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been tempted to dub it vacuous —that he had appeared to be no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, though Jonathan knew for a fact that he was twenty going on twenty-one.
    Jonathan had been rather startled to find himself so quickly reunited with his old nemesis, and had drawn up to his full height, wondering how to address the man. He had been spared, however, as Albert raised his eyebrows and turned pointedly away.
    At the time Jonathan had been relieved to find that it was not necessary for him to feign cordiality, but he was puzzled by Albert’s action and could not keep from wondering why he had cut him. Was he announcing that they were henceforward to be enemies? Or was it merely a reluctance to be associated with someone who had always been dismissed as impecunious and undistinguished?
    “I believe,” he told himself as he gazed into his dressing table mirror, “that he has decided to make a push for Sophie’s hand and he considers me an obstacle in his path. Which is quite true. I shall be the most formidable foe he could find in that quarter, for there is certainly nothing more abhorrent to me than the thought of Sophie paired off with that popinjay!”
    As the consequence of these darkling thoughts, he gave the bell pull an unnecessarily violent jerk, which caused his batman to come bounding into the room, his brows knitted in alarm.
    “Ah, you are here, Tom,” he observed, as though his servant had been a long time arriving. “I have a special task for you this morning. You must somehow contrive to make me appear young and handsome. Miss Sophie and Lady Biskup have both put down any pretensions I might have had to being anything but a man of advanced years and unprepossessing appearance. And if something is not done to remedy this situation rather quickly, I’ll be shoved into the whist games with all the dowagers and married off to one of my mother’s old schoolmates.”
    Tom tucked the tip of his tongue against the inside of his right cheek. “Well, sir, may I suggest that you wear your dress uniform today? With the shako brought low over your eyes and the strap holding up your chin, none of the results of your dreadful dissipation will be apparent. You’ll present a gallant sight, to be sure.”
    “An excellent notion,” he said, grinning. “I’m going to embark on a brisk lope through the park before breakfast, and I shall see how many hearts I can set aflutter.”
    When Tom had completed his ministrations, Jonathan made his way silently down the central staircase, resplendent in his cavalry regalia, his medals gleaming and his cape tossed back over one shoulder. But he was brought up short when Sophie came careening around the corner. She was dressed in a drab old-fashioned riding dress and an attractive hat that was turned up on one side and decorated with a light green ostrich feather. He considered her for a moment and decided that she was a sight for sore eyes.
    She surveyed him in return. “How marvelous you look!” she exclaimed. “Are you truly eight feet tall?”
    “Perhaps only seven,” he said. “To the top of my shako.”
    “Are you on your way to ride in the park? Please say you are, as I shall then ride with you and everyone will turn and stare at us and say, ‘Who is that girl who is riding with that marvelous man? She must be a fascinating creature to entice such an escort.’”
    “Rubbish,” he said. “I’m old and unprepossessing. I have it on the very best authority—from Miss Sophie Althorpe and Lady Ruth Biskup.”
    “Well . . .” She put a finger to her cheek. “Perhaps it is true that you are plain when your face is in repose, but you have a wonderful smile which transforms you into the handsomest man in England.”
    He tilted his head back and laughed.
    “How strange,” Sophie said, watching him. “You are so much like Lord Reginald. He laughed in precisely the same way when he was gratified by something I had said to him.”
    Jonathan sobered