“Then why are you doing it?” Suzette asked impatiently, apparently tired of waiting for him to finish the explanation.

Daniel pushed his thoughts aside for the moment and said, “I did this to prevent anyone else overhearing what I did back there. It all sounded just a bit too delightfully scandalous,” he said dryly, and then asked carefully, “Did you and your sisters really think Dicky dead and pack him in ice?”

Suzette sighed with disgust at the question. “Yes. Though, obviously it was a bit premature since the man is alive and well after all.” She shook her head and added with bewilderment, “Though I’m sure he was dead.”

“Perhaps he was just unconscious,” Daniel suggested.

“He wasn’t breathing,” she argued dryly, and then frowned and said, “At least he didn’t seem to be. And I could have sworn his body had begun to cool as we packed him in ice, but perhaps my hands were just cold from handling the ice.”

Daniel cleared his throat and asked delicately, “Well, what exactly preceded his apparent dying? Did he appear unwell?”

Suzette scowled, her expression turning thoughtful as she set her mind back, and then she said slowly, “He certainly didn’t seem ill when he was trying to shoo us away from his door like a pair of matchstick girls. He seemed hale and hearty and pompous as a rooster.”

“Shoo you away like a pair of matchstick girls?” Daniel asked curiously.

“Hmm.” Suzette scowled. “We went to see Christiana about—well, some family business. But the butler left us waiting at the door while he fetched Dicky and then Dicky wasn’t even going to let us see her.” She looked amazed as she said that and then added, “Fortunately, Christiana appeared and intervened and managed to convince him to let us in.” Her mouth tightened at the memory and she added, “But then the bounder insisted we wait in the parlor while he and Christiana breakfasted first. I gather that was to punish us for showing up uninvited,” she added dryly. “And he was pompous as hell about it.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows at the curse. Ladies did not generally curse like sailors. At least not the ladies he knew. Suzette was turning out to be a somewhat extraordinary lady, however.

She sighed unhappily, and then continued. “When he finally did let Christiana come to us, he accompanied her at first. Of course, we didn’t want to talk about what Father had done again in front of him.”

“What your father had done?” Daniel asked gently.

Her expression closed and she ignored the question and went on, “But I managed to bore him to tears with gossip until he went away, and then we told Christiana all.”

“All of what?” Daniel asked at once, growing increasingly curious.

Whatever it was appeared to distress her and this time she didn’t ignore his question, but gave him a dry look and said, “You do not need to know. No one must know but my prospective husband.”