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strong for you,” said Ashton.
    “I can take her now.” Artemis reached for Penelope.
    “To where?” Ashton glanced toward the open window. “Out that way? Carrying her?” He could tell the boy wanted to say he could do it but had enough good sense to know it could prove impossible, even dangerous. “I need to find my friends to help us.”
    “In this place? Do you mean to knock on every door?”
    “I mean for you to go out the window, go up to the door, and ask for Sir Cornell Fincham. Tell the man at the door that the Duke of Burfoot has sent you with an urgent message for his son. They will fetch him or lead you to him. Tell Cornell I need him and the others to come to this room as quickly as they can. And as stealthily as possible.”
    “Which room is this?”
    “Twenty-two,” Penelope replied and rubbed her cheek against the soft velvet of Radmoor’s coat.
    “And I may trust in their discretion as well, may I?” Artemis frowned. “Why should I?”
    “Because they are my closest, most trusted friends and will protect my name as fiercely as they would their own.”
    “They will want explanations.”
    “Tell them they will get answers as soon as they join me here.” When Artemis still hesitated, Ashton added in a voice that held both command and counsel, “We shall need their help to get her out of here safely and unseen.”
    Artemis nodded and, after ordering the other boys to guard Ashton and Penelope, slipped out the window. There was barely a whisper of sound as the youth descended the outside wall and Ashton had to admire the boy’s skill. He sat down on the bed to await his friends and settled a limp Penelope on his lap.
    She felt right there, fit perfectly in his arms. Ashton heartily wished Clarissa fit so perfectly instead of this unknown girl. Not that he had actually embraced Clarissa yet. Worse, he found himself wondering if the hints of passion he had seen in her were born of his touch or the potion the madam had forced her to drink. It was not something that should concern him but he suspected he would be wondering about it for a long time. He also knew that he would soon question the veracity of the passion his past lovers had shown in his arms, few and far between though they were. Once a man began thinking of such things, he entered into a vicious circle of doubt.
    “Is she going to die?”
    Ashton looked at the small boy called Delmar. “No. She is just weakened by the potion given to her. It will loosen its grip upon her soon and she will be fine.” There remained a glint of doubt in the boy’s eyes and Ashton forced as much confidence as he could into his voice as he added, “Truly, your sister will fully recover from this.”
    “She is not my sister. She is my cousin. Stefan and Artemis are her brothers. The rest of us are her cousins.”
    “Ah, I had thought you all lived with her.”
    “We do. She takes care of us.”
    “All of you?”
    “Enough, Delmar,” said a boy who looked nearly as old as Artemis. “The man does not need to know our business.”
    “But, Stefan, I was just talking. I was being polite.”
    “No need of that, either. The man is not a guest in our home. Recall how we found him and what he was trying to do to Pen.”
    Delmar glanced at Ashton and then pressed his lips together. Ashton gave the boy a brief smile before looking at Stefan, Penelope’s other brother. “She will need to rest. The potion will flee her system but it may take hours to do so and, I believe, she will not feel well afterward. Is there someone who can care for her?”
    “We will.”
    Ashton was about to argue the ability of a pack of boys to care for a sick young woman when Artemis and the others slipped into the room. Brant was the first to reach his side and Ashton waited patiently while his friend studied Penelope and then looked over each of the boys. When Brant finally looked back at him and cocked one dark brow, Ashton sighed. He explained what had happened as quickly