Simon knew him well. “No, since we were in similar straits, I asked her to dance and realized that I had met her years ago, just before I joined my first ship. She was Kendra Douglas then and as straightforward a young woman as I’ve ever met.”

Looking interested, Suzanne said, “Did she tell you her side of the story?”

“Yes, and I’ve promised to help her.” Succinctly Lucas outlined Kendra’s situation, ending with, “I hope you don’t mind that I invited her to dine here tomorrow night. I thought you might help develop a strategy to win her justice.”

Suzanne came awake as Lucas spoke. By the time he finished, she was sitting upright, her green eyes flashing even as she continued nursing her baby. “Do you believe this woman, Lucas?”

“I do,” he said. “My opinion is based more on intuition than facts, but I do think Kendra Douglas is telling the truth.”

Suzanne’s gaze turned to her husband. “Then we must help her. Women are too often the victims of predatory men.” Her tone said that the decision had been made and was inarguable. Given her past, Lucas wasn’t surprised to learn that Suzanne would fight for any woman who had been mistreated by a man.

Simon knew this as well, so he just nodded. “Tomorrow at dinner we can hear her story and discuss what is to be done.”

A thought struck Lucas as he got to his feet. “Years ago, before I was captured by the French, I left a chest of personal belongings here in the house. Is it still here, or was it discarded after my supposed death?”

Simon became very still. “Of course I didn’t get rid of the chest. It’s in the back corner of my dressing room. You can collect it now if you like.”

“Why there and not in the attic?” Lucas asked, surprised.

“I suppose it was a way of keeping you near,” his cousin said softly. “I never opened it, but I liked knowing it was there.”

Lucas felt a deep stab of guilt for what his years of self-exile had meant to Simon. “I’m sorry. I didn’t deserve such loyalty.”

“Of course you did, my almost-brother. Who else did I have to worry about?” Simon grinned with the openness he’d had as a young boy. “I’ve been proved right, haven’t I? You didn’t die.”

“Not for lack of trying,” Lucas said dryly.

His cousins laughed, lightening the mood. Suzanne said, “What do you hope to retrieve from your long-abandoned chest? Or shouldn’t I ask?”

“You shouldn’t ask,” Simon said tartly.