“Your cup must overflow,” Miss Terry said acidly. “First the elevation in your fortunes, then you catch such a notable bachelor. Tell me, do you expect him to give up his wicked ways for you?”

“He gave them up some time ago,” I said calmly. “I’m afraid I can’t take the credit for that.”

“It didn’t seem like it over dinner,” said one lady. Miss Terry hid behind her fan in pretended embarrassment.

I regarded her with cool hauteur. “That, in case you didn’t recognise it, was flirting. Miss Terry, I came to warn you. Please be careful. Lord Strang is dangerous.” With an inward groan I wished I’d put it differently. But how to explain Richard to someone who didn’t know him? Someone who didn’t want to listen?

She flushed and tossed her head disdainfully, her golden ringlets bouncing around her pretty shoulders. “Dangerous? I couldn’t see any of that. I did think he was one of the most charming men I have ever met.” She leant forward to me confidingly, not lowering her voice one jot. “Is it true he jilted his previous fiancée?”

“No, she jilted him.”

She laughed. “I can hardly believe that. She married Steven Drury didn’t she? Who would prefer Steven Drury over Lord Strang?” Her acolytes tittered in chorus.

“Miss Cartwright evidently did,” I said. “She’s a considerable heiress and used to getting her own way. She wanted him, so she took him.”

“She sounds like a woman after my own heart—except she chose the wrong man.” Eustacia looked around for approval and her friends laughed again. “I wouldn’t let Lord Strang go, once I had him. Though you’ll have your work cut out to keep him.”

It was a secret fear of mine, but I was determined not to let her see that. “It’s true that you have more to redeem you than Miss Cartwright.” Miss Terry’s thoughtlessness and cruelty was drawn from her youth and inexperience, while Julia Cartwright’s was calculated. Richard had always thought Julia stupid, but I wasn’t so sure. Miss Terry showed a loyalty to her friends that would be alien to Julia. It was why I tried to help her now, but I feared I was too late.

Miss Terry bowed in mocking acknowledgement of the compliment. “Still, he may prove more fickle than you think. And that brother of his—is he attached to anyone?”

I replied in the negative. It might be as well if she was drawn to Gervase. He was kinder than his brother and she wouldn’t come to any harm with him. With that in mind, I gave Eustacia a few hints. “He’s so rich, even he doesn’t know how much he’s worth. Although he left the country in disgrace, he returned in triumph. Lord Strang sometimes says he’s the poor relation, in comparison to his brother.”

Miss Terry fluttered her fan. “I still prefer the elder brother, and the title. I’ll get him off you, Rose, see if I don’t. He’ll marry me in Exeter, not you.”

At that point, the gentlemen came in. Richard looked around the room and strode over to us when he saw me. “Such a charming sight.” He fixed his prey again after a brief, reassuring glance at me. A vigorous fluttering of fans rewarded him. “May I show you ladies a trick or two?” He gently took my fan. “The ladies in London deploy their fans—so—if they wish to attract the attention of someone across the room.” It was pretty to see all the girls as they copied him, like a chorus. “And so, and so,” he continued, demonstrating. His gestures were exquisite, elegantly delineating hidden emotions and desires, showing how beautiful the language of the fan could be in the hands of a master, but at no time were his gestures anything but masculine. Richard exuded masculinity with every pore, his affectation of rich clothes only underlying the fact that he needed no props to prove his essential nature. A predator in the ballroom, a dangerous, untamed element always in his eyes, in every ripple of well-trained, sleek muscle.

He shot me a wicked glance and I realised one of the gestures he’d used was not at all proper. “This means ‘would you like to dance with me?’” I knew it meant something far more risqué.

During my visit to Eyton, one of the guests at his parents’ house kindly demonstrated some of the elegant gestures to me, and had shown me one or two of the ones to avoid. The one Richard just demonstrated was definitely one of those.

“My lord,” I said in warning, but the expression he turned to me was one of angelic innocence.

“Madam?”

I sighed. “Never mind.” This was mild, compared to what he could do. Perhaps that wickedness would satisfy him.

Lizzie came over to join us. “Martha says it would be quite proper if you should like to play for us, Rose, and Lady Skerrit says she would love you to play.” I suspected they were colluding to get me away from the group, but then I realised how I could get Richard away from his game, and I agreed.

I went over to the harpsichord and searched for some music amongst the sheets piled on a little table next to the instrument. I soon found what I wanted—a fiendish piece which had taken me forever to master. I ran my hands over the keys to ensure the tuning was suitable. It was.

With Lizzie to turn the pages for me, I began to play, and soon the magic happened. I loved music, and spent much of my spare time practising, but Richard had never heard me play before. I had not thought it seemly in Derbyshire, being in deeper mourning, and in Yorkshire all the instruments were