Kate shook her head, rejecting the threat. “First, I highly doubt that your handsome lord knew my brute of a father. And, second, I think that if this all goes in the direction we’re expecting it to go, I won’t have anything to worry about.”

Isabel’s gaze narrowed. “He is not my handsome anything.”

“That’s not what Gwen says,” Kate teased, setting Jane and Gwen snickering.

Isabel considered throttling the lot of them. Why couldn’t they take this seriously? How could they not take this seriously? It was for their safety that Minerva House had been so carefully protected for so long. It was for them that Isabel had worked to keep their location and their identity so quiet.

Kate spoke first. “Isabel. We know you have spent a large part of your life attempting to keep us safe. You’ve given us more than safety—you’ve given us courage—and faith in ourselves and in the world. We are not discarding your feelings—but you must realize that it would take more than one man knowing—”

“Two men,” Isabel corrected.

“—more than two men knowing about Minerva House’s … unique character … to bring us down.”

“Not much more.”

“We shan’t leave you,” Kate said.

“You shall.” Isabel was not interested in debating the point.

Kate stiffened. “Well, I cannot speak for the rest of them, but I’m not leaving you.”

The words were straight and true, and Isabel met Kate’s green gaze across the table. Kate had been the youngest girl ever to arrive at Minerva House. She’d been barely fourteen when she’d marched up the wide, stone manor steps, mangy dog by her side, and knocked on the door, proud as could be.

Isabel had opened the door that morning, and one look at the defiant set of Kate’s jaw had convinced her that the girl should stay.

Five years later, Kate was an invaluable addition to Minerva House. It was her strength that gave the girls their courage. It was her work ethic that set the tone for the rest. None of the girls were more loyal than Kate—jaw set now the way it had been when she was fourteen—who would walk through fire to save any one of them.

Isabel put down her pen.

“Now,” said Kate, “why don’t you tell us what you really think of this Lord Nicholas? ”

The question echoed around them as Isabel looked down at the scarred table around which they were gathered. She traced a particularly deep gash in the wood, wondering absently where it had come from as she considered the answer to Kate’s weighted question. “I—”

What did she think of him?

Truthfully, he’d done nothing to warrant her mistrust.

Nothing but saving her life twice, agreeing to value her marbles, befriending her brother, and offering to keep them all safe.

And then he’d kissed her.

Indeed, in three days he’d done more to warrant her trust than any other man had done in all her twenty-four years. She sighed.

She did not know what to think.

“I suppose I rather like him.”

Isabel was saved from having to elaborate on her statement by the arrival of Rock and Lara, laughing and stumbling into the kitchen from outdoors. Lara was wrapped in Rock’s immense cloak, and she removed it as Rock closed the door firmly behind them, shutting out the wind and rain that threatened never to relent.

Looking around the room, Lara registered the seriousness of the other women.

“What has happened?”

Jane answered, “Lord Nicholas has discovered Minerva House.”

Lara pushed her hair back from her face, wringing the rainwater from its sodden strands. “How?”

“He’s known since yesterday,” Rock said, removing his hat.

Isabel supposed she should have been surprised, but she wasn’t. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t invited them here …”

Lara shook her head. “No, Isabel. If you hadn’t invited them here, we wouldn’t have any chance of saving Minerva House.”

“He wants to know everything,” Isabel said.

“And? What shall you do?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know.”

“She’s decided she likes him,” Kate announced.

“Kate!” Isabel blushed, looking at Rock, who did his best to ignore the announcement.

“But that’s wonderful!” Lara said, breathy excitement in her voice. “The rain makes it ever so much easier to catch him!”

Rock coughed then, and Isabel had the distinct impression that he wanted to disappear. “I have not decided to catch him,” she assured him.

“I did not ask,” he said, half smiling.

Isabel cringed.

Silence fell, and she wondered if everyone in the room thought her a fool. She’d never been so uncertain of her actions before. She did not like this newfound doubt that came with men.

“If I may?” Rock spoke then, and had Isabel not been so caught up in her own thoughts, she would have been amused by his tentative tone.

She waved one hand idly in the air, pointedly. “By all means. No one else seems to mind interjecting an opinion.”

“I assume that he did not take your secrecy well.”

“That is correct. In fact, he threatened to seek out the truth himself.” Isabel took a biscuit from the plate. “I do not understand why he cannot leave well enough alone.”

Rock gave a little laugh. “Nick has never been able to leave well enough alone. Particularly when it comes to beautiful women.” Isabel started to protest, but he pressed on. “He is irritated because you will not share your secrets. If he does not know them, he cannot protect them.”