I woke up with a start when I heard voices in the hall. I blinked at the seemingly sudden darkness in my room. Glancing at my clock, I realized it was a quarter past four…

I suddenly heard Candace’s raised voice and another voice in concert with it, a somehow familiar voice…

“Now, did you say her room was the second or the third?”

“I said nothing of the sort! Sir, you cannot go in there! Lady Huxtable is not present at the moment and she does not allow Miss Delacourt to receive gentlemen callers without a suitable chaperon present! Furthermore, that is Miss Delacourt’s bedroom!“

“You seem a suitable enough chaperon to me, Madam.”

The door opened and a tall man in riding boots stood there. It was Lord Windham.

I saw a strange glitter in his eyes as he stood there looking down at me, and I suddenly realized I was lying in bed with the covers thrown off, plus my night-shift had hitched up while I was sleeping and my legs were currently quite bare.

With a shriek, I yanked the covers over my head.