Maybe she was. If so, it probably had to do with dreaming about Chase Radnor last night. She blamed her parched femininity for that. Naughty dreams had plagued her for several months now, ones in which her late husband, Algernon, mercifully did not put in an appearance. Rather, men who caught her eye did, even if she only glimpsed them. Passing footmen. Handsome shopkeepers. Gentlemen who walked by on the street. They would invade her head until she woke hot and frustrated.

She had assumed that after her experiences with Algernon she would never again have any interest in such things. Apparently, human nature will have its way eventually, even with such as she. Despite the restlessness of those dreams, she welcomed the indication that a dead part of her might be rejuvenating, even if only while she slept.

Last night, with Mr. Radnor, things had progressed further than normal. She still had not purged the dream’s images from her head. In particular she kept seeing his naked legs. Her dream had blessed him with very fine ones indeed.

“Now do you see why I am worried?” Beth said to Jeremy.

Minerva could see Jeremy working it out in his head, and imagined every step his logic took. Her own thinking had followed that same path, after all.

If the duke had been pushed off that roof walk, someone did the pushing. If Radnor or a magistrate started looking for the culprit, those who benefited from the death would be investigated. If deep inquiries were made about Minerva Hepplewhite, someone would learn that when she was Margaret Finley she had been suspected of murdering her husband. Not only would she become an important suspect in the duke’s death, but also Algernon’s death might get another look.

“I say we leave London,” Jeremy said. “It will be hell to give up a fortune, but it will be safer for you this way.”

Not only for her, she knew. For her family too. For Beth and Jeremy.

She reached out both arms, and took Jeremy’s and Beth’s hands in hers, gripping them tightly. “Where would we go? How would we live? We have managed thus far here because I had some jewels to sell, but they are gone now.” It had been a blessing that in the early days of their marriage Algernon had given her his mother’s jewels, and that his creditors could not claim them after his death.

“I’ll find work,” Jeremy said.

“I can too,” Beth added.