“Oh,” she moaned with something like despair. “It’s awful, my lord. The tea was drugged and we was locked up and I escaped out the window, but Miss Lisa had to remain behind because the bed wasn’t heavy enough and we must get to her and get her out of there!” Bet cried.

Robert blinked at the rush of words, not really understanding. Lisa had had to remain behind because the bed wasn’t heavy enough? Heavy enough for what? It didn’t make any sense, but was sounding a good deal like one of those melodramas Lisa so enjoyed reading, and he was beginning to suspect that’s all it was. It seemed Lisa hadn’t completely given up on him after all, but in some last ditch effort to gain his attention, had come up with this wild tale to—

“Please!” Bet moaned, rushing forward to clutch at his arm and urge him toward the door. “I’ll never forgive meself if Miss Lisa is ravished and ruined because I went out the window first. I should have made her go first. I should have—”

“Ravished and ruined?” Robert interrupted with amusement. Good Lord, she’d gone all out this time. Lisa was usually the sweetest, most biddable of females, dreamy eyed and seeming only to half live in the real world while the other half of her mind was stuck off in the wild machinations of the latest story she was reading. But every once in a while she got swept up in her stories and—

“Why are you smiling?” Bet asked with horror. “This is not amusing, my lord. She will be ruined if that suitor fellow has his way with her. She—”

“Suitor fellow?” Robert asked with interest.

“That’s what Mrs. Morgan called him. Her suitor,” Bet explained unhappily. “She—”

“Mrs. Morgan?” Robert barked, his amusement dying abruptly and concern beginning to take its place. “What the devil has Mrs. Morgan to do with this?”

“We was there for tea, and—”

“At Mrs. Morgan’s!” he bellowed and Bet flinched as if he’d struck her. She also looked suddenly terrified. Forcing himself to calm down, Robert asked more gently, “What on earth would make Lisa go to tea at Mrs. Morgan’s? How does she even know a woman like that?”