Lady Eunice gazed in wonder. “Their message is elegant in its simplicity. Incomplete without its partner, and disguised in beauty. It only makes sense when pressed close together.”

“We still need the first volume,” Philippa said with a sigh.

“We’ve contacted every club, library, and manuscript collector in England,” Chloe explained. “No collections still contain one.”

Damaris’s eyes narrowed. “Uncle Northrup has that volume. It was the one I based the cipher on. Small wonder all the other copies disappeared. Uncle won’t let his out of the house. He locks his manuscript in a strongbox inside his library.”

“A wooden strongbox?” Chloe said hopefully. “One we could take an axe to?”

“An iron one, I’m afraid. He keeps the key around his neck.”

“That’s excellent news,” Tommy said.

The bluestockings looked at her with expressions of befuddlement.

“What part of ‘kept in an iron strongbox’ is good news, Great-Aunt Wynchester?” Sybil asked.

“The hardest bit is solved,” Tommy answered. “We know where to find the book and the key.” She looked at Chloe. “Have you got a plan yet?”

“I’m working on it,” she murmured. “As soon as we call the others to the Planning Parlor—”

“I believe a mother ought to be allowed to see her daughter,” shrilled a falsely jovial female voice from the corridor.

Philippa wanted to sink into the parquet. What in the dickens was her mother doing here?

She wrapped up the manuscripts and placed them back into their large basket. The lid closed just in time. Mother burst through the open doorway with a triumphant expression, followed immediately by the Faircliffe’s stone-faced butler…and Captain Northrup.

“Uncle,” Damaris said in surprise. “Why are you here?”

“I didn’t mean to be,” he said in obvious confusion. “I called at the York residence, hoping for a moment with the daughter…Ah, yes, there you are, Miss York.”

“‘The daughter’?” Tommy blustered in outrage as Great-Aunt Wynchester. “Green bucks with no sense of romance. Why, in my day—”

“That’ll do, Aunt,” Chloe interrupted smoothly. “As you can see, sir, you’ve caught us in the middle of a ladies’ reading circle, as I’ve no doubt Mrs. York must have informed you.”

“She forgot to mention that detail.” Captain Northrup slanted Philippa’s mother a dry look, but made no move to bow and apologize for the interruption. Instead, he swaggered farther into the ballroom. “Shall I pull up a chair?”

“Ladies’ reading circle,” Tommy repeated belligerently. “Perhaps this young pup requires an ear trumpet.”

“As I told you, Captain,” Mother said quickly, “Philippa is very popular and important. She is the bosom friend of the duke and duchess.”

“I’d like to befriend your bosom,” Tommy murmured in Philippa’s ear.

Philippa elbowed Great-Aunt Wynchester in the side.

Lady Eunice set Tiglet on the floor and gave the kitten’s backside a little pat. “Go,” she whispered. “Fetch the key.”