Burke ignored the voice, jerked up his pistol, and would have fired that moment, but Monk had his own pistol aimed, not at him or Knight, but at Lily. "Jest ye try it," Monk yelled. "Jest go ahead and do it, and I'll bury the little piece right 'ere, right now!"

Burke spat on the floor and snarled, his voice filled with contempt, "Your mother was a ginsoaked whore who should have smothered you at birth!"

With a ferocious bellow of rage, Monk jerked, his gun leveled now on Burke's chest.

Knight smoothly pulled the knife from his sleeve, poised it to its mark, then sent it straight and fast toward Monk just the instant before Monk fired.

The blade sank into one side of Monk's neck, the red-tipped point protruding obscenely out the other side, under Monk's right ear. Burke hit the floor as the bullet went high and wide. Monk stared at Burke, then, turning slowly, stared at Knight. "A stiletto, ye kilt me with a stiletto, jest like me mother gave me." He tried to say something more, but it was garbled sounds, liquid with his own blood.

Lily saw the knife sticking through Monk's throat. She saw him drop the pistol, saw him slowly crumple, his huge body seeming to fold in on itself. It was odd, but his body made scarce a sound when it hit the wooden floor. She saw Burke come to his feet, stand there, unmoving; saw her husband, his arm still outstretched. Slowly, she opened her mouth. Only a sob emerged.

Knight rushed to the bed. "Lily, it's over now, all over."

She stared up at him, unable to raise her hand to touch his face. "I couldn't help you. I couldn't do anything except lie here like some wilting, weak female and watch Monk hurt you."

"He didn't hurt me. He's dead now, Lily, dead and gone. Please, love, it's all right, I'm all right."

Slowly, the room turned dark, then darker still. Lily tried to fight it off but she couldn't. "Knight," she whispered, then softly slid into unconsciousness.

Three days later, midmorning in the Diamond Room, Lily was surrounded by three children, a husband, an earl, and a countess.

Sam was proudly demonstrating his ability with his crutches. Theo was trailing after him, a close shadow, ready to catch him if he fell. Laura Beth was cuddled next to Lily on the bed, Czarina Catherine in her arms.

"Not a bit of room for me," Knight said. "Won't you go away, Laura Beth? Perhaps play with your uncle Burke? He looks terribly lonely, doesn't he?"

The child took her thumb out of her mouth and grinned at Knight. "Papa," she said. She nodded, apparently pleased with the sound, and stuck her thumb back into her mouth.

"I suppose that's an answer. Careful, Sam, you'll fall out the window. Theo, sit down. May I have a cup of tea, please, Arielle? All this fathering is wearing me to a bone."

Lily smiled and touched her husband's coat sleeve. "You're a wonderful father."

"But not yet all that wonderful a husband," Knight said, hoping that only she heard him.

"I have an excellent memory, my lord."

"So do I. I hurt, Lily. Would you please speed up your recovery? It was, after all, only a bullet wound through your shoulder. Barely a scratch. Have you so little stamina?"

"Knight, would you please take a seat and leave Lily to Laura Beth and her doll?" Arielle said. "Here's your tea. Now behave. You're quite as active as the children."

Knight meekly did as he was asked.

"You as well, Arielle," Burke told his wife. "Lily was just asking me about Knight's plan."

"The one that didn't work," Arielle added.

"Well, it was a try," Knight said. "And really quite simple. I just sent out a good half-dozen men to canvass all innkeepers and shop owners and let drop that we'd turned up these fabulous jewels at Castle Rosse and, being lawful folk, we were dispatching them to London. Mentioned the date and the time, of course. It was a fairly decent plan, even if it didn't work, since Monk was here rather than there."

"Did you truly have someone traveling to London with something?" Lily asked.

"Yes, Burke's valet, Joshua. He had two other men trailing him in case Monk made a move. Joshua was peeved that he missed all the excitement here."

Burke said, "Joshua was my batman in the army. This was his first excitement in some months and he was ready to bash some heads. He's been doing nothing but complaining since he came back."

At that moment, the Ravensworths' butler, Montague, came into the room and spoke quietly to Burke. Burke frowned for a moment, then nodded. Montague withdrew.

"How bizarre," Burke said. "Ollie has just arrived from London. He asks to speak to you, Knight."

"I did pay him, did I not?"

"Yes," Burke said. "Perhaps he's back for a bonus."

"No, sir," Ollie said as he came into the room, sounding much affronted. "We Bow Street Runners are an 'onorable sort, we are, not bleeding milkers."

"I was just jesting, Ollie. Do come in. What have you to tell his lordship?"

Ollie looked at each of them in turn, then eyed the children with something akin to terror. He cleared his throat. "Billy's Baubles," he announced.

Everyone stared at him.

"Billy's Baubles," he said again. "The bloody jewels. Don't you understand?"

"No," Knight said.

"Billy, as in William," Ollie explained in a tone of exaggerated patience. He still got no response. "You're all a bunch of loobies. William-bloody Prince William of Orange! That's who Billy is. 'E was betrothed to Charlotte-Princess Charlotte of England. She done told the prince to stuff it this past summer, said she didn't want to marry 'im. 'E took the jewels back and sent 'em 'ome to Brussels, but they was stolen. All I 'ad to do was ask about it quiet-like. Lord Kittaker knew all about it. Since it didn't 'appen 'ere in England, no one knew much about it."

"Oh, my goodness," Lily said. "Imagine that. No wonder they were so valuable."

"My God," Knight said. "And I was thinking this Billy was a rich Cit or something of the sort."

"The Princess of England," Lily said. "Jewels for a royal princess."

Arielle was shaking her head. "Well, it doesn't matter who owns them. We still don't have any idea where the devil they are."

