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Lady Dunsmore laughed. “I should surrender, Major. You are badly outnumbered, and Lady Stanhope has not yet declared herself.”

“I never declare myself before finishing breakfast,” Lady Stanhope replied. “It encourages people to expect things of me.”

Baines smiled before remembering that he had resolved not to do that quite so often, although his attention had already returned to Sir Lionel. Whatever had prompted that brief look had not been imagined, and the fact that Judith had caught his reaction almost as quickly as he had caught her uncle’s troubled him nearly as much as it pleased him.

How the devil did she do that?

Sir Lionel opened two letters, frowned at a third and finally drew a small, folded paper from beneath the rest of his correspondence. “Baines, there is something here for you.”

Conversation continued around them. Cranford was explaining to Lady Dunsmore why the quality of English bacon had deteriorated since the war, while Sir George attempted to persuade Edward that the disturbances in Scotland proved every prediction he had made during the previous fortnight. No one paid particular attention as Sir Lionel passed the folded paper along the table.

There was no direction upon it and no proper seal. Baines opened it beneath the edge of the table and found only a single line.

North boundary. Old shepherd’s cottage. Eleven. Alone.

There was no signature, nor did he require one. Renforth had a particular genius for efficiency with words. Baines folded the note and slipped it into his waistcoat. When he looked up, Judith was watching him again.

“You are very poor at pretending nothing has happened,” she said quietly.

“On the contrary, I have built an entire reputation upon pretending nothing has happened. You have simply developed the unfortunate habit of noticing when I do it.”

Her gaze flicked towards his waistcoat. “Colonel Renforth?”

Baines reached for the marmalade and regarded it with great interest. “I have always considered curiosity a dangerous quality in a woman.”

“Indeed? I have always considered evasion as an admission from a man.”

He laughed softly. There was no purpose in denying it, particularly to Judith, who had become distressingly adept at distinguishing his lies from his merely creative versions of the truth. “Resistance to you must be exhausting.”

He expected another challenge, but none came. Instead, her expression sobered. “Has something happened?”

“I do not know yet.”

Judith studied him for another moment before nodding. “I hope it is something easily remedied.”

The simplicity of it caught him more effectively than any teasing might have done. She did not demand to accompany him or insist upon knowing what Renforth wanted. It made what he did an hour later considerably harder to defend.

Baines left Blackthorn by the west entrance shortly before eleven and took Lucifer from the stable, telling Hale that he intended to inspect the northern boundary. He had scarcely cleared the stable yard when the sound of another horse behind him caused him to turn.

Judith approached upon her chestnut mare. For a moment he merely looked at her.

“I know,” she said. “He told you to come alone.”

Baines blinked. “Have you begun reading correspondence through waistcoats?”

“No. I looked when the spaniel attempted to steal your sausage.”

He considered this. “That is disappointing. I had begun to believe you possessed supernatural abilities.”

“My apologies. I have only ordinary ones, I am afraid. I also know the old shepherd’s cottage is difficult to find unless one knows the estate, and if Colonel Renforth wished to meet you openly, he would have come to the house.”

Her answer was perfectly reasonable, yet it made refusing her more difficult.

“Renforth may not be pleased.”

“I do not particularly require him to be. If this concerns Blackthorn, it concerns me as well, and if you intend to find the person using my household to pass information, I can hardly be expected to sit in the drawing room while you do so.”

There was no defiance in her voice, only calm determination. Baines had learned that this was considerably more dangerous.