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plot.
    “But he was only a boy himself, and though he raged and ranted, he never got farther than the posting inn. He actually packed some things and ran away, hoping to make it all the way to London. My father found him at the local coaching stop and brought him home before he even left the inn yard. Jonathan went away to school soon after. I know he wrote to Christian when he heard he was in Newgate Prison, but then they lost touch, I think. At any rate, I never heard his name again, except the way you do when people rehash old scandals.”
    “Do you think you’d recognize him?” Sophie asked eagerly. “I mean if you saw him again?”
    “Christian Sauvage,” Julianne said pensively, remembering. “He was a tall boy. So handsome, with such blue eyes.” She opened her own eyes and fixed them on her cousin. “But I was a very little girl then, Sophie, and so for all I know he wasn’t tall at all. And maybe I thought he was handsome because he was kind to me, or at least, he didn’t torment me the way some of my brother’s other friends tried to do. But Jonathan wouldn’t have that, he always defended me…”
    She felt sorrow welling in her heart again and brought herself back to the present with effort. “The truth is, Sophie, I don’t know if I would recognize him now. But why do you ask? Why is it important?”
    So Sophie told her.

Chapter 3
    “Y ou see, I’m going to marry Hammond, and I wish to become countess and mistress of Egremont when I do,” Sophie summed it up when she’d finished explaining her problem, and her cousin just sat staring at her wide-eyed. “Well, who wouldn’t? It’s the size of a small country. That’s what Hammond said when he first saw it.” She giggled. “After he succeeded to the earldom, he was going to remodel the manor according to my wishes; that’s why he hadn’t moved in yet. Who’d want to live in the dust and noise of a major renovation? It was to be ready for our wedding. We had the architects, landscapers…then, almost at the last minute, this person arrives and claims the estate as his? It isn’t fair. And it may be criminal.”
    She lowered her voice and looked around the bedchamber, as though it was a ghost story she was telling by the fire. “After all, as Papa says, it may even be more than coincidence that so many heirs to Egremont died in such rapid succession, and so many from accidents. It is quite suspicious, wouldn’t you say? Yes, Christian Sauvage and his father werehalfway round the world, but who knows how long the arms of the criminal fraternity can reach?
    “I’ll say no more,” she said primly, “because Hammond doesn’t care for it. He’s kind, and trusting to a fault. It’s very lucky Papa convinced him to come stay with us while he looked over his inheritance. Luckier for me, of course,” she added, dimpling again. “But for him, too. Because, never fear, my papa’s hired Bow Street and private investigators, and crowds of lawyers, too. But Mama and I wracked our brains to think of someone else who might help. And we came up with you!”
    “Don’t be angry,” Sophie concluded with a charming smile, seeing Julianne’s stunned expression and reaching out to pat her knee. “After all, whatever else happens, nothing about this can hurt you.”
    Julianne suppressed her anger and her disappointment. She hadn’t been invited for any purpose but to be used as a stalking-horse. Though the truth hurt, it made perfect sense. “I suppose you’re right,” she said, and couldn’t resist adding, “but you may decide to put me on the next coach back home, Sophie. Because as I said, that was years ago. I’ve changed, he’s changed, and I don’t know if I can help at all.”
    “You’ll stay for the month even if you don’t know him from Adam. We’ll have such fun,” Sophie said, getting to her feet, “because we two did have fun together years ago, didn’t we? And who knows? Your memory may be better than you know.