Free All I Ever Needed by Jo Goodman

like that. Doctor Keeble suggests you were drugged."
    Eastlyn smiled crookedly and allowed his hand to drop to the arm of the chair. "You should not allow the quack to treat you."
    Blackwood did not mirror East's good humor. "Belladonna, he says. It would explain your symptoms. Perhaps a tincture of opium. Your pupils were dilated and your muscles were inordinately weak."
    "But I didn't eat yesterday. There was quite a row at Battenburn before dawn, and it was every bit loud enough to rouse me from my bed."
    "Pistol at the ready, no doubt."
    "Of course." Eastlyn made no apology for it. "The baroness was in quite a state because her bedchamber had been invaded by the Gentleman Thief, and it was her very shrill contention that the scoundrel had taken his leave with her favorite necklace. I joined North in a search that came to nothing, except that it deprived me of a decent breakfast. I took my leave soon after and came straightaway to London."
    "And?" The colonel drew out the single word, making it a question that prompted Eastlyn to continue.
    "And I went to Number Fourteen Bowden Street," he said. "That is where Lady Sophia resides with her cousin and his family."
    "There is nothing more?"
    "Well, she told me she'd have more success making me a pigeon than a happy man."
    "I believe you mentioned that."
    "Did I?" He tried to recall, but his conversation with Blackwood was still blanketed in fog. "I left her shortly after that, on civil terms, I thought. I went home, bathed and changed my clothes, then came here. I admit things are not entirely clear after that."
    "The belated effects of the drug. Apparently you did not take it in sufficient strength to cause you immediate distress. Doctor Keeble surmises that your symptoms were magnified by your fatigue and mental confusion."
    "I was confused?" Eastlyn sifted backward through the snippets of conversation he could recall and found himself once again squarely set in Lady Sophia's garden. "The lady, you mean," he said, his half smile edging upward. "I suppose I cannot disagree. She was completely diverting."
    The colonel allowed that this was an understatement. "She offered you lemonade, I believe."
    "Yes. How did you know?"
    "You mentioned it last night."
    He must have, he thought, for there was no other way the colonel could have happened upon that information. What Blackwood was making of it, though, Eastlyn had no liking for. "You think Lady Sophie drugged me?" The absurdity of it was rife in his voice. "It was presented to me in a pitcher, and we both poured from it."
    "And drank?"
    Eastlyn remembered eventually draining his glass. He could not say if the same was true for Lady Sophia. In his mind's eye he could see her replacing her glass on the tray, but could not sharpen the image to know whether it was still full, half full, or empty. "We both drank," he said at last, unwilling to cast suspicion on the lady when his memory was at fault.
    The colonel considered this as he tugged absently on a forelock of black hair. He swept it back with his fingertips as he came to a decision. "I did not think it was possible that the lady could be at fault, but it is the sort of thing that bears investigating. I will also make appropriate inquiries regarding the state of her health." He held up a hand as Eastlyn made to interrupt. "Never fear. It will be done discreetly. No one in the family will know they are being questioned. It's her cousin, did you say? Colley is the family name?"
    "You will not make inquiries."
    Blackwood's glance narrowed, and his eyebrows rose a fraction. "I won't?"
    "No. What is between Lady Sophia and me is of a private nature, Colonel. It has nothing to do with any assignment you have ever given me. She is no threat to the peace or dignity of society—any society—and I do not want her treated as one. It is not possible that she was in any way responsible for my regrettable condition last night."
    The colonel's dark hair was liberally salted with gray, and