He was touched by her naive faith in him. He tried to hide it behind a blandly derisive expression. "How very democratic of you. You sound like an American."

"As far as I am concerned, the title of gentleman belongs to those who cam it, not to those who happen to be born into the right families."

"That is not a commonly held view."

Her mouth curved in the shadows. "I rarely hold common views."

Marcus grinned briefly. "I am well aware of that. It is one of your more endearing qualities."

"Only a man who also holds uncommon views would appreciate such a quality in a female."

"No doubt." Marcus went back to his brooding contemplation of the night. It was a relief to be freed from the burden of Hannah's secret, he thought. Normally such things did not bother him, but he had not Red having to keep the truth from Iphiginia. She was the first woman with whom he had ever wanted to be completely open.

Having a confidante was a new experience for him. It was a simple pleasure but a profound one.

"Marcus?" ggyes?I5

"What are we going to do now? Mrs. Withered is dead. She could' not have sent those notes tonight. Who is behind this new trouble?"

Marcus brought his thoughts back to the issue at hand. "I don't know yet, but I have a theory that whoever killed Mrs. Wycherly may have found her list of blackmail victims."

"And that person has decided to carry on where she left off," Iphiginia asked.

"It's possible."

Iphiginia frowned in concentration. "It makes no sense. By forcing the four of us into a confrontation tonight, he risked ruining the scheme. Hannah revealed her secrets to her husband. She can no longer be blackmailed."

"Both you and Sands saw Hannah and me in a thoroughly compromising situation tonight, Iphiginia."

"Yes, but I knew immediately that you were not guilty of seducing Hannah, And Sands did not believe it for very long, either."

"No one," Marcus said very deliberately, "least of A the kind of person who is willing to pick up where a blackmailer left off, could have predicted that outcome."

Iphiginia stared at him in surprise. "Whatever do you mean? Oh." She wrinkled her nose. "You think that the villain assumed Lord Sands and I would believe the worst?"

"Yes." "Well, he was quite mistaken, was he not?" "It was an assumption that most people would make," Marcus said softly.

"Nonsense. Only those who do not comprehend connections based on mutual respect, intellectual affinity, and true love would he so idiotic."

"This may come as a surprise to you my dear, but I would venture to guess that ninety-nine percent of the populace in general, and one hundred percent of the ton in particular, fails to consider that such connections between men and women are even remotely possible."

"Is that so?" Iphiginia's gaze was startlingly direct. "How would you have reacted if you had walked into that chamber tonight and discovered me attempting to conceal the fact that a man was hiding behind the stage door?"

"I would have been bloody furious." "But would you have believed me if I had told you that I was innocent?"

Marcus thought about it. It came as something of a shock to realize that he would no doubt believe even the wildest explanation rather than face the possibility that Iphiginia had betrayed him. "Yes."

Iphiginia smiled with smug satisfaction. "I knew it. You do trust me, sir, do you not?"

"Yes, but I still would have been bloody furious. Pray, do not take a notion to put the matter to the test."

"I still do not understand what the villain hoped to achieve by throwing us all together tonight. Any way you look at it, he was putting his future income at risk."

Marcus was silent for a moment while he examined the conclusion he had reached earlier. "Perhaps we are now dealing with someone who gets a thrill out of malicious mischief. Whoever it is may not need the money he could make by blackmailing Mrs. Wycherley's victims."

"But he may enjoy exposing their secrets?"

"It's possible. Society breeds too many dangerously bored people, any number of which might find it titillating to use the information from Mrs. Wycherley's files to wreak havoc in the ton."

"Good heavens. What a terrible notion."

"Not a pleasant one, I'll grant you that." Marcus had no intention of explaining the rest of his hypothesis.

What really worried him was that he had sensed a personal element about the mischief that had been produced tonight. It was almost as though someone had wanted vengeance.

Iphiginia's eyes widened suddenly. "Aunt Zoe's secret may be at risk again. This villain may choose to expose her past in order to create a furor."

"It's possible," Marcus agreed. "I must warn her."

"There is nothing we can do now to stop the revelations, if that is what the villain intends."

"Yes, I know, but poor Aunt Zoe. She will be devastated if her secret is revealed."

"We shall see if we can locate her tonight and tell her what has happened. But it's entirely possible the villain will take no further action for a whole," Marcus said. "He may wait to see if he achieved the desired effect from tonight's little scene before he goes to the trouble of planning another such elaborate production."

"Tonight's work did take planning, did it not?"

"A considerable amount of it, I should think. Iphiginia, I'm beginning to have a few doubts about our An hour and a half later, shortly before two-thirty in the morning, Marcus walked into his laboratory, poured himself a glass of brandy, and settled into the chair behind his worktable.

He surveyed the chamber by the light of the single lamp that he had lit. He needed to think and he always. did his best thinking in this room.

He propped his boots on the table, leaned back, and took a sip of the brandy. It was his habit to let his thoughts drift aimlessly for a few minutes before he began to concentrate. The technique helped him to focus his attention.

He reflected briefly on the conversation in the Crandais' garden an hour ago. He knew Iphiginia was anxious about her aunt's situation, but Otis had seemed quietly satisfied with events. Marcus thought he understood. After eighteen years of being forced to play the role of a doting friend, Otis would now he able to claim his daughter.

By the end of the discussion, Zoe had seemed resigned to the inevitable, perhaps even relieved that the secret was about to come out.

It remained to he seen how Maryanne would respond to the news that Otis was her real father. Her wedding Plans were unquestionably in jeopardy, but who knew how it would all fall out? Marcus thought. Sheffield was an independent-minded young man with a will of his own. If he really loved Maryanne, he might not give a bloody damn about the gossip.

If he really loved Maryanne? "Bloody hell." Marcus's mouth turned down in disgust. He was starting to think like one of those idiot romantic poets. Obviously he had been' spending too much time in the company of his brother and Iphiginia. Their distorted, overly romanticized views of the relations between men and women were having an insidious effect on him. He would have to take care that he did not allow them to influence him unduly. He was a man of reason, not a Poet.

He had learned his lessons the hard way, formulated his rules so as to protect himself from the pitfalls of romantic inclinations.

A knock on the door of the laboratory interrupted Marcus before he could refocus his thoughts.

"Enter."

"Marcus?" Bennet walked into the room. Marcus glanced at him. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Bennet hesitated. "Lovelace said you were in here. I was on my way upstairs to bed. Thought I'd say good night."

"I came in here to do some thinking." Marcus looked down at the glass in his hand. "Have a brandy with me?"