The coach careened down streets and around crossroads. He and Jeremy swayed. When it finally stopped on Rupert Street they both were out in an instant. “Wait here,” Chase called to the coachman over his shoulder.

“Where is she?” Chase asked while they ran up to the door.

“Library.”

He paused outside the library, calming himself so he would not look like a madman. He turned the latch and entered.

Beth sat by the divan, looking down on its cushions. He walked around its back to see Minerva lying there, pale and half undressed. A bloody bonnet had been thrown to the floor, and a ruined gray pelisse draped a nearby chair. A compress covered her forehead and a bowl of water rested in a little puddle on the floor.

“Head wound,” Beth said. “They bleed a lot. I’ve stopped it, and put on a poultice. I expect there will be a scar. It was a bad wound, Mr. Radnor. Ugly. Like someone had taken a club to her.”

He pulled over a wooden chair and sat beside Beth. Jeremy hovered behind the divan. “Where did they find her?” He touched Minerva’s limp hand. It felt too cool.

“Out on the street. Smack in the middle of it. She was seen sitting there, then she fell over. They thought she was drunk, until someone noticed the blood. She still had these in her hand.” She reached to the chair with the pelisse and lifted two long hatpins. “Must have used them on whoever did this to her, and gotten herself away.”

He gazed at those tiny foils. Good for you, Minerva. “Has she opened her eyes?”

“A bit, a few times. I think she is sleeping, not unconscious. She recognized me. I take that to be a good sign. Them that brought her said she seemed unconscious at first, but stirred while in the wagon.”

Head wounds could be dangerous, with the damage invisible. The blood on Minerva’s face and clothing was the least of it. “I am going to send for an army surgeon, Beth. They see more of such things than anyone else. I’ll have a physician come too.”

Beth removed the compress and dipped it in the water again. “I thought I was done with this. I thought I’d never see it again.”

He grasped her shoulder by way of comfort, then went to the writing table. He jotted off a hurried note and called Jeremy over. “Take the carriage outside and bring this to the Duke of Hollinburgh on Park Lane. Make it clear to the servants that it is from me and that he must receive it at once. Wait to see if he needs you. If not, when you return tell the coachman to wait again.” He plucked some coin from his pocket. “Use what you need with him.”