"That's a nice tree in front of the building."

Mary raised her brows, convinced that her employer had gone daft.

Belle stroked her chin. "It's uncommonly close to the outer wall." She smiled. "Come along, Mary, we've got work to do."

"We do?" But Mary's words went unheard, for Belle was already several steps ahead of her.

When she got home, Belle marched straight up to her room, pulled out some stationery from her desk and penned a note to Emma, who had been much more of a tomboy while growing up than Belle.

Dearest Emma,

How do you climb trees?

Fondly,

Belle

After Belle sent the note off to her cousin, she dealt with her grief and her anger the best way she knew how. She went shopping.

For this outing she took Persephone with her. The older lady never tired of browsing through the elegant London shops. Much more of a selection than anywhere in Yorkshire, she explained. And besides, it was great fun spending Alex's money.

Neither woman really needed new clothing after their last outing, but the holiday season was approaching, so they browsed through trinket shops, looking for gifts. Belle found an odd little telescope for her brother and a lovely music box for her mother, but she couldn't stop her heart from wishing that it were John for whom she was shopping. She sighed. She would just have to believe that all would work out in the end. She couldn't let herself believe anything else. It would simply be too painful.

It was probably because she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the two rather unsavory looking characters lurking in an alleyway as she passed by. Before she realized what was happening, one of them had grabbed her arm and started pulling her deeper into the alley.

Belle yelled out and fought with all her might. The thug had pulled her far enough into the alley so that the passersby on the main street did not see her. And London had grown so loud, it was understandable that no one paid her cries any mind. "Let go of me, you cur," she cried out. Her arm felt as if it were being torn from the socket, but she blocked out the pain, intent only on escape.

"She's the one, I tell ya," she heard one of the villains say. "She's the one the fancy cove wanted."

"Shut up and get 'er over here." The other man stepped forward and Belle's terror increased tenfold. There was no way she'd be able to hold out against the strength of both of these men.

But just when it seemed that all was lost, salvation came in the unlikely form of Persephone. She had been distracted by a particularly attractive window display when Belle had disappeared into the alleyway and was quite baffled when she looked back up and her charge was gone. When she called out Belle's name and got no response, she grew worried and began to look about frantically.

"Belle?" she called out again, this time loudly. She scurried forward, her head turning in all directions. Then, as she was passing the alleyway, she saw a blur of movement and Belle's familiar blond hair.

"Good God!" she screamed, loud enough to make most of the people on the sidewalk stop and stare. "Let go of her, you beasts!" She rushed forward, raising her parasol above her head. "Let go, I tell you!" With a furious whack, she slammed her weapon down on the head of one of the assailants.

"Shut up, you old bitch!" he yelled, howling in pain.

Persephone's response was a horizontal swing which clipped him neatly in the middle. The breath knocked out of him, he fell to the ground.

The other thug was caught between utter panic and sheer greed, lusting after the money he'd been promised if he captured the yellow-haired lady. He gave it one last desperate try, barely aware that a number of people had rushed into the alleyway upon hearing Persephone's cries of distress.

"I said let go of her!" Persephone boomed. She changed her attack tactics and started viciously poking him with the end of her parasol. When she stabbed him neatly in the groin, he finally let go of Belle and ran away, painfully hunched over the entire way.

"Persephone, thank you so much," Belle said, tears of terror belatedly forming in her eyes.

But Persephone wasn't listening. All of her attention was focused on the man still lying on the ground. He made a motion as if to get up, but she jabbed him in the belly. "Not so fast, mister," she said.

Belle's eyes widened. Who would have dreamed that dear old Persephone would have such a tough streak?

The villain saw the growing crowd of people forming around him and closed his eyes, surmising that escape was impossible. Much to Belle's relief, a constable quickly arrived on the scene, and she relayed her story to him. He started to question her attacker, but the man remained closemouthed. That is, until the constable reminded him of the possible punishments for attacking a lady of Belle's position.

