“I am keeping myself out of trouble, thank you. She is there as my guardian angel.” Though Fiona’s tone was light, she was fiddling with her ice as it melted. “He’s decided I should go back out next Season. A visit with Mr. Worth is the first step.”

“Fi.” He resisted covering her hand with his. Charlotte would be too happy to spread a rumor neither Fiona nor Annabel needed. Instead, he waited for her gaze to meet his.

The doubt he saw there touched the same spot Jane and Johanna found. He wanted to do more to the man that had hurt her than simply break his nose. “You’ll be the star of every ball.”

Her eyes twinkled. “Not a diamond?”

“Diamonds are overrated.” He said it loud enough for Charlotte to hear. “Annabel says so.”

His skin prickled. He glanced from Fiona to Raines and caught the young man staring again. Just like he stared at his cards before folding.

When he had something to hide.

Chapter Nineteen

“Thank you for accepting my invitation.” Annabel felt nothing like a marchioness while entertaining her first guest, but she did her best to channel Lady Lambourn as she served coffee.

“I was pleased to receive it.” Jocelyn Fletcher added cream and sugar to her cup. “How was your visit to the country?”

Annabel tapped her biscuit against her saucer, debating how to begin, or whether to begin at all. She and Jasper had agreed not to share the details of their visit, but several things concerned her, and she suspected Jocelyn could help.

“We encountered highwaymen on the road to Ramsbury.” Just saying the words made her bones shake at the memory of firing the pistol.

“Drake and I had something similar happen, but they were sent to kill us.” Jocelyn’s brows gathered as she frowned. “Do you think there’s a similarity?”

“Our histories share the same man.” Annabel’s words came out in a rush, and relief washed in to fill the void.

“Tell me everything.”

Annabel recounted the story, pouring in every detail that she had rolled over in her brain since that night on the road. She had hoped to make better sense of events, but something still bothered her.

Jocelyn set her coffee aside. “You don’t believe this was a simple robbery, do you?”

Annabel saw the moonlight glinting off the narrow sword in every nightmare. Sometimes she didn’t have to be asleep. “No.”

“And Jasper agrees with you?”

Given that their armed footman had followed behind them at a discreet pace throughout their stay in Ramsbury, and that Jasper had insisted she take carriages rather than walk in London… “Yes.”

“Wise man.” Jocelyn looked away, staring out the window as she toyed with her necklace. “Is it safe to assume you have fully broken with Spencer?”

The odd choice of words made Annabel pause mid-sip. She put the coffee and treats aside. “How did you know?”

“He doesn’t like to be crossed. He and Stratford have that in common.” She turned back and refilled her coffee.

Her pebble-hard gaze stole Annabel’s breath. It was very much like Yarwood’s. A soldier who had faced danger and come out the other side.

“He convinced you of something about your new husband, likely using your family’s situation as an incentive. Am I correct?”

Tears pricked Annabel’s eyes as she nodded.

“It isn’t your fault.” The words should have been comforting, but there was little softness in them. “It’s what he does, and he has practiced it for years.”

Annabel leapt from the sofa and walked to the fireplace, putting distance between them. How could she have been so stupid? “Why didn’t you tell me this the first time we met?”

“Because, in my experience, no one changes just because someone tells them to.” Jocelyn kept her seat. “And because, from that same experience, I know strength comes as much from bravery as from knowledge.” She gave a dry chuckle. “Plus, Hello, nice to meet you, your employer is a lying prat, is not the way to make new friends.”

It felt good to laugh. Annabel returned to the sofa and lifted a biscuit from her saucer. “New friends are nice to have.”

In the companionable silence that stretched between them, she wondered how much to tell her new friend. “He told me Jasper was conspiring against the Crown.” Saying it aloud was liberating. “Which is total rubbish.” That felt even better.

“It is. But there is more to Lord Ramsbury than meets the eye.”

“What do you—”

Jocelyn put up a hand. “That’s for him to tell you. What I can tell you is that Spencer’s stories are never far from the truth and, at times, are twisted to mirror his own motives.” She shifted in the corner of the sofa and drew her feet up under her. “However, I’m more interested in what you saw during your daring encounter.”

“I told you.”

“No. You told the story, but something else is bothering you. Something only you saw,” Jocelyn said. “Close your eyes.”

Annabel did as she asked. The first part she had no problem recalling. “He had a sword, but not…” She drew a deep breath and let her thoughts unwind, like watching a play. “It was an epee, like he was expecting a duel rather than an ambush.” Highwaymen don’t duel, do they?

“Good. What else?” Jocelyn asked. “Was it his horse? Perhaps the color?”

Annabel had been so focused on the man’s movements, she’d barely noticed he was riding at all. But color…

“His hair curled out from under the scarf he used as a mask. It glowed in the moonlight like his blade.” She followed that hair to the rest of him. Broad shoulders, determined jaw, gritted teeth. She’d seen him before, closing in on her. In a horse race.

“Viscount Raines.” Her eyes flew open, and she was shocked to see the world was exactly as she’d left it a moment earlier. “It was Viscount Raines, I’m certain of it.”

Jocelyn nodded, though her eyes were sad. “That makes sense. Spencer would want to use someone the ton would never suspect, much less accuse.”

“What information could Sir Reginald possibly have on Viscount Raines?” The young man was rather a snob and too fond of horses. He never refused a game of cards. But a murderer?

“Raines attacked a young girl at the Rose—my housekeeper’s daughter—though I came along before the worst of the damage could be done. Spencer was at my elbow when I had Raines evicted and banned. Half clothed, I might add.”

The situation was too common in households, and it was one of the largest reasons Annabel had dreaded going into service. “Is the young lady all right?”

“She is. Once the new school begins in Thetford, she’ll be moving in with us,” Jocelyn said. “But Miss Bainbridge’s well-connected father might not want his daughter—or her dowry—going to a rapist in the making.”

So Spencer had convinced him to kill Jasper? It seemed a bit far-fetched on its face, but he’d used a less potent reason to convince Annabel to become a spy.

“I do not know how Spencer is connected to Jasper otherwise, but I can hazard a guess that Raines’s behavior is only one layer of secrets.” Jocelyn chose a cake from the tray. “I also suspect your safety, and your husband’s, depends on your trusting one another.”

“If I tell him, I’m afraid I’ll lose him.” Annabel wasn’t certain which would be worse, being sent away or being kept on hand for appearances.