Two days on eggshells, and it was worse for Ford — Noble wasn't the one who the rumors were about. They had gotten too confident, with the burglaries — that much was so abundantly clear after Ford had found Miss Farley in the floo room. They should have had contingency plans in place, they should have stopped, they should have done anything other than suggest that Ford was sleeping with a debutante.

This was not about Noble, but he felt like everything was collapsing in around them — no more escape routes. He waited for two minutes after Mr. Farley left to step into the parlor, and blinked at the lit-up floo. Not yet.

"Are you doing it?" Noble asked. He'd been eavesdropping off and on enough to know that Mr. Farley wanted Ford to marry the girl — and Noble was distantly analytical enough to know that was fair. Still, the marriage might ruin them — even more than they were already ruined.