Just then there came a knock at the door and one of the footmen came in bearing a salver.
“My Lord, this has been delivered by a messenger. He says it is most urgent.”
His heart leapt – could it be from Lilliana, saying that she had escaped from the clutches of Lord Farringdon?
He opened it at once and his heart sank as he read the note.
“Please come to The Mount Hotel in Southbury – it is a most urgent matter. Sophia.”
The Earl thought for some moments. What was it that she wanted this time?
‘I thought I had heard the last from her.’
He was aware that the footman was still waiting for an answer.
It would be so easy to just disappear without a reply – after all there were only a few more days to go before he set his plans into action.
Next Wednesday he would be on board a ship fro
