Page 51 of A Bluestocking’s Secret Courtship

“Indeed.” He held out his hand. “May I? I know about codes, enough to determine what type it is. Do you think the journal will tell you where your uncle is?”

“I hope so,” she said as she passed it to him.

He flipped through the pages, nodding to himself. “It appears to be written in le chiffre indéchiffrable.”

“The indecipherable cipher,” she said. “It’s a polyalphabetic substitution method. I remember reading about it in one of Uncle Charles’s books.”

He smiled. “You are brilliant, Evangeline. I should have guessed you were familiar with the method.”

She warmed at his praise, pride swelling beneath her breastbone. “I also know the reason it is considered nearly impossible to decipher. Without the key word, there is no way of knowing what letters to substitute.”

“True,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “You know your uncle best. Are there any words he might use? Perhaps Flibberquick?”

“Oh! Now look who is brilliant. Should we give it a go?”

“Let’s move to the desk.” He offered her a hand up, and they hurried to the slim desk beneath the window. He retrieved a sheet of paper from a leather box and insisted she sit in the chair while he bent over her shoulder. “Start with a grid of the alphabet.”

Evangeline took care drawing straight lines down the page and crisscrossing lines across the width. Each square was filled with a letter of the alphabet.

“Excellent.” Jonathan placed the journal on the desk. “Now, we must write Flibberquick repeatedly above the first entry in your uncle's journal before consulting the grid.”

Evangeline nodded, carefully copying the first line of cipher from the journal. Beneath it, she wrote out the word Flibberquick over and over until it matched the length of the coded message.

Together, they checked the grid for the corresponding letter. The first “F” was actually an “A”, the second an “M”, and so on. It was a tedious process, but her heart beat faster as they worked in unison.

After several minutes, she frowned at the resulting letters: X K M T P V Q Z H O. "It’s still gibberish.”

"The key must be something else," Jonathan said, straightening and stretching his arms overhead. “What should we try next?”

Evangeline tapped the quill against her lip. “Maybe Egypt? He used to send weekly letters to my mother detailing his adventures. She was always eager for the post delivery, and so was I.”

Egypt produced the same results. As did Wedmore House, the name of the family seat, Aunt Beatrice, her name, and her sisters’ names. She even tried Cupid, her aunt’s naughty miniature poodle.

After an hour, Evangeline had to admit defeat—at least temporarily. She closed Uncle Charles’s journal and sighed. “I wish Sophia was here. She is good with puzzles, and her memory is excellent. She would guess the word in no time.”

He cocked his head. “Did I hear she is participating in the marriage mart?”

“Yes, and watching over our great-aunt. Auntie can be a handful, which worries Regina. I’ve tried to reassure her all is well with Margrave looking after both of them.”

“Lord Margrave? How do you know the viscount?”

“Crispin is an old family friend,” Evangeline said. “Uncle Charles is his godfather. How do you know him?”

A flash of red brushed his cheeks. “We are in the same club. Joined around the same time.”

“It’s not that silly club Lord Seabrook founded, is it? That amateur-sleuths secret society?”

He chuckled. “No, nothing of the sort. It’s uh… We belong to the same gentlemen’s club.”

“Ah, the Corinthian Club.”

“Yes, that is the one.”

“Tell me, Sir Jonathan. What is it men get up to at these clubs? I’ve always wondered.”

He shrugged. “I never get around to it.”

“A member on paper only, I see.” She gathered Uncle Charles’s journal and stood. “I should visit the kitchen to see if the broth is ready and look in on Regina.”