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time fending off my admirers. There will not be any."
    "Sophy," Lady Dorring said with fine dignity, "that is quite enough. I will tolerate no more of this ridiculous conversation. It is most unseemly."
    "Yes, Grandmother. But has it escaped your notice that unseemly conversations are always the most interesting?"
    "Not another word out of you, my girl. And the same goes for you, Theo."
    "Yes, m'dear."
    "I do not know," Lady Dorring informed them ominously, "if your conclusions regarding Lord Ravenwood's motives are accurate or not, but I do know that on one point, he and I are agreed. You, Sophy, should be extremely grateful to the Earl."
    "I did once have occasion to be grateful to his lordship," Sophy said wistfully. "That was the time he very gallantly stood up with me at one of the balls I attended during my season. I remember the event well. It was the only time I danced all evening. I doubt he even remembers. He kept looking over my shoulder the whole time to see who was dancing with his precious Elizabeth."
    "Don't fret yourself about the first Lady Ravenwood. She's gone and no loss," Lord Dorring said with his usual straightforward attitude in such matters. "Take my advice, young lady. Refrain from provoking Ravenwood and you'll get on quite well with him. Don't expect more from him than is reasonable and he'll be a good husband to you. The man looks after his land and he'll look after his wife. He takes care of his own."
    Her grandfather was undoubtedly right, Sophy decided later that night as she lay awake in bed. She was reasonably certain that if she refrained from provoking him excessively, Ravenwood would probably be no worse than most husbands. In any event, she was not likely to see much of him. During the course of her single season in town she had learned that husbands and wives of the
ton
tended to live separate lives.
    That would be to her advantage she told herself stoutly. She had interests of her own to pursue. As Ravenwood's wife she would have time and opportunity to make her investigations on behalf of poor Amelia. One day, Sophy vowed, she would succeed in tracking down the man who had seduced and abandoned her sister.
    During the past three years Sophy had managed to follow Old Bess's advice for the most part and put her sister's death behind her. Her initial rage had slowly settled into a bleak acceptance. After all, trapped in the country, there was little hope of finding and confronting the unknown man responsible.
    But things would be different if she married the Earl.
    Restlessly Sophy pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed. She padded barefoot across the threadbare carpet and opened the small jewelry case that sat on the dressing table. It was easy to reach inside and find the black metal ring without the aid of a candle. She had handled it often enough to recognize it by touch. Her fingers closed around it.
    The ring lay cold and hard in her hand as she drew it out of the case. Against her palm she could feel the impression of the strange triangular design embossed on its surface.
    Sophy hated the ring. She had found it clutched in her sister's hand the night Amelia had taken the overdose of laudanum. Sophy had known then that the black ring belonged to the man who had seduced her beautiful fair-haired sister and gotten her with child—the lover Amelia had refused to name. One of the few things Sophy had deduced for certain was that the man had been one of Lady Ravenwood's lovers.
    The other thing of which Sophy was almost certain was that her sister and the unknown man had used the ruins of an old Norman castle on Ravenwood land for their secret rendezvous. Sophy had been fond of sketching the ancient pile of stone until she had found one of Amelia's handkerchiefs there. She had discovered it a few weeks after her sister's death. After that fateful day, Sophy had never returned to the scenic ruin.
    What better way to find out the identity of the man who had caused Amelia to kill