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you mean?"
    "Her relationship with her family is troubled, if I dare exercise a little intuition of my own."
    "I just don't know about this, Olivia," he said quietly. He helped her to her feet, half stumbling over the bag he'd pulled down the stairs. "Look at this thing, anyway. What does she have in here, a cast-iron stove?"
    "Don't go into her belongings, Knight," she said in horror as he bent to examine the contents of the bag.
    "What the devil?" He gave an unpleasant laugh. "Stones. Stones and dead weeds. Exactly what every earl's daughter carries to make social calls."
    "Stones and weeds?" Olivia said, chagrined despite herself. "Are you sure?"
    "Have a gander." He waved a fragrant dried brown plant under her nose, its roots dangling like hairy spider legs. "Lovely, isn't it?"
    "It's an herb." Olivia sounded relieved. "Perhaps she brews medicinal teas."
    "And the stones?" he said darkly.
    "Probably for throwing, which I will start to do myself if you don't get your nasty hands out of her personal effects."
    He dropped the polished white pebbles back into the bag with a thud. "There. Good Lord."
    "Thank you," she said softly.
    He looked up into her eyes. "I'd do anything to bring him back."
    "But he's gone, and she is here."
    "A hell of a replacement."
    "Let me take care of her. Knight, please. Everything will be all right."
    Nothing would ever be all right again for either of them, he thought. But tonight was the first time in years that he had actually seen Olivia happy, despite the fact that he and Wendell had dedicated themselves to uplifting her. And if that alleged cousin of Lionel's was responsible for providing a brief diversion for his sister, he would do his best not to interfere.
    "Fine. You handle her, but do be careful, Olivia."
    "Of what?"
    He shrugged his broad shoulders, unprepared to put his qualms into words. Heaven knew he was a suspicious man, and not everyone harbored evil motives. "I don't know. I think she might be hiding something."
    "But she can stay?"
    "For now, Olivia." His amused gaze strayed to the bag of rocks on the staircase. Bloody hell, she had carried half of Scotland with her. "Only for now."
     
     

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Chapter 4
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    KnigHt waited until the house had
settled down for the night before he awakened his secretary. He assauged the guilt he felt for taking action behind Olivia's back by reminding himself that he only had her best interests at heart. She was far too vulnerable and emotional to show sound judgment in personal matters. He and Wendell were almost afraid to leave her alone.
    In the first year following Lionel's death, Knight had traveled to London to attend his neglected business affairs. During his absence, Olivia had been beset by a score of those hoping to capitalize on her grief: would-be suitors, solicitors who offered to manage her money for ungodly fees, and, yes, even gypsies who had promised to put her in touch with her beloved Lionel's ghost. Knight had come home to find her half persuaded by all of them.
    Recently, he'd convinced himself that Olivia had even begun to accept Lionel's death, that she was finding peace with her loss, until one night three weeks ago when he'd come upon her in his study, clumsily trying to load his pistol. Not for a second had he believed her shaky excuse that she thought she'd heard a housebreaker and wanted to be prepared. She had meant to kill herself; God knows whether she would have carried through with the act had he not interrupted her. But only then had he truly understood the depths of her despair.
    He sat forward at his desk as his secretary took a chair. The middle-aged man looked understandably flustered at being summoned at this late hour. "My lord, something is amiss?"
    "I apologize for disturbing your sleep, Simmons, but we have been just taken off guard by an unexpected visitor. A young Scotswoman who claims a distant kinship to my late brother-in-law."
    "I was unaware that Sir Lionel had relations other than those