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I was to go for a come-out Season when I was eighteen, but . . . Well, it never did happen.”
    He thought he knew the reason. Scandal had almost erupted last year after her sister went to London with Flavian following their wedding. A former fiancée of Flavian’s, who had abandoned him when he was badly injured in order to marry his best friend, was now a widow and had hoped to marry Flavian after all. When she discovered that she had missed her chance, she had dug into Agnes’s past and found dirt there. Agnes’s mother—
and Miss Debbins’s
—was still living, but her father had divorced her years ago upon the grounds of adultery. It was a spectacular scandal at the time, and even last year it had threatened malicious gossip and social ostracism for Agnes, the divorced woman’s daughter. The
ton
would have eaten her alive if Flavian had not stepped in boldly and skillfully to handle the situation and avert disaster. That initial scandal would have been happening when Agnes was a child and Miss Debbins a young lady about to make her debut in society. It would have deprived her of all that excitement and, more important, of the respectable marriage she could have expected to result from a London Season, the annual grand marriage mart. She had stayed home instead to raise her sister.
    Miss Debbins undoubtedly had a few ghosts to putto rest as far as London and the beau monde were concerned. Perhaps now was the time.
    â€œMay I suggest London for our wedding, then?” he said. “As soon as the banns have been read? Before the end of the Season? With almost all the
ton
in attendance? If we are going to marry, we may as well do it in style. Would you not agree?”
    â€œWould I?” She looked unconvinced.
    â€œAnd, on the more practical side,” he continued, “if we want friends and acquaintances around us, and I would suggest that we do
,
then London poses the least inconvenience to the largest number of people. I believe Ben and Samantha, Hugo and Gwen, Flavian and Agnes, and Ralph and Chloe are still there after Imogen’s wedding. Percy and Imogen should be back from Paris. Vincent and Sophia will be happy to travel back to town, I believe, if the alternative is to miss our wedding. Perhaps your father and your brother can be persuaded to make the journey. I would guess Agnes and Flavian would be delighted to house them.”
    â€œLondon.” She was looking a bit dazed.
    â€œAt St. George’s on Hanover Square,” he said, “where most society weddings are solemnized during the Season.”
    Her cheeks flushed as she gazed across at him, and her eyes were bright. It was only as she lowered her head that he realized the brightness was caused by tears.
    â€œI am to be married after all, then?” Her voice was almost a whisper. He had the feeling she was not really talking to him.
    â€œIn London at St. George’s one month from now,” he told her, “with the very crème-de-la-crème of society filling the pews. And then a honeymoon if you wish in Paris or Rome or both. Or home to Cornwall and Penderris, if you would prefer. We may do whatever we wish—whatever
you
wish.”
    â€œI am to have a wedding with all the world present.” She still sounded a bit dazed. “Oh, my. What will Agnes say?”
    He hesitated. “Miss Debbins,” he asked softly, “would you like to invite your mother?”
    Her head snapped back, her eyes widened, her mouth opened as though she was about to say something—and then it closed again as did her eyes.
    â€œOh.” It was a quiet rush of breath more than a word.
    â€œHave I distressed you?” he asked her. “I do beg your pardon if I have.”
    Her eyes opened, but there was a frown line between her brows as she looked at him. “I am feeling a bit . . . overwhelmed, Your Grace,” she said. “I must excuse myself. I