Daniel’s chewing slowed as he watched his mother uncrumple the paper and try to flatten it out on the table. When she bent her head to read it, he leaned close to her side to read it as well, and sucked in a horrified breath as he read the cold words.

“How the devil did whoever wrote this know about the stables?” he asked with alarm.

“What about the stables?” Richard asked with confusion.

Daniel’s mother ignored the question and murmured, “Hmm. Obviously whoever wrote this was watching you. If the two of you thought you were alone it’s no wonder Suzette believed this letter could only be from you.”

“Yes,” he realized with dismay.

“And not only was this letter meant to break her heart, but her spirit too,” his mother pointed out grimly. “The poor girl must have writhed with shame.”

“Yes,” Christiana said solemnly. “She thought we would all hate her now, even Lisa and I.”

“What the devil does that letter say?” Robert asked, standing to come around the table.

Daniel snatched the letter and shoved it in his pocket. No one else would ever see it if he had anything to say about it. It was a cruel, nasty piece of work that made the beautiful interlude he and Suzette had shared seem like something lewd and sordid. A literary snake in the Eden he’d found in her arms.

Robert hesitated, but after a moment returned with resignation to his seat.

“And certainly she would believe no man would want her to wife after reading those cruel insults,” Lady Woodrow said now. “This fellow who suddenly appeared to claim her must have seemed like a knight in shining armor in the dire straits she is in, what with the need to marry to pay off the markers and avoid scandal.”

“His name is Jeremy Danvers,” Lisa reminded them. “He was on her dance card at the Landons’ ball, but Richard’s arrival at the ball made her refuse the dance. She came and got me and dragged me to Christiana instead of dancing with him.”

“Danvers?” Robert echoed. “Well he would certainly fill out Suzette’s requirements. He has a barony and land but no money to run it.”

“It wasn’t just that,” Christiana said unhappily. “And it wasn’t just the shame or the fear that no one else would marry her either. Father said Suzette is worried that there may be other . . . consequences of the event in the stable and she wished to ensure all would be well on that end.”

“What consequences?” Richard asked, and it was a question Daniel was wondering himself.

When Lisa merely shook her head and flushed, Daniel frowned. He almost repeated the question himself to make her answer it, but then it suddenly hit him, as unexpectedly and sharply as the bullet had struck him in the back. It took his breath away just as effectively too. Suzette could be with child.