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“Miss Smythe?” He blinked rapidly in a bid to recover fro out here?” He glanced past her shoulder, sagged with relief when he realised she was alone

The lady stepped forward, squinted as she peered at him in the darkness “Lord … Lord Morford?” She took another hesitant step towards him “Oh, my lord, I am so relieved it is you”

Tristan scanned the long golden curls hanging loosely fro the shoulder of her ivory gown until he realised it was torn, the left half of the bodice ripped, hanging down

“What has happened to your gown?”

Miss S that it was the same hand she had used to cover hermore of her person than expected “Your mother told Miss Hamilton that she wanted to speak to me privately out on the terrace”

His mother?

“I decided to avoid her, as I kno deterh “But then I thought it was better to speak to her, to make my intentions clear”

“And what did she say?” Tristan was still struggling with the notion that his et her way

“That is what is so strange” Miss Sht I saw her waving at arden and so I followed her out here”

“Did you speak to her?” When he returned to Bedford Square, he would arrange for his mother’s trunks to be packed a

nd inform the coachman not to stop until he reached Ripon

“No I looked for her but—” she broke off and gave an odd growl of frustration “Perhaps I a my mind None of it makes any sense”

Tristan considered the lady’s dishevelled state “You own come to be in such a state of disrepair?”

Miss Slanced at the ripped bodice “This is going to sound ridiculous, I know, but as I approached the fountain a figure pounced froown and tugged at it until I heard the ht”

Tristan rubbed his aching teledfor the Crown “Did you recognise this man who attacked you?”