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said, “can you explain what Miss Alexandra Purnell was doing in Madeline’s room last night?”
    Lord Eden looked blank. He glanced from his brother to James Purnell. “Have I missed something?” he asked.
    â€œThis is Mr. Purnell,” Lord Amberley said. “I found his sister in Madeline’s room an hour ago. She was tied to the bed and gagged. She seems to believe that you were responsible.”
    Lord Eden looked indignant. “Why, of all the…” he began. Then his face blanched. “Oh, Lord.” He passed a hand over his eyes.
    â€œWhat happened, Dom?” Lord Amberley’s voice was quiet but it held an unmistakable note of authority.
    â€œThose two loose screws must have mistaken her for Madeline,” Lord Eden said, removing his hand from his face and looking first into the smoldering eyes of James Purnell and then at his brother. “I asked them to bring Madeline here. I thought she was just about to…Well, that is another story. It was all a mistake, anyway. When I found Mad was still in the ballroom, I thought no harm had been done. I might have known it was strange that Faber and Jones just disappeared without a word. Oh, Lord!”
    â€œMy sister has led a very sheltered existence,” James Purnell said. “She has had a strict upbringing.”
    Lord Eden closed his eyes. “Oh, God,” he said. “She must have been terrified. But I can’t understand it. Both Jones and Faber know Madeline. Does Miss Purnell look so much like her? I say, Edmund, that wasn’t her stepping into the carriage outside just now, was it?”
    â€œProbably,” Lord Amberley said. He held up a staying hand. “But this is not the time to rush out to make your apologies, Dom. Miss Purnell must be taken home without further delay. I suggest, sir”—he turned his attention to their visitor—“that you return later if you require satisfaction from Lord Eden, as I can well understand you may. I shall call at Curzon Street after luncheon.”
    James Purnell looked steadily at each brother in turn before bowing curtly and turning to the door without another word.
    â€œOh, Lord,” Lord Eden said as soon as the door closed behind him, “what a coil!”
    â€œI don’t believe I have any sympathy to spare for you, Dom,” his brother said, moving at last to sit heavily in the large mahogany-and-leather chair behind his desk. “Even if it had been Madeline I found, I would have been outraged. She was bound and gagged. Her hands were paralyzed when I released them, and she was quite unable to say a word until I had helped her to a drink of water. And you entrusted such treatment of our sister to two of your friends? Not at all the thing, Dom. And that is the understatement of the decade. I have a mind to level you with my own fists and leave nothing for Mr. Purnell to gain satisfaction from.”
    â€œI thought she was going to elope with that Fairhaven reptile,” Lord Eden said. “I had to go after him, Edmund. I had to leave my friends to take Mad out of the way.”
    â€œYou could not just have told her the game was up and set Mama to keeping watch over her?” Lord Amberley said wearily. “You never could take the easy and obvious course, could you, Dom? I don’t see how I am to get you out of this. You will be fortunate indeed if you do not end up dead with a bullet between your eyes. And you will be honor bound to delope if it comes to a duel, you know.”
    â€œI deserve no less,” Lord Eden said with bitter remorse. “The poor girl, Edmund. I have probably put her through a more frightening experience than I would feel looking down the barrel of Purnell’s pistol. Do you know her? I cannot put a face to the name, I must confess. Is she very young?”
    â€œShe has backbone, I believe,” Lord Amberley said. “She was not about to show me that she was