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did not feel, Aunt, and I must beg your pardon for it. I was young and desired nothing more than to be admired for anything other than my beauty. Of what use is beauty when it has flown? What is there to attach a husband if he is so satisfied with my outward appearance that he has never looked beyond it?”
    “Well, that is neither here nor there, but might you make a reasonable attempt to put your best foot forward this time, if only to be a credit to your aunt?” Aunt Augusta queried.
    Elizabeth suppressed a sigh. “I vow to do my best not to disgrace you.”
    “There, then, that will do very nicely. I expect this means you shall attend the Green’s do two evenings hence?”
    “Augusta, you very well know we intend to attend the Green’s do, as we do all the others,” Mrs. Armistead averred.
    “I presume this means Elizabeth shall begin to make her good intentions known immediately,” Aunt Augusta said. “She may start by refraining from insulting her dancing partners. And before you refute it, Elizabeth, I am persuaded Lord Northrup’s excellent impression of a blowfish was due,
entirely
, to something you said in his hearing.”
    Elizabeth wished to show her resentment but dared not. “You are quite correct, Aunt, but his indignation was due,
entirely
,” she said, hoping this slight dig would sail past her mother’scomprehension, “to his learning that I am already betrothed.”
    Aunt Augusta had the grace to look a bit discomfited, but this fit of compunction quickly passed. “Perhaps it would be wise to keep that piece of news to yourself. I should dearly love for you to make a sensation in society, the one you have long been due,” she added as her severe frown softened into a tiny smile.
    There was little Elizabeth wished for less than to make a sensation in society, but she owned that she owed much to her aunt for her sponsorship during Elizabeth’s come-out four years prior. How to avoid one and fulfill the other was a puzzle she determined to chew on at length when she had some time to herself. If only she might talk it over with Duncan; he would know how to proceed. Either that or he would merely laugh and wave it all away, causing Elizabeth’s fears to melt into nothingness. Only one more month and he would arrive and they could be married. Naught else mattered.

Chapter Three
    Colin squinted at the missive in his hand and read it over a second time. He believed it to say that Tony was to fob off their planned boxing match in favor of tooling his curricle into the country with a young lady as companion. Surely, that could not be right. It wasn’t like Tony to break a solemn vow, at least not so soon after its initiation.
    Colin turned the letter over in his hands and read it yet again. Tony’s explanation that the journey was to be undertaken at the behest of his grandmama did little to assuage Colin’s ire. He had had the dubious pleasure of meeting Tony’s grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Marcross, on more than one occasion. There was nothing dubious as to his feelings on each and every occasion thereafter. At worst, she treated her grandson as she might a servant, at best, a sycophant who had nothing better with which to fill his time than to carry out her every whim.
    Colin quelled his disappointment and noted that Tony was expected to return in a matter of days. The passage of time in between could be spent in the continued redecoration of the townhouse. The library had been Colin’s priority and a visit to an antiques dealer had quickly resolved the matter of furniture. Even now he enjoyed the deep satisfaction one experienced when sunk into the butter-soft leather of a well loved chair.
    Meanwhile, provisions had been made to redeem the floor through the purchase of an ancient, but well cared for, Aubusson rug and new window hangings had been requisitioned. As for the rest of the house, all that remained was for him to persuade his father that an increase in Colin’s allowance