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eyes that seemed to draw him in. The world-weary sadness
he saw hidden in those beautiful moss green orbs made him wonder
just how harsh her life had been.
    “ Do you not have family in -” he squinted at her as he tried
to remember, “- Lincolnshire?”
    Tilly
shook her head. “The only relative I had was my mother. She has
passed away.”
    “ So you are all alone,” he murmured thoughtfully. He didn’t
mean to emphasize just how desperate her situation was, and cursed
his stupidity when she physically winced at the harshness of his
words.
    He
suddenly wished that he had kept his mouth shut, but rather
suspected that if she had no family to turn to in her hour of need,
then she most probably didn’t have the funds necessary to get
another post chaise somewhere else. He struggled to know how best
to help her. She probably wouldn’t be inclined to accept charity.
Nor was he in a position to offer her a place to stay until she
found work somewhere else because he couldn’t risk her presence in
his house damaging his investigation. The last thing he needed was
to tip the Dandridges’ off that he was on to them. He studied her
thoughtfully.
    Tilly
felt a cold hand of something undefinable sweep down her back and,
for the first time in her entire life, she felt vulnerable, alone,
and very, very, frightened.
    In spite
of her dilemma, she was painfully aware that this man, in spite of
his kindness toward her, was as much of a victim of this cruel
prank as she was. He had been minding his own business, only to be
visited by a complete stranger who expected him to give her a job.
Aware that he was studying her, she straightened her shoulders, and
looked at him a little defiantly while she tried to quash the small
voice that silently screamed at her to ask him for help.
    “ I am fine,” she declared firmly, not entirely sure whether
she was trying to reassure herself, or him. She glanced around the
room and wondered if she could get out of there before she started
to cry.
    “ Look, I know it is none of my business, but I wonder what you
plan to do now. I can assure you that I didn’t write the letter you
received. However, because it has been sent in my name, I cannot
help but feel responsible.” He pierced her with a warning look that
made her shiver anew. “I promise you here and now, Tilly that I
will find out who sent you this letter, and they will be suitably
dealt with.”
    Tilly
swallowed and nodded. The sound of her name spoken in those husky
tones was strangely intimate. However, the ruthless menace hidden
in his words made her suddenly very glad that she wasn’t going to
be around to see how the culprit was ‘suitably dealt with’. She
didn’t want to know what he planned to do, but had the strangest
feeling that he wasn’t the kind of man one crossed and
forgot.
    “ I am sorry, I must go. I have already taken up enough of your
time as it is,” Tilly sighed. She suddenly became embarrassingly
aware that she had overstayed her welcome.
    “ What do you plan to do?” he persisted.
    She
smiled obliquely at him. “I will be fine,” she whispered. Right
now, she hadn’t got a clue what to do, but wasn’t going to admit
that to him.
    She
looked around for somewhere to leave the brandy, and eventually put
it onto the corner of his desk for the butler to deal with. She had
only taken a sip, but that was enough to make her already empty
stomach more than a little unsettled.
    “ Before you go,” Harry sighed. He quickly removed several
coins from the secret pouch he carried, and followed her to the
study door. “I need to ask you for some information about what Mrs
Bolsworthy looks like.”
    Tilly
turned toward him with a frown. “She is about middle aged, with
curly dark brown hair, and is rather rotund.”
    “ Can you remember her eye colour?”
    “ Grey, I think.”
    “ What about her height. How tall was she?” When Tilly looked a
little nonplussed, Harry waved to his own tall frame. “Look at