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can’t understand why Father won’t just override Uncle Alfred’s silly notion of pride,” she had said to Bella with a note of petulance.
    “Give over, Triss,” Bella had responded with characteristic pragmatism. “You are giving everyone, including me, a headache. You know as well as I that Papa will not entertain the notion.”
    “Well, it’s not fair,” Beatrice had pouted. Suddenly her face had cleared and a sly look entered her sparkling blue eyes. “Bella, I have just had a capital idea! This will solve everything! I shall marry a duke or maybe even a prince. Then I shall give you the best ball London has ever seen, and there will be nothing Uncle Alfred can do about it.”
    Bella laughed outright at her cousin’s flight of fancy. “What makes you so sure your husband will be so willing to pay for my Season?” she had goaded her cousin.
    “Because he shall be so in love with me, he will do anything to ensure my happiness.”
    “A London Season is very expensive. He would have to be completely besotted,” Bella pointed out.
    “I would not have it any other way,” Beatrice had said with supreme confidence, her pert nose going up in the air.
    Unlike her cousin, who found life in the country a dead bore, Bella had no real desire for a London Season, save to please Triss. She recalled going to London with her parents as a child, and she had found it a dirty, noisy place.
    No, Bella much preferred the peace of her childhood home and could not imagine living anywhere else. To her mind there was nothing lovelier than the quaint, cobbled streets of the tiny village. Bella loved her picturesque home, her garden, and the pretty little Norman church at the end of the lane. She found it comforting to know everyone in Mabry Green, and to know that everyone knew her. It pleased her to be recognized as a very good housekeeper, and her singing voice was much admired, too. She put it to good use in church, and her uncle often prevailed upon her to sing after dinner at Penninghurst Park.
    But the main reason Bella cared little for a London Season was because of Robert Fortiscue. He was a gentleman farmer who owned several hundred acres and a lovely Tudor manor.
    Robert Fortiscue was considered a keen goer when it came to the hunt, and was also the handsomest man in the county. He was from a very good family, his mother being a relation of Robert Stewart, the current Viscount Castlereagh.
    And he was smitten with one Miss Arabella Tichley.
    If it had not been for Papa’s unexplainable dislike of Robert, Bella now mused, they would have been married last fall.
    But Bella felt that a marriage to Robert Fortiscue would be ideal, for Oakdale was close by, and she did not want to be far from Papa and Tommy. So, while Triss planned her come-out in London, Bella planned the changes she would make at Oakdale, Robert’s home, hopefully soon to be hers as well.
    Triss brought Bella back to the present with yet another demand to see the mystery man.
    “All right then,” Bella started, throwing up her hands. “I know you shall give us no peace until you have stared your fill at him.”
    To Bella’s surprise, Aunt Elizabeth rose also.
    At Bella’s expression, the older lady said somewhat defensively, “I might as well have a look at the poor man, too.”
    The three of them crowded into Bella’s bedchamber, andwere silent for some moments as they looked down at the invalid’s still features.
    “Oh, my, he’s quite a large man, isn’t he?” commented Aunt Elizabeth.
    “Good Lord! Look at those lashes; must be half an inch long. What a waste on a man,” Beatrice lamented.
    “Indeed,” Bella agreed.
    Hearing her father call her name, Bella led Aunt Elizabeth and Triss back to the sitting room.
    “Your uncle and I were just discussing what to do about our unexpected guest,” Bella’s father informed them.
    “Good,” Aunt Elizabeth said as the ladies reseated themselves in the comfortably worn chairs. “Everything