The man sang like a canary.

He'd been hired to grab her. Yes, just her. No, not any pretty blond lady, this one in particular. The gentleman who had hired him spoke with uppity accents-definitely highborn. No, he didn't know his name, and he hadn't seen him before, but he had straight blond hair and blue eyes, if that helped any, and his arm was in a sling.

After finishing the interrogation, the constable hauled him away and told Belle to be extra careful. Maybe she ought to hire one of those Bow Street Runners for added protection.

Belle shivered with fear. She had an enemy. One who probably wanted her dead.

As the crowd began to disperse, Persephone turned to her and asked solicitously, "Are you all right, dear?"

"Yes, yes," Belle replied. "I'm fine." Her eyes strayed down to her arm where that awful man had grabbed her. There had been a dress and a coat between her skin and his, but still she felt dirty. "I think, however, I'd like a bath."

Persephone nodded. "I couldn't agree with you more."

Late the next morning a footman brought Belle a reply from Emma.

Dearest Belle,

I cannot imagine why you suddenly want to learn how to climb trees since you never professed

any love for it when we were small. The first step is to find a tree with some reasonably low

branches. If you cannot reach the first branch, you'll never get anywhere…

The letter continued for two pages. Emma was nothing if not detailed. She was also a little suspicious, as the end of the letter showed.

I hope you find this helpful, although I must say I wonder where you are going to climb trees in London. I profess that I think this has something to do with John Blackwood. Love does strange things to women, as I well know. Be careful, whatever you do, and I can only breathe a sigh of relief that I am no longer your chaperone. God save Persephone.

Fondly,

Emma

Belle scoffed. If Emma were still her chaperone, she'd probably insist upon going along with her. Emma had never been known for prudent behavior.

Belle reread the letter, carefully going over the part about how to climb trees. Was she really going to do this? When she'd stopped outside of Damien's house and assessed that tree, she hadn't really thought that she would do anything about it. She wasn't the sort of daring female who would climb a tree and break into an earl's house through a third-story window. For one thing, she had no head for heights.

But, as Emma so wisely pointed out, love did strange things to a woman. That, and danger. Her nasty experience with those two thugs in the alleyway had convinced her that it was time to act decisively.

Or perhaps rashly was a better word for it.

Belle shook her head. No matter. She'd made up her mind. She was scared, and she needed John.

But those thugs did complicate her plans a bit. She couldn't very well go over to Damien's house in the middle of the night by herself when someone was out to kidnap her. And Mary, of course, would not be sufficient protection. Persephone and her perilous parasol were another story, but Belle doubted that Persephone would agree to go with her. She might be rather lenient as far as chaper-ones went, but she would certainly put her foot down at Belle breaking into a man's room.

What to do, what to do?

Belle smiled mischievously.

She picked up a quill and wrote a note to Dunford.


***

"Absolutely not!"

"Don't be stodgy, Dunford," Belle said. "I need your help."

"You don't need help, you need a harness. And I'm not being stodgy, I'm being a sensible. A word of which you appear to have forgotten the mean-ing.

Belle stubbornly crossed her arms and sank back into her chair. Dunford was up and pacing, his arms flying as he spoke. She'd never seen him so out of sorts.

"This is a damn fool thing you're thinking of, Belle. If you don't break your neck-and that's a pretty big If, considering that all of your tree-climbing experience can be located in a letter from your cousin-you'll probably be arrested for trespassing."

"I won't be arrested."

"Oh, really? And how do you know that you'll just happen to tumble into the correct room? With your luck you'll end up in the earl's bedroom. And I've been watching him watching you. I think he'd appreciate his good fortune."

"He would not. He knows I'm interested in his brother. And I'm not going to 'tumble into his bedroom' as you so delicately put it. I know which room is John's."

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that."

It was on the tip of Belle's tongue to defend her reputation, but she kept silent instead. If Dunford thought that she'd already been in John's bedroom he might be less reluctant to help her get there again.