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were gone and she was just herself. Not the scandalous countess Dublin whispered about
    "I have to admit I will be very glad indeed when the holiday festivities are done with," Eliza said. Her silks divested, she wrapped herself in her dressing gown and sat down before the mirror as Mary brushed out her coiffure. "I am too old for Dublin parties, Mary."
    "Oh, come now, my lady! You're not a bit old. Now, Lady Dunmore, she's three hundred if she's a day, I vow!"
    "Don't be cheeky, Mary," Eliza said, but she still laughed. Lady Dunmore was quite venerable. She even had an ear trumpet.
    "But she still gets about in that Bath chair of hers, does old Lady Dunmore," Mary went on. "They say her son is quite terrified of her."
    "Hmm, and him all of two hundred years old, too," Eliza said. Then a thought struck. Mary, and all the servants, so often seemed to know so much. Eliza heard more gossip from Mary than she did over any aristocratic tea table, and it made her doubly cautious with her own words and her correspondence. "Mary, had you heard that the younger son of Viscount Moreton was back from the West Indies?"
    "Major Denton, you mean? Oh yes, my lady. He's taken rooms on Castleton Street, and my cousin is a footman in that part of town." Mary sighed as she plied her brush. "He's ever so handsome, is Major Denton."
    "Indeed. I saw him at the assembly."
    "Did you, my lady? How lucky! Did you dance with him?"
    Eliza laughed. "I'm also too old for dancing, I fear. Is his whole regiment in Dublin?"
    "So I've heard, but they're soon to go north, more is the pity." Mary's eyes grew wide in the mirror. "When they leave, will the city be unprotected, my lady?"
    "Certainly not We are quite safe, with or without Major Denton's regiment" She smiled at Mary. "It will be a shame to lose such a handsome face, though. He could brighten this dull town considerably, I think."
    Mary giggled. "That he could, my lady."
    "But perhaps we will soon be gone ourselves. I've been thinking of going back to Kildare for the winter. And before you ask, Mary, I'm sure traveling will be just as safe as staying in town." There—let Will think she heard his warning and was decamping.
    "Yes, my lady" Mary said uncertainly.
    Eliza was silent for a moment as Mary finished her hair. "You will tell me if you hear anything else of interest about the handsome major?"
    "Of course, my lady." Mary grinned, and Eliza could tell she thought her employer was thinking of taking a lover at last. Well, better that than the truth. "I left a tisane for you on the bedside table, Is there anything else you need, my lady?"
    "No, thank you, Mary. That will be all tonight"
    Mary curtsied and left the room, and Eliza was alone at last Alone but for her thoughts, and they were always far too much company.
    She studied herself in the mirror. With her hair down over her shoulders, brushed free of their elaborate curls and divested of jewels and combs, she looked so young. Young... and frightened?
    Never! This was not a time for fear, this was a time for action. All her hard work would soon come to fruition. She could not waver, not when liberty and justice were at last within sight
    It was Will making her feel this way. But she couldn't wouldn't, let him.
    Eliza opened her top dressing table drawer, feeling along the edge with her fingertips until she could pop free the false back. There, tucked behind lacy handkerchiefs and silk gaiters was a small, round badge bound in green ribbon. On it was embroidered an Irish harp and the words
    I AM NEW STRUNG AND SHALL BE HEARD.
    She traced the motto carefully, the image that always gave her courage. Tonight though, it kept blurring, overlaid with the picture of Will Denton's sky-blue eyes.
    There was a rustling behind her, so soft as to be almost inaudible. Yet, Eliza had been on edge for weeks, months, and all her senses went on high alert at the noise. She shoved the badge back into the drawer, sliding it closed. She grasped the handle of a