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Thea set about making them tea in the small, but comfortable kitchen. She gestured for Leo to take a chair at the small table set in one of the corners of the room.

“My Fletcher is quite enamored with you, Leo,” she said as they waited for their tea to cool. A conspiratorial grin formed on Thea’s lips. “As is Inspector Reid.”

Leo shifted in her seat, a bit abashed by what Roy’s wife had observed. But also pleased.

Thea picked up her teacup and blew over the surface. “In all seriousness, it is rather impressive work you do. Important work.”

“Thank you. I think so too.” She reached for her own teacup.

“Will you be sorry to give it up?” Thea asked, causing Leo’s fingers to falter and bump against the cup handle.

She frowned. “Give it up?”

“Judging by the way Inspector Reid looks at you, I doubt your courtship will be very long.”

“Oh,” Leo said, taken aback. She gripped her teacup handle more tightly to keep it from slipping in her suddenly damp palms. “Well, we haven’t discussed anything like that yet. But Jasper understands I want to work. Even after…if we…marry.”

Saying the words aloud brought a tingling flare to the center of her stomach.

“Really?” Thea’s eyes widened with evident doubt. “What about when you have little rascals like mine running about?”

Startled, Leo choked as she swallowed a sip of hot tea and then coughed fitfully. Thea seemed to know what had set off her coughing and laughed as Leo recovered, her eyes watering.

“All right, no more questions,” Thea said good-naturedly as she patted Leo’s arm. “I don’t want to be accused of murder, should you choke to death on your tea.”

Chapter Five

The carriage ride from Lambeth after dinner wasn’t what Jasper had hoped it would be. He’d perceived a change in Leo’s bearing when she and Thea rejoined him and Roy in the front sitting room after dinner, though it wasn’t anything he could pinpoint. Leo had smiled and made pleasant conversation before they bid their hosts a good evening, but she’d been distracted and slightly flustered.

“What is wrong?” he asked, once they were settled on the bench inside the hired hansom.

Leo blinked up at him, as though her thoughts had been elsewhere. “Wrong?”

“Don’t bother denying it. I know you too well.” He brushed his thumb against the corner of her mouth. “You’ve been biting your cheek in contemplation when you think no one is looking at you.”

And he rarely did not look at her.

She covered his hand with her own, holding it against her cheek an extra moment. Then, with a heavy sigh, she reached into her handbag and withdrew an envelope.

“I don’t want to give this to you, but I know I must.”

The merriment of the evening drained away as Jasper took the letter and read it.

Charing Cross. Tomorrow at eight in the morning. The letter was unsigned, yet he knew who it was from.

He folded the paper, barely resisting the urge to crumple it in his fist. “Where did you get this?”

“On my way home from the morgue this evening,” she answered. “One of Mr. Carter’s men stopped me and told me to give it to you.”

Hot, seething fury quaked through him. As did something else that he didn’t often feel—fear. Andrew had sent one of his thugs to approach Leo and relay the message just to prove how easily he could find her. How easily he could harm her, if he wished.

“I didn’t want to ruin the evening, so I waited to give it to you,” she explained.

Jasper pocketed the letter. “You’ve read it, I presume.” There had been no seal, and Leo’s incessant inquisitiveness would never have allowed her to not read it.

“I have,” she admitted. “I’ll come with you to Charing Cross.”

“No.” He nearly growled the single word. “I don’t want you involved.”