“Jamie will appreciate this,” Reeve commented dryly. His brogue had relaxed now to a mere lilt in his voice. “Your telling his wife how to keep him in line, I mean.”

“I’m assuming,” Maggie proceeded in bright tones, “that the same things that work with you, Reeve McKenna, will work with Jamie.”

Listening to the banter between Maggie and Reeve, Bliss was more homesick than ever for Jamie. She averted her eyes, in the hope that no one would see the tears gathering there.

Maggie gave her a slight squeeze, as if she’d sensed that her sister-in-law needed reassurance, and Bliss felt a little better just for having a friend. She’d grown up entirely without them, after all.

It was at the base of the wharf, when Reeve was off seeing about the baggage, that Peony had her fainting spell. Walter Davis and his grandfather had just paused to bid Bliss farewell and every good fortune, and when the old man extended a clawlike hand to Peony and smiled, she simply crumpled to the ground.

When Bliss couldn’t revive her immediately, Maggie had hurried away to find Reeve.

“Imagine that,” said the elder Mr. Davis, leaning on Walter for support, and that strange, grimacelike smile was still on his face.

Moments later, Reeve arrived and lifted a conscious but dazed Peony into his arms. In the shuffle of getting her into the hotel, where a messenger was dispatched to find a doctor, Bliss forgot all about Walter and his grandfather.

Peony was pale as death when she opened her eyes from a second swoon. She was lying on a sofa in the hotel lobby, with Maggie waving smelling salts under her nose, and the first thing she said was, “Increase. Dear God in heaven, that was Increase.”

Bliss was uneasy at the mention of that name. She frowned. “Where?”

Peony trembled. “That old man who stopped to speak to you. Bliss, that was Increase Pipher.”

There was a wicker chair behind her and Bliss backed into it, the muscles in her knees having melted to nothing. “It’s impossible,” she breathed, looking wildly from Peony to Reeve to Maggie. “That was only Walter’s grandfather.”

Peony was shaking her head very slowly from side to side, and her eyes were vacant of all expression.

Quickly, Maggie took Peony’s hand in hers and began patting it. “There now,” she said in her odd, flat voice. “No one’s going to hurt you, not with all of us around.”

Presently, the doctor arrived and Peony was led away to a room, examined, and put to bed under light sedation. Reeve had already told Bliss that they would all be staying in the hotel that first night, since it was a fair distance to Seven Sisters, his plantation, and she was glad to retire to her own room. There, she tried to put her thoughts in order.

A single one filled her mind. While she and Jamie had been making love and war in that suite at the Victoria Hotel, Pipher had been across the hall, plotting demon’s tricks. And how very amused he must have been by Jamie’s naive little wife. Increase had enjoyed her blithe chatter, no doubt, and taken her confidences into consideration as he prepared to destroy the man she loved.