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Leonora shook her head. “Anthony, I do not appreciate–”

“Trust me.” Anthony leaned towards her again. “Leonora, I really need you to let me handle this. That means, you’re not to do any investigating by yourself. Just wait for me, all right. Like I said, I have men working all angles.”

Leonora took in a deep breath and sat back, reluctant to push him any further. “So what do I do in the meantime?”

“In the meantime I would like you to remain here.” He looked up. “For as long as it takes. I would ask that you not leave the grounds without one of my men to go with you.”

Leonora stared at him. “A guard?”

“An escort.”

“A guard with a politer name.” She laughed. “Anthony, I have walked the streets of London alone for years, and I once outran a goose. You will not put a footman on my heels because you have news on the investigation and will not tell me what it is.”

“It is a precaution.”

“Against what?”

“Against anything I have not yet thought of.” His voice had flattened. “I am asking, Leonora.”

“It sounded a great deal like a command.”

“Then I am a worse hand at asking than I had supposed.”

She crossed her arms. She could tell there was more he wasn’t saying, though she couldn’t guess what it was. She could have pushed him on it. But she had decided to trust him, so she let it go. When he had good information, he would bring it to her.

Still, she didn’t like waiting. It would have been easier to hear everything about her mother at once, even the hard parts. Waiting only kept her on edge.

Also she didn’t like being told to stay at Glenhaven, not after what Seraphina had just said. People were already asking why she was always in his home when they weren’t even married. They were engaged, so it made no sense for her to still be living there like this.

“Have you found Her Grace a companion?”

Anthony blinked at the turn. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Because I am beginning to think the arrangement has outlived its sense, Anthony,” she explained. “Half of London is asking why the Duke of Glenhaven’s betrothed lives in his house like a hired companion, and the honest answer is that I am one. That cannot go on. Seraphina is right about that much.”

The words were out before she had quite decided to say them, and as soon as they were, she knew they were what she had come into the room intending. She lifted her chin. “Have you been looking?”

“Have you found Marian a companion?” she asked abruptly.

“I have – I have been looking,” he stuttered.

“Truly?”

“Yes. I have a short list.” He said it evenly.

“That’s good,” she said. “I do not think I should be sleeping over here as often as I currently do. I need to be with Lady Byron on some days… most days.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I need to go back home and help Lady Byron with the household. Tonight, if the carriage can be spared.”

A muscle in his jaw moved. “I would rather you stayed here, Leonora.”

“Anthony –”

“The house is large, and there are men posted at the gates. My grandmother needs you here.”

“I will be here on most days. Just not overnight.”