“I shall survive until we are wed,” he assured her dryly, though that was debatable. The woman was driving him insane, Daniel acknowledged and then glanced down at himself with disgust and moved to the window. Opening it, he leaned out briefly to inhale several deep breaths meant to calm himself before joining the others, but truly a basin of cold water poured on his groin would have been more useful. Sighing, he closed the window and turned back to find Suzette back in her dress and struggling to do it up. Leaving the window, Daniel moved to help her, quickly doing up her stays.

“You’d best brush your hair,” he murmured as he finished. “I shall be downstairs when you are presentable.”

Leaving her then, Daniel turned and crossed the room. He slid out into the hall with more haste than thought and was pulling the door closed before checking to see if the corridor was empty. It wasn’t. Richard was presently locking the master bedroom door, and while there was no sign of Christiana, Langley was with him. Daniel suspected this meant that both Christiana and Robert Langley now knew the particulars of what was going on. That was a relief of a sort. A secret like that was almost impossible to keep and they now had allies to aid in keeping it.

“I think perhaps you’re right,” Richard commented as he finished locking the door and straightened. “I will talk to Daniel and see if he can come up with any faults in the plan.”

Straightening his shoulders, Daniel started toward them, asking, “Faults in what plan?”

Both men turned his way.

“Where did you come from, Woodrow?” Langley asked abruptly, his eyes narrowing suspiciously and moving to the door to Suzette’s room.

“Oh . . . I . . . er . . .” Daniel waved back along the hall, but came to an abrupt halt as he heard a door open behind him.

“Daniel! Daniel, you forgot your cravat.”

He turned sharply at that loud whisper to see Suzette hurrying for the stairs, apparently thinking he’d headed straight below.

Daniel rolled his eyes with a sigh, and then said sharply, “Suzette!”

She came to a shuddering halt, and glanced back, eyes widening as she spotted him, Richard and Langley in the hall.

“Oh.” She turned slowly to face them and waved back toward the stairs, but then quickly jerked her hand behind her back as she noted the cravat waving about. “I was just going downstairs.”

Richard made a sound that was half cough and half laugh behind him which drew an immediate scowl from Suzette. She then heaved an exasperated sigh, stomped the small distance to Daniel, shoved the cravat at him, and simply whirled away to march silently off up the hall.