Her poor gown had shown the abuse and been a terrible mass of wrinkles when she’d woke this morning. That being the case, Suzette had been glad, if a little surprised, to find her maid Georgina there with her chest of clothes, ready to help her start the day. Apparently, the maids’ carriage had made good time and reached the townhouse directly behind them. Georgina said the Radnor carriage was still in front of the house when theirs had arrived. Suzette supposed they’d managed to catch up because the Radnor carriage had been twice as heavy after taking on the men, so had been forced to travel more slowly. Aside from that they’d had to stop so Daniel could see to his driver and the horses as well as to arrange for his carriage to be collected and seen to.

Suzette watched Daniel turn into the parlor as Richard jogged up the stairs and then she moved up beside Christiana and touched her arm to get her attention.

“When do you want to start interviewing the staff?” she asked, watching Daniel settle on the settee in the parlor. They all had assignments for the day. She and Christiana were to question the staff and see what they could find out about who might have been bribed into poisoning George’s whiskey. Lisa and Langley were going to make the social rounds in town and see what gossip they could dig up about George’s habits the last year, while Daniel and Richard were supposed to be going to arrange for the money to pay the blackmailer. Richard was hoping to catch the blackmailer rather than pay him, but wanted to be prepared for any eventuality.

“We will wait until everyone leaves,” Christiana decided. “Why do you not go keep Daniel company? I want a word with Richard about how he wishes us to proceed with the staff anyway.”

Suzette smiled. It was exactly what she’d hoped to hear. She slipped into the parlor, pulling the door closed as she went.

The soft sound drew Daniel’s attention at once and his eyes narrowed. “What are you up to?”

“Whatever do you mean, my lord?” she asked innocently as she crossed the room. “I merely thought to keep you company while you wait for Richard.”

“Hmm. You don’t need to close the door for that. In fact, you should know better than to close it at all,” he pointed out, and stood to move past her to reopen it.

“Wait, I—” Suzette gave up on a sigh as the door opened, revealing Lisa in the hall, hand out as if she’d been reaching to open it herself. Muttering under her breath with irritation, Suzette dropped onto the settee and scowled at her sister and Robert as the trio came to join her. “I thought you two were going to make the social rounds?”