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don’t you think? Yes, he’ll do for a start. Now who else?”

    Frances gave her a disgusted look, for she certainly felt as if she were at a market selecting choice goods, even if Roslynn didn’t. It was all so unsavory, the logical and businesslike way Ros was approaching this. But then wasn’t that really the way it was, only most women had a father or a guardian to handle the particulars, while they concerned themselves merely with the happy fantasies of love evermore, or in the unfortunate cases, love nevermore. Ros didn’t have anyone to deal with the realities of marriage for her, so she had to make all the arrangements herself, including the financial settlements.
    More in the spirit of the thing now since to fight it was so useless, Frances pointed out another gentleman, and another; after an hour, Roslynn had met them all and had narrowed down a new list of possibles, this one much more acceptable agewise. But the young blades still wouldn’t leave her alone and insisted on dance after dance. Although her popularity relieved a good deal of her anxiety, a very great deal of it actually, it was becoming a bit of a nuisance too.
    Having lived so long in seclusion with her grandfather and the servants known to her for most of her life, Roslynn had had very little traffic with gentlemen. The males of her acquaintance were used to her, and those she didn’t know she very properly didn’t take notice of. Unlike Nettie, who took in everything at a glance and was well aware of Roslynn’s effect on the male gender, Roslynn was too circumspect when out and about to pay attention to what went on around her. It was not surprising that she had put so little store in her looks, which had never seemed very out-of-the-ordinary to her, and so much store in her age, which seemed inappropriate for her purpose, and hadcounted solely on her status as an heiress to win her a husband quickly.
    She had assumed, given her advanced age in comparison with all the other girls out on their first season, that she would have to settle for the second or third sons with no prospects, or even a gambling rogue, a lord who was down and out and heavily mortgaged. And even if there would be a marriage contract that would leave the control of the bulk of her fortune in her hands, she would be generous. She could afford to be generous. She was so rich it was embarrassing.
    But she had had to reevaluate her situation after the first party Frances took her to. She had quickly found that all sorts of gentlemen were interested in her, and the extent of her wealth wasn’t even known yet. Of course, her gowns and jewels spoke for themselves, but really, that wealthy earl had already called on her at South Audley Street, and so had the obnoxious Lord Bradley. The older men on her new list were not paupers either, and all had seemed extremely flattered by her interest in them. But would they be willing to marry her? Well, that remained to be seen. Her priority now was to find out more about each of them. She wanted no nasty habits or surprises revealed after she was married.
    What she was in need of at this point was a confidant and adviser, someone who had known these men for a number of years and could help her whittle down her list. Frances had simply been too sheltered and reclusive since her widowhood to be of any help in a thorough character analysis. She knew no men personally other than her late husband’s friends, none of whom she would recommend for consideration. The men she had introduced to Roslynn tonight were mereacquaintances about whom she had only the vaguest knowledge.
    A good gossip might help, but that was so unreliable, and old gossip tended to be forgotten in lieu of new, so that wouldn’t serve her purpose anyway. If only Roslynn had other friends in London, but Frances was her one and only.
    It never occurred to either woman that Roslynn could hire someone to find out anything she wanted to know about her candidates. And even