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A faint smile touched the earl’s lips “Nor do I However, perhaps once you’ve met my sister, you will Aurora is not what one would call a co lady”

“But if she illingly to London, ere you receiving ransom notes?”

“My question exactly Further, how could a single person—namely, the pirate who killed your father—have had anize Aurora, send the appropriate letters to Pembourne, then board a ship, sail forth until he reached yours, overtake it, and hold your crew captive for several days?”

“It isn’t possible” Courtney shook her head “The Isobel was en route to the Colonies, three days out of port, when heat least that long, even if he knew our exact location and followed us Not to mention the time it would take him to conceal his own vessel and row out to the Isobel under cover of darkness”

“And ould he be keeping track of your ship’s whereabouts,you? Even if he already knew of your existence and of your reseiven that Aurora doesn’t appear in public—he’d have no cause to act until he spied Aurora in London and realized she was vulnerable And that’s assu for a chance to enact it”

“I’ht, if that pirate orking with someone, hoould that someone have known of Lady Aurora’s intentions to leave Pembourne and travel to London? Clearly, her decision to slip aas impulsive”

“But not unprecedented Aurora is very creative—if not very successful—in her attempts to see the world Usually, she wanders only as far as the lighthouse just beyond Peetsthe estate that she’s eager for more freedom”

“Anyone watching the estate,” Courtney repeated “In other words, you believe Pembourne is under scrutiny”

“I do”

“By whom?”

A bitter stare “The saenerations Ever since the quest for that bloody diamond”

“The Bencrofts? Is that the family you mean?”

“Yes If anyone has a reason—at least in his own distorted ut, it’s Lawrence Bencroft, the current Duke of Morland The hatred within that ine”

“Deep enough to feign a kidnapping in order to torment you?”

“Not just to torment me,” Slayde amended “To baffle, outwit, and huhtfully his, a treasure that, if ht now”