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“Does she really?” Lizzie asked turning to him. He was pleased to see the color was returning to her white face. “Well, what an ingenious stratagem.” Her voice had a faint wobble in it, but otherwise she was trying to rally from the shock of seeing a familiar face from her not so distant past.

He turned back to the couple. “You’ll have to excuse us now,” he said smoothly. “Only my wife and I have places we need to be.” He heard the hitch in Lizzie’s breathing, but she managed to stammer out her goodbyes as he dragged her back toward Wonderous Females. “Are you alright?” he asked in low tones once they had left the couple behind them.

“What? Oh yes, of course,” she answered. “Thank you,” she added distractedly, and he saw the hand that was not tucked in his arm reach out for Sebastian’s collar, squeezing it tight. She took a shuddering breath. “I do not think you realize, but she will certainly talk about the fact she has seen us,” she said in an uneven voice.

“Will she?” he asked, feeling irritated the dog was a source of comfort to her rather than her own husband.

“Of a certainty! You probably don’t understand how these things work, but she will tell Cook and the boot boy and the gardener …” She bit her lip.

“I expect she will. She was certainly listening at the door when Betsy and I broke off our engagement.”

Lizzie’s eyes grew rounder. “I see,” she choked out. “The thing is, it will undoubtedly get back to my Aunt Hester. And in turn she – she – ”

“Will tell your cousin,” he continued when she seemingly could not.

Lizzie’s gaze flew to meet his and her own was wretched in the extreme. “Yes,” she said feebly.

“This distresses you?” he asked coolly. “I had not realized you were hopeful for a reconciliation with the Andersons.”

Her gaze grew startled. “A reconciliation?” she echoed. “No, I had not dared to ever hope for that.”

Her response jarred him. That was something she wanted, then? “You have another family now,” he pointed out, although he did not mean the Toomes clan precisely, just himself.

Lizzie’s shoulders slumped. “I had better go in,” she said glancing toward the Wonderous Females tent. “Connie will be scolding me if I am late.”

“Connie be damned,” he said sharply. “I haven’t bought you any breakfast yet.”

“I’m not hungry,” Lizzie responded and hurried away from him without even fixing up a meeting point for lunchtime. He opened his mouth to call after her, but something about her tense bearing and the way she clung to the dog for dear life dissuaded him. By the time he reached the boxing tent, he had worked himself into a fine temper, and Jack did a double take on seeing him.

“I take it the dancing was not a success?” his brother commented with a wry twist of his lips.

“What?” Benedict swung around to glare at his younger brother. “The dancing was fine.”

“What’s with the ugly look on your face, then?”

Benedict shrugged out of his jacket and threw it over the rope. “We just bumped into someone from Lizzie’s past,” he answered with a scowl, glancing away.

“Oh ho! An old beau I’ll warrant from the frown on your face. I pity the poor bastard that gets in the ring with you this morning, eh Frank?” Jack said, hailing their older brother.

Even in his current bad mood, Benedict recognized Frank was not looking his best this morning. He hadn’t shaved, and his hand shook as he raised a silver hip flask to his lips. As he lowered it, he sent a hangdog expression their way.

“Hair of the dog,” he mumbled, running a hand through his untidy hair.

“Since when do you drink hard liquor before nine in the morning?” Benedict asked.

“You were out drinking last night, weren’t you?” Frank demanded belligerently. “We haven’t all got pretty wives to distract ourselves with. Not anymore, at any rate.”

“You leave off looking at what’s mine. You’ve got Daphne, haven’t you?” Benedict retorted nastily. “Everyone seems to think she’s taken Maggie’s place where you’re concerned.”

“Daphne?” Frank pulled up short. “Is that what you think?”

“Everyone thinks it.”

Frank looked a little green around the gills as he lowered himself onto a low wooden stool with a groan. He dropped his head into his hands. “I haven’t touched her,” he groaned. “I swear it. Not even once.” He breathed in and out raggedly. “I haven’t been with another woman since Maggie.”

Jack looked up sharply at his words. “What about Ivy, that time at Nye’s?” he asked.

“Oh, I tried it alright with pretty Ivy, but when it came to the actual deed, I couldn’t stomach it. I paid her double and she promised not to tell anyone.” Frank looked shame-faced. “At the time, I thought that was my lowest point, but every day since has felt just as bad.”