Penny handed Richmond to Emma and rushed to embrace her friend tightly—or as tightly as possible, given the obstacle between them. While Rosamund and Daisy mobbed her with kisses, Penny helped her friend waddle to the divan. “I thought you’d entered your confinement.”
“I’m weary of being confined.” Alexandra dropped onto the divan with a thud. “Besides, Ash said we were needed at once. I’m not certain why.”
Ash said, “Tell her, Chase.”
Chase stood tall and leveled a finger at Penny with unconvincing severity. “You cannot live next to that man. Don’t you know what he did to Lord Fairdale? The villain—”
“Bought up his debts, destroyed his investments, and left him with scarcely anything to his name.”
“Yes. What if the bast—”
“Chase,” Alexandra said sharply.
He sighed. “What if the B-A-S-T-E-R-D sets his eyes on you?”
“A,” Rosamund corrected. “B-A-S-T-A-R-D.”
Penny made a suggestion. “Girls, would you kindly run across the square to my house and have a look at Angus? He sneezed yesterday. Perhaps he has a cold.”
“Maybe it’s the plague!” Daisy cheered.
“Probably not,” Penny said. “But you had better go see.”
“Is there any chance he’s dying? I don’t want him to die, of course. But it’s ever so exciting when there’s a chance.”
“Daisy, he’s not dying.” Rosamund tugged her younger sister by the hand. “They’re trying to be rid of us so they can discuss adult matters.”
The younger girl pouted. “Pooh.”
Once the children were out of earshot, Ash continued with his lecture. “Penny, you don’t have to listen to us. Just look at the papers. They’ve taken to calling him the Duke of Ruin.”
“Not so very long ago, the papers called you the Monster of Mayfair,” she pointed out. “I know better than to heed the scandal sheets.”
“It’s not merely rumor.” Chase pulled up a chair. “The man’s deliberately set about driving well-heeled families to the brink of insolvency.”
“Not just driving them to the brink,” Ash said. “He tips them over the edge. Who’s to say he doesn’t have the same in mind for you?”
“He would find it impossible. My brother Bradford keeps the estate finances on a foundation of bedrock.”
“Even if he can’t touch your family’s money,” Chase said, “you do have a dowry.”
“If you won’t protect yourself,” Ash warned, “we will have to take protective measures on your behalf.”
“What sort of protective measures?”
Nicola rushed into the room. Wisps of ginger hair floated about her head in an unkempt halo. In her hand, she carried a brown-paper packet. “I brought the poisoned biscuits,” she said, breathless. “I’m still perfecting the spring-loaded trap for her door.”
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