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have two lovely ladies across from me.”
    “Oh, do go on, sir,” Minerva said. “You flatter too much.”
    “Truer words were never said,” Eleanor remarked quietly but clearly.
    She needed him gone. Needed to figure some way to regain her peace of mind.
    She’d had it – nearly – in Florence. Hardly anything had bothered her while she shared the home of her grandmother’s cousins, and she only thought of Beckworth during her rare idle moments.
    True, it had been rather a dull existence spent almost entirely in the company of the two elderly sisters. But at least she had not had occasion to risk her heart. She’d spent her days with her sketch pad, drawing the wonderful sights all around her, and socializing with the sisters’ circle of friends.
    Perhaps she should go back to Florence. But that would require money, and therefore a conversation with Beckworth about her plans, and she was certain he would thwart them. Obviously, he liked making her life difficult, else he would have kept his appointment in Reading and left her to enjoy the picnic without him.
    While they rode on to their destination, Eleanor tried to think of some way to get rid of him. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with anything other than telling him directly to leave Primrose Manor.
    She wondered what effect such a demand would have. If he did go, would he hold her blunt ultimatum against her? Would he make her life even more difficult by refusing to release her funds when she needed them?
    She sighed inwardly. Beck had never been petty or churlish. Only a liar.
    They arrived at the picnic site and found Lord and Lady Stillwater already there with their five daughters and son-in-law. Eleanor was pleased to meet Caroline’s husband, Reverend Robert Gedding, and was delighted to see her childhood beau, Joshua Parris, too.
    But it was the Stillwater sisters who brought tears to her eyes. They pulled Eleanor into a tight embrace, drawing her into their sisterhood, just as they’d done as children.
    Eleanor did not realize how alone she’d felt until just now, when Jessamine squeezed her waist.
    “I am so sorry you had to go through all that – the funeral and everything else – alone,” Jessie said, and the rest of the sisters murmured their agreement. “We can only imagine how horrible it was.”
    Eleanor swallowed thickly, unable to reply.
    “I’m so happy we all could be here for your homecoming,” Lucy said.
    “All but our brothers,” Meg said.
    “But who needs them, anyway?” Emily, the youngest, quipped, bringing tearful smiles to all of them.
    “They are well, then?” Eleanor asked, pulling away slightly and wiping her tears.
    “Oh yes,” Meg said.
    “Samuel is traveling the continent,” Jessamine added, “and Calvin is in America.”
    “But Joshua is right here,” came a male voice, just behind her. “In case anyone cares.” The sisters released her so that Joshua Parris could take her hand and bow over it, as was proper.
    “My dear Ellie! Er, Miss Easton, I should say,” Joshua said with a grin as he took both her hands in his. “It is a day for reunions. How long has it been?”
    Eleanor wiped her tears. “Joshua – M-Mr. Parris,” she said, though the formalities seemed inconceivably stiff when they’d been such fast friends in their youth. “It has been far too long.”
    Josh was nearly as tall as Beckworth, and while the duke’s hair was so dark it was just short of being black, Joshua was fair, his hair gold with a hint of red, and there was a rosy hue to his cheeks. His build was comparable to Beck’s, with powerful shoulders and a trim waist. And yet for all Eleanor’s fond memories and all their naïve plans years ago, Joshua did not appeal to her as she would have expected.
    She took note of Beck’s scowling face as he watched her with Joshua and decided the duke did not need to know that.

    Andrew looked on while Eleanor reunited with her old friends. The Stillwater sisters were