“If it’s true…” St. Clare didn’t dare consider it. He was too wary of disappointment to hope. In his experience, when one went chasing after the past, one never found quite what they were expecting. “But how can it be? If I was legitimate, Jenny would have announced it to the world. There would have been no reason to keep it secret.”

“According to Mr. Entwhistle, she told my father that she’d been tricked into believing she was married. That, in fact, she wasn’t married at all. I suspect this Father Tuck or Friar Tuck or whatever it is he was called at the time may have been part of it.” Maggie frowned. “Either that or Jenny simply asked for him on her deathbed because he was an old friend—someone who had once been kind to her.”

“There,” he said. “Do you see? You may be making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Perhaps,” Maggie replied. “There’s only one way to find out.”

His brows lowered. “Market Barrow.”

“It’s unfortunate that I can’t use my own carriage. But Jane has her carriage here, and her servants answer to her, not Fred. I’m certain she won’t mind if—”

“I hope Miss Trumble has more sense than to aid you in such a dangerous enterprise.” He tightened his grip on Maggie’s hand. “Can you not imagine what might happen? A beautiful creature like you—a young, well-to-do lady—arriving at a hedge tavern in an expensive coach with a matched team of fine horses and no one but her maid to protect her? What do you suppose the villains thereabouts will think when such a plump-pocketed victim walks willingly into their lair?”

Maggie said nothing more. She merely looked at him, a challenge in her blue eyes that fired his blood as much as it frightened him for what she might do next.

He stifled an oath. “Very well. I’ll go myself if it will put the matter to rest.”

She brightened. “And take me with you?”

He gave her a forbidding look. “On no account. I told you, it’s too dangerous. I’ll go at night, and I’ll go alone.”

“You can’t go alone,” she said. “You have your injured arm to think of.”

“Maggie—”

“And besides,” she continued determinedly, “I’m the one who discovered the existence of Father Tuck. It’s not fair that I should wait at home while you get to enjoy the adventure.”

He recognized that subtle lift of her cleft chin. Her mind was made up. She wouldn’t be swayed, neither by threats nor reason. He nevertheless made one final effort. “It’s not about fairness. It’s about your safety.”

She smiled up at him. “You’ll keep me safe. I have every confidence in you.”