While Dockwrath joins forces with Joseph Mason and searches for the witnesses who signed the disputed codicil in hopes of proving that Lady Mason committed perjury during the first lawsuit, Mr. Furnival prepares her defense but begins to feel increasingly uneasy about what may truly have happened, and meanwhile at Noningsby the younger generation becomes entangled in romantic rivalries involving Lucius Mason, Sophia Furnival, Augustus and Madeline Staveley, Felix Graham, and Peregrine Orme, with Felix suffering a serious hunting accident that further complicates their relationships, while the legal danger intensifies when Dockwrath locates Bridget Bolster and discovers that her memory of signing only one document may provide the damaging evidence needed to reopen the case against Lady Mason.
