John bloody Fitz.
“And?” There was no Turner. That didn’t mean much. She could be someone’s family. But he dismissed the idea as soon as it entered his mind. Who would send family off to live alone in a place like Brighton, running a candle shop?
“Balfour.”
Maxen’s gaze flicked to his brother before dropping to the last name on the list. He went cold. “It says hereEarlof Balfour?”
“That’s right.”
“What’s the connection?”Don’t bloody say family.
“Daughter. But the late earl, not the current one.”
Family.
Nobility.
Aristocracy.
A chill spread throughout his blood. “You sure?” His brother hesitated. “Since you didn’t think to add your cousin’s letter with this, just spit it out.”
“The Earl of Balfour had a daughter named Calliope.”
Maxen stilled.
“She went missing just over three months ago. Her stepmother has been frantic searching for her.”
“Dare discovered this?”
“He has a man who is friendly with a household maid. The earl’s daughter went missing before she could come out to society.”
Maxen stared at the name like it might rearrange itself into something less disagreeable. Of course, it didn’t.
“You good?” Drake asked.
He wasn’t. Not in the slightest. “It might not be her.” But even as he said the words, he knew they the question was shite. Hadn’t she admitted her real name was not Turner? But then, she hadn’t given her real one either.
You didn’t want it.
Hell and damnation.
Drake blew out a breath. “You think she’s here to spy?”
“No.” Final. Absolute.
“Maxen—”
“I don’t know what she’s doing here,” Maxen snapped. He tossed the list back to his brother. “But she’s not a damn spy.”
“I don’t need to remind you what happens when we cross paths with aristocracy. Or have you forgotten our father? Or uncle? Or the Duke of Mortimer?”
Maxen sneered. “You don’t have to bloody remind me of that.” His own mother had been the third daughter of an earl, cast out after her affair with his father and birthing a child out of wedlock.
Drake sighed.
“Balfour,” he repeated under his breath, like the syllables themselves were poison. “She’s a bloody lady.”
“A runaway lady, if it makes a difference.”
