“I realize that, and I don’t know if I would have actually turned him in knowing the outcome,” he admitted quietly. “But I would have wrestled with the decision. Haversham knows me well enough to know that, which is—I think—why he said he was going to retire to the continent. He will be beyond English law and revealing what he did would accomplish nothing but cause trouble and pain for those I love. Now I don’t have to wrestle with the decision.”

“I see,” she murmured.

“Is everyone still in the office?” Richard asked.

“No, Daniel went to tell Suzette— Oh,” she breathed suddenly.

“What?” He glanced at her with concern.

“I just realized. Suzette doesn’t have to marry Daniel now. The markers are in the office somewhere and—”

“I think you might want to keep that bit of information to yourself for a bit,” Richard interrupted.

Christiana’s eyebrows rose. “Why?”

“Because Daniel really wants to marry Suzette, and I think she wants to marry him too, but Daniel thinks she needs the markers as an excuse or may become difficult.”

She considered that solemnly. The conversation she’d had with Suzette today had made her suspect her sister really did care for Daniel. In fact, she’d seemed quite disgruntled over the idea that Daniel was only marrying her for the dower which made her ask, “Does he want her for her dower?”

Richard grinned and shook his head. “He’s almost as rich as I.”

Her eyes widened incredulously. “Then why—?”

“She fascinates him and he wants her. In truth, I think he’s half in love with her.”

“I think she may be falling in love with him too,” Christiana said quietly. “Why do we not just tell them and—”

“Daniel believes, and your father concurred, that Suzette is just contrary enough to refuse to marry him despite her feelings if she finds out she doesn’t have to. He also thinks that your year of marriage with George has put her off the idea of marriage altogether.” He raised an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

Christiana grimaced. “I think he knows her very well.”

“Then perhaps we can just keep the information about the markers to ourselves until we see how things go,” he suggested, and then smiled wryly. “ ’Tis a bit of good fortune for Daniel that Suzette wasn’t in the room to hear all that business.”

“Yes, I suppose,” Christiana murmured, thinking she would wait a bit, but she would tell Suzette before she and Daniel married. Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to do otherwise. She changed the subject then, asking, “If Haversham killed George, does that mean the carriage accident was just that, an accident?”

Richard frowned. “It could have been, I suppose. It was only George’s murder combined with the fact that three spokes on the carriage wheel seemed relatively straight that made us think otherwise. I guess they could have simply broken that way as the wheel collapsed. Stranger things have happened.”

“But what about the post chaise that nearly ran you down today?” she pointed out.