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And that she was wrong to enjoy that prospect at all?

“Pardon me,” said a voice next to her, and she turned around.

The wind cutting her heated cheeks like razors, she looked at a young courier standing before her with a rectangular box.

“Is this Sumhall Place?” he asked.

“It is,” Calliope replied.

“There’s a delivery for Lady Calliope Seaton. I should get this to the butler.”

“I’m Lady Calliope,” she said, glad of a distraction, trying to calm her ragged breath. “You may give this to me.”

It was, of course, unheard of for unmarried ladies to get their own correspondence without a chaperone or a butler having made sure it was safe first. But she was already here. And she didn’t think highly of that rule, anyway.

The courier glanced at her, then at Nathaniel.

“You may give it to the lady,” said Nathaniel with authority in his voice, and an awareness ran through Calliope.

The young man nodded and handed it to Calliope. When he left, she opened the lid of the box and gasped from a horrid stench that came from within. There was a dry bouquet of flowers with the stems rotting. Next to them lay a note.

“Heavens,” she said, through the stench. “It must have stayed rotting in the water for days.”

Nathaniel took the box from her hands. “Do not touch it.”

With her gloved hands, she reached out and tried to take the box back, but he evaded her.

“Kelford, you’re overreacting!” she said with an outraged chuckle. “There’s a note addressed to me, and I must see it!”

“It’s dangerous, Calliope.” A pleasant sort of jolt went through her at how he forgot her formal address and called her just by her given name. “I will open it.”

Setting the warmth in her chest aside, she glared at him. “No. It’s for me, and you have no right.”

She put her gloved hand into the box and tried to snatch the note when Nathaniel quickly moved it aside and once again out of her reach. He grasped the note and put the box onto the driver’s seat of his gig.

“Nathaniel!” she cried out.

And only then realized that, just like him, she hadn’t used his official name, the one by which she should address him.

Swiftly, he opened the note and read it, paling. Calliope craned her neck.

In a sharp, masculine hand, it said, Lady Calliope. You must stop digging, for your own good.

Unease washed over Calliope in a sleek, cold wave. “Does it say who it is from?”

Nathaniel snatched the card away. “No. And if you think I will let you keep investigating, you’re sorely mistaken.”

She glowered. “What? Your help in this investigation was the whole reason for this. For us.” She gestured between them.

“I do not care. Clearly, as I suspected, there’s someone who doesn’t want your brother to be found, and they know you’re digging. You must stop. I’m not taking you to the Admiralty anymore. You’re to stay away.”

Outrage hit her like a slap, and she took two steps to the gig and laid her hands on the handles and her foot on the step. “No. That is not an option. We agreed. You cannot forbid me anything.”

“Calliope!”

She climbed onto the driver’s seat and took the reins. “I will not let a silly note and a bunch of dry flowers stop me from saving my brother’s life!”

“Calliope.” He looked around. “You must get down from that gig this minute. Your investigation is over.”