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the pocket of her gown. She removed the piece of paper that had fallen out of The Education of a Lady. She examined the address written on it. "But I intend to find out." "What have you got?" "One small clue, which may well lead nowhere." She put the address back into her pocket. "But if that proves to be the case, I can always consider the merits of a partnership with Tobias March." "She found something important in that bedchamber." Tobias shoved himself up out of the chair and walked around to the front of the wide desk. He leaned back, bracing his hands on either side. "I know she did. I sensed it at the time. Something in the extremely innocent look in her eyes, I believe. Quite an unnatural expression for the woman." His brother-in-law, Anthony Sinclair, looked up from the depths of a large tome dealing with the subject of Egyptian antiquities.
    He lounged in his chair with the negligent case that only a healthy young man of twenty-one can achieve. Anthony had moved into his own lodgings last year. For a time, Tobias had wondered if the house would seem lonely. After all, Anthony had come to live with him while still a child when his sister, Ann, had married Tobias. After Ann died, Tobias had done his best to finish raising the boy. He had gotten accustomed to having him underfoot, he thought. The house would seem odd without him. But within a fortnight of setting up in his own lodgings a few blocks away, it had become clear that Anthony still considered this house an extension of his own rooms. He certainly seemed to be around a lot at mealtime. "Unnatural?" Anthony repeated neutrally. "Lavinia Lake is anything but innocent." "Well, you did say that she was a widow." "One can only wonder about the fate of her husband," Tobias said with some feeling. "I wouldn't be surprised to learn he spent his last days chained to a cot in a private asylum." "You have mentioned your suspicions about Mrs. Lake at least a hundred times this morning," Anthony said mildly. "If you are so certain she found a clue last night, why did you not confront her? " "Because she would have denied it, of course. The lady has no intention of cooperating with me in this matter. Short of upending her and giving her a shake or two to empty out her pockets and reticule, there was no way to prove she had discovered some clue." Anthony said nothing. He just sat there gazing at Tobias with an expression of grave inquiry. Tobias tightened his jaw. "Don't say it."
    "I fear I cannot help myself. Why did you not upend the lady and shake out whatever it was you thought she had found?" "Bloody hell, you make it sound as if turning respectable fe- males upside down is in keeping with my normal mode of behavior toward the opposite sex." Anthony raised his brows. "I have pointed out on more than one occasion that your manners where women are concerned could do with some refinement. Nevertheless, they generally fall within I the boundaries expected of a gentleman. With the exception of Mrs. Lake. Whenever her name is mentioned, it never fails but that you sink into a fit of extreme rudeness." "Mrs. Lake is a most exceptional creature," Tobias said. "Exceptionally strong-minded, exceptionally stubborn, and exceptionally difficult. She would give any sane man fits," Anthony nodded with an air of sympathetic understanding. "it is always so damnably irritating to see one's most pronounced traits mirrored so clearly in another, is it not? Especially when that other person is a member of th fair sex." "I warn you, I am in no mood to serve as a source of amusement for you this morning, Anthony" Anthony closed the large book he had been reading with a soft snap. "You have been obsessed by the lady since the incidents in Rome three months ago." " 'Obsessed' is a gross overstatement of the situation and well you know it," "I don't think so. Whitby gave me a full account of your ramblings and ravings during that period when he tended to the fever caused by your wound. He said