And so it had been. Before the war had come and swept it all away.

Now the house seemed sad without Richard, and Rutledge found himself wondering if it wouldn’t be wiser if Elizabeth closed it for a time and took a smaller place in London. Away from the memories. But perhaps those memories were comforting…

As his own were not.

She was saying, “And I must apologize-but we’ve been invited out to dine, and I couldn’t tell them no. With the Hamiltons-you remember them?-and of course Mrs. Crawford will be there. She’s coming up from Sussex, just to see you.”

Melinda Crawford was one of the most remarkable women he’d ever met. As a child she’d survived the siege of Lucknow, during the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857. An inveterate and fearless traveler, she had seen more of the world than most men. Rutledge had always been immensely fond of her. Her memory was as sharp as ever it had been, her tongue as tart, and her company as charming.

Elizabeth, reading his expression, said wryly, “Richard adored her, too. I think she took his death harder than I did.”

It would be an unexpected treat to see Mrs. Crawford again. But not tonight. He was too tired and his mood too dark for polite conversation. “It was a rather long drive-” he began, and then stopped. “Would you like to go?”

She made a face. “Not really. But Bella Masters has been having a very difficult time, and we’ve been trying to cheer her up a bit. Raleigh will come to dine, but Bella can’t get him out of the house otherwise. She hasn’t said, but I have the awful feeling that he’s dying. And nobody quite knows what to do.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“A very stubborn infection. It cost him his toes, and then his foot, and now he’s about to lose his leg close to the knee. Blood poisoning. He has some sort of apparatus to wear in place of his foot, but he hates it. Bella tries to pretend all is well, which doesn’t help. It’s Lydia Hamilton’s turn to entertain them, and she couldn’t make up her numbers. I’m afraid Raleigh isn’t always very good company. We’re the martyrs thrown to the lions.”