“Please don’t. Lucien needs all the help he can get right now. He is concerned many people will resign or that they’ll simply stop coming. I suppose you’ll see if attendance is down tonight since everything was made public today.”

“We have so many members who don’t pay attention to that. For instance, the gentleman who used to train Bennet.” Ada referred to a pugilist who coached their friend Prudence’s husband, the Viscount Glastonbury.

“Perhaps I should visit Prudence,” Evie mused. She’d given birth to a son just a few weeks ago.

“You’re thinking of leaving town?” Ada asked.

“I was considering it. But I won’t go to my sister.” Never mind that they lived next door to Witney Court—the officious marquess and his wife weren’t in residence. How was Evie ever going to visit Heloise again when they were? “I don’t want to trouble her with my presence when this scandal is so new.”

“From what you’ve told me, it seems she wouldn’t mind. And she dealt with her own scandal after she wed Alfred.”

“Which is why I shan’t burden her with mine.” Furthermore, going back there would only remind Evie of Gregory. She’d recall how they met and the glorious time they’d spent together at the cottage. Forget his brother and sister-in-law, how was Evie going to visit Witney without wondering if Gregory was so close by?

“I think Prudence would be thrilled to have you visit. But you’ll have to write first. With Bennet’s family, I think they have to make certain preparations for guests.” His great-aunts were eccentric—at least that was the word they mostly used—and could be off-putting. They could also be disrupted, and Bennet sought to keep them comfortable.

“That’s true,” Evie said.

“You could always go to Stonehill,” Ada suggested, referring to her country home. “And you’d be completely unbothered since Max and I are in town.”

That wasn’t a terrible idea either, but Evie couldn’t help feeling as though she were running away. When she’d left before, she’d done so with the purpose of reinventing herself. If she was going to leave London, she needed a plan other than trying to evade scandal. She couldn’t simply come back as a new person as she’d done before. If she wanted to do that, she needed to find a new place to live.

But the thought of leaving London, the only home she’d ever known, made her queasy.

“You seem indecisive,” Ada said quietly.

“Because I am. I probably should leave London for good, but I don’t really want to. However, if I stay, my life will be completely different than it has been the past two years.”

“I don’t want it to be.” Ada frowned. “I want everything to go back to the way it was.”

“That is, unfortunately, impossible.”