Daniel had been relieved to arrive at Radnor as evening fell. It had been a short-lived relief. They’d disembarked to find the women all aflutter. It seemed during the second half of the journey Lisa had recalled a letter a street urchin had given her that morning to pass on to “The Earl.” It had happened during all the fuss and bother of loading the carriages, and she’d unfortunately forgotten the letter until they were almost to Radnor, where they planned to leave George in the family vault. Christiana, suspecting it was for George and not Richard, had immediately opened the letter to find it actually was for Richard. Someone knew George was dead and suspected Richard had killed him to reclaim his name and title. The individual was demanding a rather large sum of money to keep their silence. Now, they not only had to find out who had murdered George, but also had to contend with a blackmailer. Things just seemed to be spiraling out of control.

The one good thing about the letter was that it had forced Christiana to explain all to her sisters and they would no longer be hampered by the need to hide facts or the presence of the dead body from Lisa and Suzette. However, that was somewhat tempered for Daniel by Suzette’s annoyance with him. She was upset that he hadn’t told her about it himself at some point. She felt sure husbands and wives shouldn’t keep secrets like that from each other. Daniel hadn’t pointed out that they weren’t yet married, but had simply said it wasn’t his secret to tell. Suzette hadn’t seemed much mollified by the answer.