“They will not do so,” Gabby retorted. “I am quite familiar with the machinations of East India men, Quill. They will lie and steal and bribe to get control over territory that does not belong to them. Kasi would be naught more than a pawn to them. And I don’t believe they would show any mercy if it came to putting him on the throne, not if they thought they could gain more territory as a result.”

Quill watched his newly betrothed warily. She had an unexpected side to her. He hadn’t anticipated such steely rationality from someone who at first glance seemed little more than a chatterbox.

“Do you agree with me, Quill?” Gabby asked impatiently. She could hear footsteps approaching in the hallway outside.

Quill bent his head. “The East India Company would do well to accept female directors.” And found himself surprised again.

Lord Breksby declared himself enchanted to meet Miss Jerningham in person. “I am the Secretary for Foreign Affairs,” he announced.

Gabby sat down and clasped her hands together. “Lord Breksby, I would be delighted to aid the English government in any way possible.”

“We understand,” Breksby said, “that your father may have had a young visitor in his household while you were growing up, the son of the ruler of Holkar. The directors of the East India Company are under the impression that Lord Jerningham may have sent Kasi Rao Holkar to England. It would have been a natural action, given that your father has many contacts in this country.”

“I’m afraid that I have no information about Kasi’s whereabouts,” Gabby replied sweetly.

Her eyes didn’t even flicker, Quill thought. His future wife was quite an accomplished fibber.

“Well,” Breksby announced, “certain representatives of the East India Trading Company appear to believe that the prince has been—”

At that moment Lady Sylvia entered the room and gave a crow of pleasure at the sight of Lord Breksby. To Gabby’s dismay, it transpired that Breksby and Lady Sylvia were old friends, since Lord Breksby’s wife had grown up in a village next door to Lady Sylvia’s country estate. It wasn’t until Gabby decided that Breksby was going to describe every single one of the fourteen bedchambers in the cottage he and his wife had just bought in the same village that she lost her patience.

“Dear sir,” she implored Lord Breksby. “Please, may we return to the subject of Kasi Rao?”

Breksby smiled genially. “My apologies, Miss Jerningham. I was so caught up in conversation with this charming lady”—he smirked at Lady Sylvia—“that I forgot your natural distress. As I was saying, representatives of the East India Trading Company appear confident that the Holkar heir is to be found in London.”

Gabby chewed on her lower lip but said nothing.