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lucky to have. He had nodeviant appetites, unless he’d developed them in the last ten years, and he was known to honor his commitments. He would pay the procuress well, and the girl would be well looked after for the duration of whatever arrangement Jasper had in mind.
    Nan made her decision. She left her study and climbed the stairs to the attic. She knocked once sharply on the door to Clarissa’s chamber and entered on the knock. “Ah, good, you’re here.” She closed the door and regarded the startled Clarissa with an assessing eye. “How old are you, my dear?”
    Clarissa had jumped to her feet at the sound of the knock. Startled, she stared at her visitor. “I have twenty summers, ma’am, but what is that to do with anything?”
    “Quite a lot,” Nan stated. “It means you’re no child, for all your countrified innocence.”
    Clarissa flushed with mingled embarrassment and annoyance. “I may be innocent in some things, ma’am, but I can have a care for myself, believe me.”
    “Well, we shall see.” Nan went briskly to the dilapidated armoire in the corner of the room. “Do you have another gown, something a little less plain?”
    Clarissa stiffened. “No, but what if I had? Why does that interest you, ma’am?”
    “You have a visitor, my dear. A very important visitor who is most anxious to have speech with you. I believe you met him in the Piazza this afternoon.”
    Clarissa swallowed, drawing herself up to her full height. “I met a gentleman certainly, or at least he appearedto be a gentleman; his behavior indicated otherwise.”
    “The Earl of Blackwater is a gentleman in every respect.” Her landlady contradicted her briskly as she riffled through the scant collection of garments in the armoire. “And he is downstairs waiting to speak to you about a proposition he would make you.”
    “But I stuck an oyster fork in his hand,” Clarissa exclaimed. “Why would he want to talk to me now?”
    “You did what?” Nan, who was rarely surprised by anything, could not hide her astonishment. She spun around to stare in disbelief at Clarissa.
    “Well, he insulted me,” Clarissa stated, trying not to sound apologetic. She had nothing to apologize for. “It was instinctive . . . I didn’t think. Is he here to haul me off to the justice of the peace for assault?”
    “Oh, I don’t think that’s what his lordship has in mind.” Nan chuckled, turning back to her examination of the contents of the armoire. “Vindictive he is not. But perhaps, to make amends, you should listen to his proposition. No one will compel you to accept it.” This last was said into the contents of the armoire and Clarissa barely heard it.
    “This is a mite prettier than that dull old thing you’re wearing.” Nan brought out a simple gown of bronze muslin. “Change into this, dear, and then run along downstairs and talk to him. You owe him an apology at the very least.”
    “Maybe I do, but I don’t need to change my dressfor that,” Clarissa declared. “And neither do I need to listen to any proposition. But I will, in courtesy, apologize for hurting him.”
Even if it’s just to prove that I am more mannerly than an earl.
But that she kept to herself, adding instead, “He owes me an apology too for being so insulting. And so I shall tell him.” She sat on the cot to put her shoes on again. “Where is he, ma’am?”
    “In the small parlor to the left of the front door.” Nan wisely gave up any further attempt to work on her lodger, sensing that it would be useless at best and put up her defenses at worst. She followed Clarissa out of the chamber and downstairs.
    Clarissa ran lightly down the two flights of stairs, in a hurry to be done with this awkward business. She had no desire to be always looking over her shoulder for a vengeful earl at her heels, so a quick apology for the injury, and it would be over and done with. She tried to ignore the flicker of curiosity about the proposition. What did a man