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Her pulse pattered at the insides of her wrists. “Is property owned also public record, sir?”

“The devil are you on about now?” Lord Hansbury hissed.

She swatted absently at him, leaning over the counter to better hear the attendant’s reply. “Excellent. Might I see all the landholdings of Lord St. Quinton of Sussex?”

The elderly man’s lips pinched, but he nodded and disappeared.

“Don’t look at me that way.” Sophie frowned at her companion out of the corner of her eye. “I have a plan. This”—she swallowed as she stared at the record of marriage lines still in her grasp—“changes everything.”

“It doesn’t change the fact I’ve won your challenge with ease.” Lord Hansbury’s deep voice carried easily through the loud room. “Well, perhaps not with ease. Even with my old man’s help it took an unholy amount of digging. I haven’t worked this hard in years.”

“Yes. You did well, for a lout.”

The man’s name etched onto the parchment had been foreign to her up until minutes ago. A stranger. Less than a relation. But here lay proof that he was, in some backward, roundabout fashion, eligible to be the next Lord St. Quinton.

She had only to set herself free.

Lord Hansbury’s footfalls clomped loudly behind Sophie as she sped down the street a short while later, away from Chancery Lane and back toward home.

“What are you on about now?” he called.

She clutched her reticule tightly, protecting the evidence from the Public Record Office within. How would her parents respond? They might be grateful to her. The opportunity to save her father’s title would be no small thing. But the notion that they would be so happy as to forgive what she told them next?

It was too much to hope for.

“Don’t trouble yourself over it, Hansbury,” she said, turning the street corner so sharply, her slipper skidded through a puddle of water and cast brown sludge onto her white skirts.

“You are an intolerable woman.” He drew even with her—probably not a difficult task, given the outrageous length of his legs—and frowned. “Are we familiar with one another, or are we not? You address me as though we are, but then refuse to take my arm. More than that, you won’t even tell me what sort of wild expedition you’re off on now, though I’ve just proven my merit.”

“At the record office?” She pulled a face. “You found that information for yourself, sir. You never would have offered me aid were a challenge not involved.” She sidestepped a second puddle. “Where familiarity is concerned, there is no use in developing the wrong sort of impression. I am obliged to you for your help, Lord Hansbury, but you needn’t trouble yourself any further on my account.”

He quickened his pace to stare down at her. “I knew it. Right from the very beginning, I guessed it, didn’t I? Just what sort of heroic, romantic scheme are you caught up in?”

“It’s not a scheme.” She tried to reestablish her lead over him, but any faster and she’d break into a full run. There was no escaping his irritating presence until they reached Berkeley Square.

“Tell me, do you intend to destroy the evidence of this heir presumptive? Is your fellow anxious to claim Belmaine Hall for himself? I must warn you, Miss St. Quinton—”

“You are not so wise as you think yourself.”

That rendered him silent. Sophie smiled. With this degree of peace, she might consider just what she was to say to her parents. I ask a great concession of you. First, to claim full possession of my dowry.

“You are a pestilence.” To her immense frustration, Hansbury said the words with a twist of humor. “At least indulge my curiosity.”

Sophie glanced behind them again. Anne kept a healthy stride, her eyes watchful beneath her straw bonnet, but she was beyond hearing. Telling her was almost a more frightening prospect than telling Mama and Papa.

“You must promise not to try and change my mind,” she said.

“I don’t give a damn what you do. I’m just proper curious.”

She assessed his face, hoping to ascertain how much truth lay in his statement. Clear green eyes and a relaxed jaw, the face of a man who hadn’t worried a day in his life, she was sure.

“Very well.” She looked straight ahead at the tree-lined street to say what came next. “I have a proposition for my parents. I should like them to entail the estate to this Penworthy fellow you’ve discovered. In return, I should like to be granted free use of my dowry, and possession of a small cottage they own in the village nearest Belmaine.”

Enormous hands clamped over her shoulders. “What?”

“Turn loose of me!” Sophie wriggled free from his grasp and resumed her walk, faster now. Was she imagining it, or had Anne’s lips worked into an even stiffer line?

“You’re shamming me. You must be.” Lord Hansbury’s voice took on an animated air. “There is no reason in heaven or hell you should wish for such a thing. I thought you hunted an heir so that you might protect your inheritance. What sort of daft fellow are you promised to, that he’d take a cottage over one of the finest country houses south of London?”