Lord Thwaite laughed, his pleasant features showing only amusement. “Delighted to meet you, ma’am. A great improvement on the last one.” He glanced at Richard meaningfully, a challenge in his dark stare.

I smiled and inclined my head.

“I don’t want to hear ill of Miss Drury. She did me a great service, when she ran off as she did.”

“What did she do it for, hey? Did you frighten her off?”

Richard grinned. “I tried, but she wasn’t to be frightened. She found a stray cleric and decided to throw in her lot with him when matters finally came to a head. She’ll no doubt find him more to her taste. Easier to control.”

“How angry was your father?”

“Furious.” Richard was the only person not afraid of his father’s violent temper. “But then he met Rose, and he came to see it was all for the best.”

“Met them, have you?” Lord Thwaite cast me a quizzical glance that almost made me laugh. As it was, he raised a smile and I decided I liked him. He didn’t make me feel in the least shy or awkward, despite the fact that I had never met him before and I disliked meeting strangers. His dark, indolent good looks and his voice carved out of velvet would make him a favourite with the ladies, and I hoped Gervase had been right when he’d said Freddy would cut Richard out with Eustacia Terry.

“I paid them a short visit after Christmas. I was still in mourning then, so I couldn’t stay too long.”

“Rum lot, don’t you think, Miss Golightly? I’m allowed to say because I’m a distant cousin, so Lady Southwood is by the way of being my aunt.”

I didn’t want to give my opinion of the haughty Southwoods. “I’ve met rummer. The previous Earls of Hareton were the strangest people I ever met.”

“Ye-es.” Lord Thwaite raised his glass and took a thoughtful sip. “Strang told me something about that. Of course, it must have had its advantages, a big, empty house like that. Wish I could have the same advantage when I start my courting.”

I blushed, but Richard smiled, perhaps at the memory of that small nursemaid’s room and what we did there. “You’re not married, my lord?” I managed, trying to turn the conversation. He was too near the mark for my comfort.

“No,” he said triumphantly. “Although I turned thirty last week, and my mother’s begun to increase her hints. Don’t think I’ll be able to hold off much longer though, now Strang’s made his arrangements. Mind, if I had met you before Strang, ma’am, I might well have tried to cut him out.”

I smiled, easy with his compliment. I didn’t take Lord Thwaite seriously, but I liked him and I felt comfortable with him. I realised that could be a devastating weapon in the hands of the right man, that ability to put people at their ease.

“Can you introduce us to any of the lovelies across the room, Strang?” one of the other gentlemen asked.

“Look at them, George, and you’re a dead man,” the lady next to him said. “How do you do, ma’am? I’m this reprobate’s wife, Caroline Fleming.”

I curtseyed. She looked to be about the same age as me, and she had a pleasant, open countenance.

I had been so used to reading about these people in the popular press that I had looked on them as some sort of supra beings, above ordinary living. When I looked at them now, I could believe they suffered from the same trials and tribulations as the rest of us. I felt at home, a strange feeling, surprising to me. I’d never felt at home in company before.

Lady Fleming admired my diamonds, although she wore a beautiful parure of emeralds herself. “I believe they’re a family treasure. Richard gave them to me a few weeks early. He knows I spent my youth in these rooms, and he wanted them all to see me now.”

“Oh I know that feeling,” Lady Fleming exclaimed. “Sitting out dance after dance as the young men go after the latest sensational beauty. Who was your particular bugbear?”

“The young lady across the room in green,” I said, without turning around.

She peered over my shoulder. “I see her.”

“I see her too.” Richard excused himself and crossed the room to greet Miss Terry and her friends.

Lady Fleming watched him with curiosity. “What is he up to?”

Although I had never met her before, I liked her. “I made the mistake of telling Richard she had afforded me several slights in the past.”

Lord Thwaite saw the implications first, and let out a crack of laughter. “Well it’s clear he’s not attracted to her—he never went in for that sort of insipid beauty. Only peerless diamonds for Strang. Setting her up for a fall, is he?”

“I wish he wouldn’t,” I confessed.

Lord Thwaite watched Richard amuse the local girls on the other side of the room. “It’s hard to deflect Strang from his purpose, once he’s made his mind up to it. I remember when he took a bet that he could paint a red cross on every house in St. James’ Square in ten minutes. He did it, too. Mind you, we were all devilish drunk at the time. George here tried to stop him, and almost got knifed for his pains, but it was fine to see when he finally took the pot of paint from behind the charley’s box. He can move fast when he wants to, can Strang.”

I imagined Richard would take it on, not for the bet, but for the dare. Lord Thwaite