Fascination lit Gervase’s handsome features when he saw Peacock’s. It was nearer to the coast than our Manor house, and much older. Gervase studied every part of the frontage. “It must date back centuries.” He didn’t take his eager gaze off it for one minute.

Peacock’s was one of the few half-timbered buildings in Devonshire, with stone mullioned windows, but I had known it since I was tiny. I was so used to it I didn’t really notice its beauty any more.

The entrance led to the oldest part of the house. I went in leaning on Richard’s arm, with Gervase on my other side. Gervase caught his breath. The Great Hall was old, the timbered roof soaring above our heads in stripes of light and dark. A large oriel window decorated the end wall, still bearing its stained glass, sending streams of bright colour on to the stone flagged floor. A fire had been set in the generous fireplace, so the hall was reasonably warm. I was thankful to see it, because beautiful though the hall was, it got cold at this time of year.

Most of the guests had already arrived and they watched us come in, giving us the kind of attention I still had to get used to. At one time I might have entered unobserved, and taken my place by Martha at one side of the room, but those days were gone.

Once we’d greeted Sir George and Lady Skerrit, Tom and Georgiana, I took Richard and Gervase around the hall, introducing them. Everyone looked at them, and none at me, but that was only to be expected, as they had known me always, but never on the arm of anyone as spectacular as Richard. I ignored the speculative stares, and I knew as if they were speaking what they must be thinking. Why was someone like Richard with someone like me? I was far from answering that myself.

Some of the girls here had even pitied me. Miss Eustacia Terry, the daughter of a squire a few miles off didn’t like me, and sometimes went out of her way to taunt me. She looked pretty tonight, in a pale blue, low-cut gown, which suited her light colouring admirably. I had thought I would enjoy my triumph of attracting one of England’s most eligible bachelors, but to my surprise I found it mattered little. Perhaps it was because Miss Terry’s opinion had never meant much to me, so it didn’t mean much now.

Richard bowed over her hand and to my surprise, Eustacia simpered. I’d never seen her do that before, so it must be a new trick. Miss Terry was accounted one of our local beauties and she tried to play all the new games she could find. I wanted to see her try her tricks out on Richard.

I moved back to stand with Lizzie, and together we sipped our wine and watched the show.

“La, sir, I was never as surprised as when I heard our Rose had caught you in her net,” she said.

Richard shot a startled look at me, but I smiled beatifically at him. I saw him catch my amusement then, and he must have decided to play up to it. Perhaps he remembered my glancing references to her as my tormentor in the local assemblies and gatherings. When Lizzie made her debut in local society and put Eustacia’s nose out, she never missed an opportunity to denigrate me, but I hadn’t told Richard just how much she’d done this. Miss Terry had always despised me for having missed the opportunities to ensnare one of the young men who always passed me by, and she mocked me whenever the opportunity arose, but I had merely mentioned it to Richard in passing once.

I should have known better. Richard never forgot anything when it concerned me.

She took on a deliberately coquettish pose when she leant towards him, offering him a view of her charms, should he wish to take advantage of it.

“Indeed, madam?” He reached into his pocket and drew out his snuffbox. I had seen him take snuff before, an art complete in itself, but to my surprise this time, before he took some himself, he offered the box to Miss Terry. It was considered a privilege if one person offered another his snuff, but ladies rarely partook, and I knew that Miss Terry had never tried it. Gervase, standing nearby talking to Lady Skerrit, glanced at his brother, an eyebrow arched in surprise.

We watched Miss Terry gingerly take a small pinch, put it to her nose and sniff. Since she had not done this before, she did not accomplish the task with too much elegance and the surplus fell from her fingers on to her gown. Richard compounded her inelegance by pinching an infinitesimal amount himself and taking it in one swift, exquisite movement. I suspected he disliked the stuff. He never took it in private, and a boxful seemed to last him a long time. He snapped the pretty box shut and replaced it in his pocket, but in an elegant flourishing way that showed off the lace on his sleeves and the jewellery on his hands to great advantage. The great emerald on his finger glittered, and I stared at it, wondering anew how this exquisite creature could ever be mine.

He put the box and his handkerchief away and moved back a little. Miss Terry’s sneeze, when it came, was satisfyingly explosive and it stopped all conversation in the hall. She groped in her pocket for her handkerchief, and finally she had the presence of mind to spread her fan before her face while she recovered her composure.

“Dear me,” said elegant Lord Strang, surprise in every inch of his form. “I do beg your pardon, madam.