He took a step closer to her, his voice low and dark. “I will find out on my own, you realize. I am an excellent hunter.”
She did not doubt it. But she would not let him see that. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. This is not a collection of marbles. You cannot expect them to simply open up and tell you all.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “They would not be the first women to do so.”
She did not like thinking about other women opening up to him. She remained silent.
“So it’s to be like that, is it … Izzy? ”
There was something in the sound of her childhood nickname that made her feel laid bare. She did not like it. Not one bit. She squared her shoulders. “So it would seem.”
“Excellent. Then let the hunt begin.”
“This makes everything easier, doesn’t it?”
“The girls will certainly be happy that they do not have to be so careful around him.”
Isabel looked from Gwen to Jane, certain that the pair had lost their minds. “I don’t think you understand. This is not a good thing. Lord Nicholas knows that we are hiding a houseful of women. He knows that Minerva House exists. This is not good.”
She removed a sheaf of papers and an inkpot from a small kitchen drawer and sat at the large table in the center of the room. “I’ve got to find space for you all. I’m moving you from Townsend Park until all is settled. I’m sure I can find half a dozen households willing to take in a girl or two.”
Silence fell at Isabel’s words, only the sound of the nib of her pen scratching across the paper in the room. Gwen and Jane looked to each other, then to Kate, urging her to speak. “Isabel … perhaps you should reconsider such a drastic action.”
“It’s not drastic at all. It’s the only intelligent course of action. Lord Nicholas knows that we’ve a household of women and it is only a matter of time before he discovers just how you all came to be here. Then what? Do you think that Margaret would take a girl or two?”
“Margaret used to live here. Of course she’d take some of the girls in. But is it necessary? Why not just wait for the marbles to be sold and move everyone?”
Isabel shook her head. “It’s too late for that.”
“You cannot believe that Lord Nicholas would reveal our location,” Kate said in disbelief.
“I can, indeed, believe it,” Isabel argued, not lifting her gaze from the paper in front of her. “Why would he side with us?”
“No,” Kate said, “I cannot believe it.”
“It’s nonsense!” Gwen agreed. “It is clear that he is a good man …”
Isabel stopped writing to stare at Gwen. “How could you know that? You haven’t even met him!”
“Well, I’ve seen him. And heard him with you. Between that and his willingness to help us, that seems enough.”
Isabel blinked. “It seems nothing of the sort.”
“I think that what Gwen is trying to say is that he seems like a good sort of man,” Jane said cautiously. “After all, he came out to value your marbles on nothing but a random invitation. Such a level of generosity is rarely nefarious.”
“Such a level of generosity is nearly always nefarious! Why, he could be anybody! He could be …” Isabel paused, searching for the very worst possible identity. The girls looked on as she struggled, smiles tugging at their lips.
“Yes? “ Jane prompted.
“He could be a procurer of women!” Isabel announced, one finger in the air to punctuate her words. “A whoremonger!”
Jane groaned.
Kate rolled her eyes. “He’s not a procurer, Isabel. He’s a man who happens to be interested in helping us. And we just so happen to be in need of some help.”
“He also happens to be one of London’s Lords to Land, don’t forget,” Gwen added.
“And that,” Kate agreed.
Isabel groaned then. “Oh, how I wish I’d never heard of that ridiculous magazine. Then I wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with!” She looked from one girl to the next, each looking more sheepish than the last. “My God. You think I should be pursuing him.”
“Perhaps you could try following one of the lessons. Number three, maybe? “ Gwen was hopeful.
“Wooing Lord Nicholas St. John is not a reasonable solution to this problem!”
Jane spoke then. “For heaven’s sake, Isabel. You’ve a generous, wealthy gentleman—”
“Handsome, too,” Gwen interjected.
“Fine. A generous, wealthy, handsome gentleman who seems to want to be kind and helpful to you—despite your attempts to dissuade him of such—and who just so happens to have taken an interest in our situation, which, I might add, is precisely the kind of situation that could well be solved by a wealthy gentleman’s interest. As far as I can tell, wooing St. John is the very best solution to our problems.”
“Not to mention that you haven’t much choice anymore, Isabel,” Kate said. “If you’re going to keep Minerva House solvent and secret, this is your best chance.”
Isabel looked from her butler to her stable master and back again. “I thought neither of you wanted a thing to do with this silly magazine and its silly rules!”
They at least both had the grace to look sheepish.
“That was before it seemed to be our best bet of keeping a roof over our heads,” Jane said.
Isabel scowled. “He is a wealthy gentleman who happens to be acquainted with the lion’s share of London! What if he knows your father, Kate? Or the man from whom you stole, Jane?”