Edilean looked about her bedroom and saw the aftermath of the destruction she’d done. The little tables had been taken away to be repaired-or thrown into the fire, she didn’t know which. The bed had huge gashes in it where she’d attacked the wood with the knife, and there were more cuts in the big chest of drawers.

When she looked inside, she saw that there were only two dresses. It looked like she’d ruined the rest of them.

She put on one of her remaining gowns and made a mental note to go to the local dressmaker. But first, she had some other things that had to be taken care of.

An hour later, she called the footman, Cuddy, into the parlor. She sat while he stood. He was a man of medium height and medium looks, a person you’d never remember ten minutes after you met him-which is why she wanted him for the job.

“Feelin’ better now?” he asked in an insolent way, but she was already used to the way of the Americans. They didn’t believe they were anyone’s servants, and they let their employers know it.

“I’m feeling fine,” Edilean said, “and I have a job for you to do.”

“Anything I can do to help,” he said with a bit of a smile.

“For one thing, you can take that look off your face,” Edilean said. “If you want to remain here, then I suggest that you act like you want the job.”

“Yes, Miss,” he said, straightening up.

“I want you to find this man.” She handed him the picture of Angus, which had taken her hours to draw. It was a good likeness of the way he looked now, without his beard and wild hair.

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know what name he’s using.”

The man’s eyes widened. “Is he the one that attacked you?”

“Attacked me? Who told you such a thing?”

“Miss Harriet said that-”

“Forget that,” Edilean said. “No one attacked me. A man-” She took a breath. “I threw a very childish temper tantrum because I didn’t get my way, and that’s an end to it. I think this man is in trouble and I want you to find out what you can about him.”

“He’s here in Boston?”

“I think so. At least he has been for the last six weeks. He may have left for Virginia, but I don’t think so. I want you to find out where he’s been for these past weeks and what he’s been doing. Do you think you can do this?”

“Is he wanted for a crime?”

“No!” Edilean said. “At least not in this country. Here.” She handed him a little leather bag full of coins. “I’ll want an accounting of how you spend that. If you find him in three days, I’ll give you the same amount for yourself.”

“Yes, Miss,” Cuddy said, then left the room, the picture in his coat pocket.

At lunch, Harriet asked Edilean why she was so nervous.

“No reason,” Edilean said. “I just thought I heard a noise, that’s all.”

“Probably another man come to see you. I wish you wouldn’t be so nice to them. It makes them think they have a chance with you.”

“I did like one of them, that young man Thomas Jefferson. He was quite good-looking.”

“Then you should marry him!” Harriet said. “Take what you can get when it’s offered. Don’t wait.”

“The man didn’t ask me to marry him, he just visited with those other young men. But he’s as tall as Angus and nearly as handsome, but he lacks-” She stopped when Harriet sat down across from her to stare at her.

“Please don’t do what I did and compare all men to one of them. After the man I loved jilted me, no one else would suit me. There was one man I didn’t like because of the sound he made when he sneezed.”

“I won’t do that,” Edilean said. “I promise that if this man Thomas Jefferson asks me to marry him, I’ll do so. Now do you feel better?”

“No,” Harriet said, getting up. “I don’t know you well enough yet, but I think maybe you’re up to something. Did I see that dreadful young man Cuddy coming out of the parlor this morning?”

“I think I’ll take a walk and buy the newspapers,” Edilean said, then left the room quickly.

It took Cuddy only two days to find Angus, and he rightly guessed that the information was being kept a secret from Harriet, so he stepped out of an alley when Edilean was in town alone.

“Good heavens!” she said. “You nearly scared me to death.”

“I thought maybe you wanted to keep this quiet.”

“I do,” she said. They were between two tall buildings, and Edilean was using her open parasol to hide from passersby. “What have you found out? Did he leave for Virginia?”

“No. He’s still here. He runs a tavern and a carriage stop about ten miles south of here. He don’t own the place, but he does all the work. He’s well liked by the people who go through there, and he stands for no nonsense. It’s clean too.”

Edilean looked at Cuddy but she didn’t see him. “Angus is running a tavern?”

“His name is Harcourt, same as yours. Is he your brother?”

“No, he most emphatically is not my brother!” she said. “What did you see? Who did you talk to?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but he was easy to find. I asked a coach driver and he knew him so I rode out there and there he was. Your drawin’ is a good likeness. I had a drink and a meal and watched what was goin’ on, then I went into the yard and talked to the stablemen. They all like him.”

“That’s well and good, but why was he there?”

“They said the owner was a lazy man and he’d hired Angus to work in the stables, but he was so good at everything that the owner just turned the whole place over to him.”

“I understand that he’s good at his job. What I don’t see is why Angus is working there.” She was talking more to herself than to him, and when she looked up, she saw that the man couldn’t understand what she was asking. Didn’t everyone work for a living?

Cuddy handed her a paper with the name of the tavern on it and a little map of how to get there. She thanked him, and later, at the house, she gave him the second bag of coins that she’d promised him.

But all day, the question of why Angus had taken a job in a tavern haunted her. Why hadn’t he sold the diamonds and bought the land he wanted?

That afternoon, Harriet asked what was wrong with her. “You’re very distracted, as though you’re thinking hard about something.”

“It’s nothing,” Edilean said. They were in the tiny garden behind the house, and Harriet was pulling the weeds from around the asparagus. She’d not let them eat all the asparagus, saying that some of it had to be left to grow into beautiful, tall, feathery ferns.

Edilean had said, “I think they would look good with roses.”

“Then get us some roses,” Harriet replied, but at the time, Edilean had been too busy being miserable because Angus had left her to think about anything else. So today, Edilean was planting roses while Harriet worked on the weeds.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Hmph!” Harriet said. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing,” Edilean answered sweetly as she stood up. “So few people in these cities have gardens that they might buy our roses.”

“What a ridiculous idea,” Harriet said quickly. “Let them grow their own. I want to know what’s in your mind. You can’t go from destroying an entire room in a wild rage to being so peaceful all in a few days without there being something devious going on in your mind.”

“Not devious, but maybe good.” Edilean stepped back to look at the roses she’d planted. It was late in the season for them, but a neighbor had given her cuttings that were well rooted. Edilean knew that the plants had been given to her because the neighbor was curious, wanting to know the who, why, where, etc. of her life, but Edilean had just smiled, thanked her for the roses, and told her nothing.

“I don’t know what’s in my mind,” she said, looking at Harriet. “It’s as though I have an idea in my head and it’s just about to emerge, but it hasn’t yet.”

“Let me know when it does so I can remove the furniture.”

Edilean gave a little laugh. “I think that was a one-time event in my life. I don’t plan to do that again.”