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Glasbury.” Laclere’s voice turned steely. “The insult of bringing Lovejoy here cannot be excused, and I do not take well accusations that I am a liar.”
    The earl turned to include Dante and Charlotte in his final pronouncement. “If any of you take her in, you will deal with me. If I learn that she is living on any of your properties, I will make you regret that you have interfered. Do not doubt that I will bring the full force of my rights and influence to bear on the matter.”
    He strode from the study.
    “Vergil, we must do something,” Charlotte said, her expression barely recovering from her shock. “For heaven’s sake, he really expects to force her to come back.”
    “It is the heir,” Dante said. “He must be, what, forty-five now. There he is, with no son and no way to get one since he has a wife who has left him. I always thought it odd that he let her go before there was a son.”
    Laclere darted a glance at Julian. “Yes, well, I expect he had his reasons for such generosity.”
    Charlotte did not miss the pointed look. “You know what those reasons were, Mr. Hampton. You negotiated that separation. It was a private arrangement, and you were the mediator.”
    That brought Dante’s expectant attention on him, too. Julian tried his usual silence but their expressions indicated it would not work this time.
    “Madame, I did as your sister bid me do. We were fortunate that the earl saw the rightness of her preference and did not force her to remain in his home.”
    “Oh, don’t turn into the lawyer on us, Hampton,” Dante said. “You procured an allowance and her freedom. There had to be a reason he agreed to it. What was it?”
    Julian refused to respond.
    Charlotte gave him a critical glare. “Well, if you should have any communication with my sister, please tell herthat she is welcome in my home, and that Glasbury can do his worst. That little toad does not frighten
me.
If he brings Mr. Lovejoy to
my
house, I will tell the footmen to throw them both out.” Marching like a palace guard, her parasol pumping like a baton, she headed for the door. “If he has not left the street yet, I will tell him so myself.
Insufferable
man.”
    The study echoed her words, then pulsed with a hollow silence.
    Dante laughed. “It appears I have been upstaged by Charlotte. I am left with merely repeating her words. Hampton, if Pen writes to you, tell her she will be safe with us. Glasbury will need an army to get her away.”
    Dante took his leave. Julian began to follow.
    “Not yet, you don’t,” Laclere said, stopping him.
    Laclere still sat at the desk, his gaze on a pen that he handled absently. Julian waited, counting on their long friendship to spare him an interrogation that would get too pointed.
    “I did not miss the look Glasbury gave you when he entered,” Laclere said.
    “Nor did I.”
    “She is no longer in Naples, is she?”
    Julian did not answer.
    Laclere leaned back in his chair. “Years ago you told me that you got him to release Pen because he had bigger secrets than most men. Secrets that, I assume, he would not want exposed if he or she sought a divorce.”
    “Did I say that? How indiscreet of me.”
    “It appears the years have dulled his appreciation of my sister’s consideration for his reputation.”
    “It would seem that
something
has.”
    “Yet you were silent while he was here. You did not point out that she holds those aces.”
    “I try not to threaten men when there are witnesses present.”
    “I trust that you will find a private way to remind him of the cost if the world knows whatever it is that Pen has on him.”
    “I will attend to it very soon.”
    Julian began to leave, so he could attend to it immediately.
    Laclere’s voice caught him at the door. “If you should have communication with my sister, please tell her that I am always here for her. We all are. She is not to worry that we care a fig for whatever Glasbury threatens or tries. Let her know that