,” Tara added. “We got rid of it after she was forced to leave.”

  “May I ask why she was forced to leave?” Eleanor asked.

  “Essentially, she spoke out of turn in a public setting, and this ended up creating a scandal that almost disgraced the entire group,” Tara replied. “It took a year in order to regain our good standing.”

  “The group is better off without her,” Stacey chimed in before sipping her tea. “I try not to think of that time.”

  “I don’t know,” Heather argued as she stirred her tea. “When I think back on it, it makes me aware of how much better things are now. I’m glad things happened the way they did.”

  Stacey considered her words. “If you’re looking at it like that, then you do appreciate how things turned out, but it was a painful way to get here.”

  “No one can blame you for saying that.” Tara’s gaze went to Eleanor. “It turned out Lady Eloise and Stacey had the same father. That was another scandal all by itself. But no one could fault either lady for that one, really.”

  “A lot of people shunned Lady Eloise after that was exposed,” Heather pointed out.

  “Only because she wasn’t pleasant,” Tara said. “I can’t prove it, but I think Lady Cadwalader used that scandal to ruin Lady Eloise once and for all. It was no secret the two were rivals. For a while, we thought Lady Eloise was going to usurp Lady Cadwalader’s place as the most highly esteemed lady in London.”

  Heather smirked. “Lady Cadwalader would have tied her up to a ship and had her hauled off to America before that happened.” With a glance at Eleanor, she added, “It’s best to allow Lady Cadwalader the prominent spot.”

  “Which is why we’re nice to her,” Tara told Eleanor. “She’s not a member of the group, but she is an ally. It’s an arrangement that benefits all of us. She has our support, and we have her approval.”