“I’ve got a couch in my room that should make a decent bed for you,” she said as she opened a door on the second floor at the rear of the house. The room was slightly larger than mine in the Lyndon house, but without its own bathroom. There was a narrow iron bedstead, a small writing desk, a washstand with ewer and basin, and a couch. Lizzie’s clothes hung from hooks on the wall and rag rugs dotted the floor.

I imagined that these were the sort of accommodations I could expect if I had to live on my own, and I thought I might find a boardinghouse like this tolerable. More than tolerable, actually. I’d be totally free, with no one to answer to. “You can put your bag over there on the couch,” Lizzie directed. “And now, we’re meeting the boys for dinner.” She gave me a wry smirk. “You can test your persuasive abilities on them.”

“Do you think it will do any good?”

She laughed. “Not a chance, unless you manage to get Alec under your spell.”

“How likely do you think that is?” I asked, my pulse quickening alarmingly.

She took a long time to answer, frowning quizzically at me. “I don’t know,” she said eventually. “I haven’t seen him like this before. But you’d also have to convince Colin, and although he’s a great flirt, the cause is his only true mistress.”

We went back downstairs, where Lizzie stuck her head into the parlor and addressed the young women who sat there. “I’m going out for dinner tonight, so tell Moll not to set a place for me.”

We went to the restaurant where we’d met before the Mechanics’ party, but this time Lizzie asked for menus after we sat down. “We may as well order now because I have no idea when they’ll arrive,” she said. “Once Alec gets started on something, he’ll never leave the lab, and Colin’s not reliable enough to serve as timekeeper.”

“And a lovely evening to you all!” a voice boomed from the entrance.

Lizzie smiled and shook her head. “It’s just like him to prove me wrong.”

Colin sauntered over to us, waving to everyone else in the establishment. His entrance was so noisy and dramatic that it took me a moment to realize that Alec had followed in his wake. Alec’s eyes met mine, and he gave a smile that I felt was meant just for me as he approached our table. “I’m glad you came,” he said when he reached us.

“She’s planning to talk us out of it,” Lizzie said.