There was no answer to that.

Ollie earned a bonus of one hundred pounds for his information.

The following afternoon, Mrs. Pepperall, the Ravensworth housekeeper, walked into the drawing room looking perturbed. Knight had carried Lily downstairs and had tucked her carefully onto a sofa near the fireplace.

The children were outside with John, who had recently arrived, playing in the newly fallen snow.

Mrs. Pepperall cleared her throat. "My lady, the strangest thing has happened." In her hands she held Lily's once beautiful ermine-lined cloak.

"Yes, Mrs. Pepperall? Oh, the cloak."

"Yes, ma'am. We tried to clean it, but the blood-Well, one of our girls was trying to snip out the blood-covered fur from the rest of the ermine so's you could wear it again, and the strangest thing happened. Look what she found wrapped up real tight in linen in the lining."

Mrs. Pepperall held up a glittering necklace, earrings, and bracelet. Diamonds, emeralds, and rubies spilled over her hand, shining wildly in the afternoon sunlight.

"My cloak. They were in my cloak all the time, and it never occurred to me-"

"To either of us," Knight said. "Merciful heavens, would you look at the size of those diamonds!"

"They're real?" Mrs. Pepperall said, her voice a high squeak, and she promptly dropped the jewels into Knight's hands.

"Quite real," Knight said, sifting the brilliant jewels through his fingers. "Thank you, Mrs. Pepperall. You've solved the mystery."

"Not at all, my lord," said Mrs. Pepperall, beaming. "It wasn't much at all, really."

"Irony," Knight said. "I've had quite enough of irony."

Epilogue.

VENICE, ITALY.

APRIL 1815.

On a bright afternoon in early April, Lord and Lady Castlerosse stood on the open balcony off their bedchamber in the Palazzo di Contini, looking over the Grand Canal.

"Thank God it's only early spring and not the middle of summer," Knight said, leaning on the polished wood railing. "It was my misfortune to visit Venice in August some six years ago. The stench was nearly overpowering. But now-" Knight paused and breathed in the cool spring morning air.

"I have been wondering what's under that dark water," Lily said, peering down from their third-story view. "It's menacing and murky, a lover of the gothic would say."

"I shudder to know what's under it."

"Ancient Greek coins, perhaps? Roman urns and centurions' shields? I know, Attila the Hun left his sword here, and it sank."

"Someone's dead cousin, more's to the point. The Venetians aren't known for their forgiving natures."

Lily shuddered and turned, to lean her back against the balcony railing. "You're not a romantic, Knight."

He grinned at her, that grin that made her want to leap into his arms and wrestle him to the floor. "And have my way with you," she finished aloud.

"What?" He immediately put his fingertip to her lips. "No, don't repeat what you said. It's possible I misunderstood. I prefer to believe that you want to fling me down and rip off my clothes and caress me with your hands and mouth and-"

"You're terrible. But yes, that's it exactly. You've been distant today, Knight. Admit it."

His grin faded a bit. He pulled her into his arms, settling her there exactly where she belonged, her head on his shoulder, her hands around his waist. "It's like you've been with me all my life," he said, kissing the top of her head. "You're feeling quite well again? You promise?"

"I promise," she said.

"We've been here for three weeks now. We've attended nine balls, three in our honor, gambled away five hundred pounds-"

"I lost only fifty pounds! It was rouge et noir, and you said I was cheated."

"Well, I knew it was some vast amount. In any case, we've ridden in the gondolas until you were nearly seasick, we've fed every damned pigeon in St. Mark's Square, we've trudged over the Rialto Bridge a good three hundred times, and you almost locked me in the dungeons in the Doges's Palace-"

That brought out a giggle. "I didn't really lock you in."

"You made me think so. I found a gray hair the very next morning. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, I've had Tintoretto for breakfast, Carpaccio for lunch, Parodi for afternoon tea, and Bellini for dinner. The only activity that hasn't paled in the least, in fact the one that keeps me hard as those supports under the Rialto Bridge, is making love with you."

He felt the small shudder go through her at his words and smiled.

"I suspect that won't pale for a very long time."

"Fifty years, Lily?"

"At the very least. Now, what is really on your mind?"

Knight sighed. She knew him well, his wife. "I miss the children. We've been gone from them nearly two months now. And even though it's been wonderful-"

Lily laughed and kissed him. "What are you really trying to say?"

"Haven't you wondered if Castle Rosse is still a fine old manor house and not a squalid remnant from the past? If our servants are still sentient people and not blathering idiots? If the upstairs maids haven't gone shrieking to Bedlam after putting their hands in Sam's bread dough?"

Lily was laughing so hard she couldn't speak. "Oh, stop," she managed. "You're so funny, Knight. How did I live so long without the wittiest, the handsomest, the most wonderful, the-"

"The best lover?"

"Yes, the best lover and nearly the youngest husband in the entire world?"

Knight moaned. "All my fine philosophies-shredded and tossed to the winds. I, a young man, captured in his prime, hurtled into captivity, forced to service a woman who has endless appetites for my young, virile body. How can it be borne?"

"What is it to be, then, my lord?"

"It's my turn."

"To hurtle me to the ground? I, a young lady, to be captured in her prime?"

He laughed and squeezed her tightly against him. "Enough talk for a while. It's time we made love."

They did, and it was sweet and fierce and slow and very, very fine. The sun was sinking into twilight before Knight was able to string more than two words together. "If I had met you when I was forty, you would have killed me within a week. I'm damned lucky I'm young; it's the only way I could survive being married to you."

Lily kissed his shoulder.

Knight kissed the tip of her nose. "When did you plan to tell me?"

Lily was caught in mid-yawn. "Tell you what?"

"That you're pregnant."