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was in order in spite of his lack of a wife. The original fitting of the house had made prodigious inroads into his accounts and once he was through with what was needed for the library, there would be little left for the other rooms, of which there were many.
    With a sigh, he rose from his chair with the intention of repairing to his father’s London abode in search of financial relief. He hadn’t stirred far from the fire, however, when there came a knock atthe door and Evans entered bearing a single card on a tray.
    “Sir, there is a young woman in the vestibule. After the mishap of earlier this week, I hesitated to allow her entrance without first making her identity made known to you.”
    “Very good of you.” Colin took the card and was surprised, as well as pleased, to see that it bore the name of his sister. “Ah, well, in future, Evans, you may admit my sister any time she is good enough to call.”
    “Very good, sir. I will show her through.”
    Colin had but a moment to wonder whether or not the room was now too masculine to afford comfort to a female before his sister was in his arms.
    “Oh, Colin, how I have yearned for you!”
    He gave her a squeeze and held her at arm’s length. “And I you. But you look fine as a newly shined penny, do you not? Your new status in the world becomes you.”
    She blushed and favored him with a smile he suspected would hammer the heart of many a man in the weeks and months to come.
    “Thank you, Colin. I must admit to an inordinate amount of enjoyment as of late,” she said with a twirl of her skirts. “However, I am here to discover the reason for your absence. You have left me to my own devices far too long and I can hardly credit it! I would have thought you delirious with fever if Papa hadn’t assured me that you were well enough. I haven’t done anything to give you a disgust of me, have I?”
    Colin laughed. “The very idea is absurd.”
    “Then why have you not been by my side? I must say, I have been positively bereft! I thought surely you would attend the Carruth’s ball last night, but you were nowhere to be found. You can’t still be troubled over that to-do with Cecily, can you?” she asked smartly though the expression in her eyes betrayed a much softer sentiment.
    Finding her sympathy insupportable, he turned away to stoke up the fire. “Of course, what else?You do not expect me to recover from true love quite so abruptly, do you?”
    “It wasn’t true love, you know very well it was not. Is there even such a thing?”
    Caught off guard, Colin swung round to read her expression. “What is this? Does the perennial romantic turn pragmatic?”
    Tears sprang to her eyes at his words and she collapsed onto the newly delivered Louis the XIII sofa. Appalled, he rushed to her side and took her hand in his. “What is it, Ana? Mrs. Lloyd-Jones hasn’t been badgering you over your sweet-eating tendency again, has she?”
    “No, it’s nothing like that. And if she were your mother as well as mine, you wouldn’t be so inclined to fly to false conclusions. As if our father isn’t trouble enough for one poor debutante.”
    “Dearest, whatever can you mean? You are the apple of his eye. What can he have done to vex you so?”
    Analisa rolled her eyes. “Don’t feign ignorance, Colin. You have seen for yourself how positively callous he can be. However, if you must know, he has verbally beaten all of the romance out of me. Where is the romance in being made to marry someone you have but met the once and who is so dreadfully tiresome?”
    “Betrothed? Already?” Colin asked anxiously with a mind for the betting books at White’s. “To whom?”
    “Someone entirely unsuitable. He’s about as dreadful as one could hope. Why Papa wished this deplorable state of affairs on me, I cannot imagine.”
    “You can’t mean that he has promised you to Lord Eggleston?” Colin demanded. “He is more than twice your age and almost entirely deaf in one