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Against his better judgement, the corner of Arthur's mouth threatened the smallest movement. She truly did write with the same freedom and unapologetic candour with which she spoke.

I have not heard from you in months, and I must confess I worry. Nor have I received word from our dear brother James. I do hope you are able to see him often. Richard remains the only one who writes with any regularity.

Please do send me all your latest thrilling tales from London. I refuse to believe you have not found some excitement to write about.

In anticipation,

Lizzie.

Arthur carefully folded the letter back along its original creases, considering the new information he had learned about his bride. She had a sister and two brothers. Given her candour, this did not surprise him. A woman raised amongst brothers was seldom inclined to mince her words.

A quiet knock sounded against the study door before it opened. Laurence wandered inside without waiting for permission, and his overstaying houseguest’s eyes fell immediately upon the opened correspondence spread across Arthur's desk.

One dark eyebrow rose.

"Curious," Laurence said.

Arthur looked up.

"I never imagined you to be the sort of gentleman who would read his wife's correspondence."

Arthur regarded him evenly.

"It was returned, unopened," he found himself explaining, "It appeared to concern another peer."

Laurence's lips twitched.

"And my curiosity had absolutely nothing to do with it." Arthur finished.

The scoundrel before him had the gall to now be smiling broadly.

"I see," was all Laurence replied.

Arthur moved the letter to one side of his desk.

Without another word, Laurence abandoned the subject.

"Now then," Arthur said, "if we have any hope of swaying opinion before Radnor reaches the Continent, we best finish our memorandum. The poor devil shall need every ally he can find."

The Lieutenant Colonel had been ordered to return to the campaign on the Continent, where the allied armies were gathering for what promised to be another decisive engagement. Though Radnor, at four-and-thirty, was the eldest of the three friends, he was also the most gifted military strategist among them, making his return to active service all but inevitable.

Across the desk, Laurence's own quill had already begun its steady scratching. Arthur finally lowered his pen to the paper. The silence of the study settled comfortably around them, which should have been enough to coax thoughts from his head given the urgency, but it did little to quiet Arthur's thoughts of the Earl of Danbury.

Chapter 16

Over the next two weeks, Eliza settled into a quiet routine.

She often rose after a restless night, sleep proving elusive in her new bedchamber. Each night she would wake expecting the familiar creak of the Didleys' little cottage or the distant snores of the children at the orphanage, only to find herself surrounded by a silence so complete that the steady ticking of the mantel clock seemed deafening.

After dressing each day, she went to breakfast with Arthur and Laurence to exchange pleasantries, then spent hours dancing freely to the orchestra arranged in the ballroom. She enjoyed dancing because it belonged wholly to her. It asked nothing but trust in the music and the courage to follow it. For those fleeting moments, she could become anyone, meet every expectation, and return to happier days dancing with Arthur, or her mother.

Eliza had very few memories of her early childhood before she went to live with the Didleys, but the distant ones she still possessed were vivid. She remembered her mother's laugh and her golden curls catching the sunlight as they spun together around a drawing room. She remembered the scent of lavender that lingered whenever her mother gathered her into her arms, one warm hand cradling the back of her head as though she were the most precious thing in the world; she remembered waltzing freely with her little feet dangling in the air.

It was the safest she had ever felt.

So she was grateful to Arthur for allowing her this luxury, to dance for as long and as often as she wished.

After spending hours dancing, she would wander the estate with Vinnie by her side, each day determined to explore another corner of Winworth and introduce herself to more of the staff. She would then dine once more with Arthur and Laurence before allowing herself one final dance to her own tune, only then retiring for the evening.