Chapter Sixteen
Elise’s breakfast tray sat untouched on the table in her room. She didn’t want to upset her grandmother with her red, puffy eyes and swollen nose. The woman had an intuition like a falcon on the hunt for a rabbit. She’d know there was something wrong, and until she spoke with Beverly and could invent a plausible reason for her upset, Elise thought it better to avoid her.
While she waited for Beverly to arrive, she’d alternately cried and cursed, sometimes both at the same time. Already a footman had returned Michael’s horse to his residence in Hanover Square, and delivered her note to the Hepplewhite home. Sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed, linen kerchief in hand in case tears fell yet again, she thought through her plan once more.
She wiped her nose as Bridg
