Chapter One
London 1801
Lady Madeleine would make the best of this night, even if it killed her.
And it probably would kill her.
Maddie shook her head. That was no way to think. If one expected the worst, one received the worst.
But there simply wasn’t anything good about dressing in boys’ clothing and running around London in the dead of night. Unless one wanted to be kidnapped.
You’re doing it again! Maddie chided herself. She had to start thinking positively.
Very well, then . . . She might not like wearing boys’ clothing, but at least it was comfortable.
She didn’t like to sneak out at night, but at least she didn’t have to carry a parasol in the dark.
And she didn’t like to climb into darkened windows, risk the wrath of her horrid uncle, or tempt the cutthroats hiding down every London alleyway, but . . .
Oh, Lord! She would be murdered, and there was just nothing good about that!
Maddie tightened her grip on her cousin Catie’s arm and hurried to catch her two adventuresome cousins, Ashley and Josie.
Above her, the moon was but a sliver in the dark, starless sky. The tall, terraced houses of Mayfair—white and bedecked with flowers spilling from boxes in the daylight—now loomed menacingly over her. They stared at her from sightless eyes.
Maddie tried to keep her gaze on Ashley’s blond hair. The London fog obscured everything except what was right in front of one’s face, but Ashley’s wheat-blond tresses shimmered silver in the meager light. Ashley turned a corner, and Maddie clutched Catie tighter.
“Hurry,” Maddie whispered, not wanting to lose sight of Ashley. But then the fog closed in, thick and heavy, and Maddie had to reach out and feel her way past the building on her right. She lurched to the side and stepped on something furry.
With a squeak—hers or its—she ran on.
Catie and she rounded the corner, and Maddie saw Ashley’s bright hair. She was waiting for them. Thank heaven for her luminous cousin. The fog hadn’t infiltrated this street as thickly yet, and Maddie was able to see the welcoming houses and the small tree-lined park that made up Berkeley Square.
Home. Almost home.
She wasn’t going to die.
“Are you well?” Catie asked, pausing for a moment.
“Perfectly fine,” Maddie replied, wishing she weren’t shaking so badly. “Why do you ask?”
“You’re holding my arm so tightly that I’ shall have a bruise.”
Maddie loosened her hold. “Sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Catie said.
Jiminy! If anyone should be consoled, Maddie thought, it was Catie. Her horrible father had locked her in a closet for two days. She herself was only out on the dark, unsafe streets because, though she was scared half out of her mind, she couldn’t leave Catie in there.
Up ahead, rising out of the fog like a ghostly galleon from a storybook, floated her father’s town house.
Home. Safety. For all of them.
The girls climbed up the bed sheets they had left hanging down the side of the house under Maddie’s bedroom window. Maddie collapsed gratefully on the floor when her feet were again on solid ground.
When her stomach had ceased fluttering and her limbs were no longer shaking like saplings in a storm, she rose and fetched nightgowns, cool water, and fresh linens for the others. While the girls washed and changed, Maddie opened her desk drawer and pulled out a stash of almond biscuits she’d been saving for just such an occasion. She passed them out as her cousins gathered on the bed.
“Thank you, Mother,” Ashley said as she took her biscuit. Maddie stuck out her tongue. She was used to the other girls teasing her for fussing over them, but she knew they appreciated it.
