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them.”
    With an airy smile, she left Marion’s side and began to skirt the dance floor. As she reached the couple, she was joined by her husband. Reggie Wright was as fair as his wife was dark, and it was only on close examination that one could tell that his fair hair was liberally laced with silver. Marion liked him immensely. Like Fanny, he was warmhearted and took a keen interest in his three cousins by marriage.
    Her expression softened as she watched them together. She couldn’t help feeling a little envious. They seemed so content with their lot and content with each other. She doubted that Reggie had chosen Fanny to be his wife because she had the right bloodlines, or the right connections, or could advance his career. They had the kind of love that most couples could only dream about.
    So where did that leave her?
    Just where she wanted to be, she thought with a touch of defiance. In her cottage in Longbury with the people who meant most in the world to her, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

    Though Marion stayed close to the dowagers, well back from the dance floor, she was anything but a wallflower. Lord Denison was never far away, and introduced her to a host of people whose names she forgot almost as soon as she heard them. She liked Ash Denison and enjoyed a mild flirtation with him, but she wasn’t deceived. She knew that he wasn’t seeking her company of his own accord, and suspected that Cousin Reggie had put him up to it.
    Mr. Hamilton hadn’t neglected her, either, but he rarely missed a dance. She supposed that a man with his eye on Parliament couldn’t afford to miss any opportunity to make friends and win votes.
    She couldn’t make it to the dining room for supper, but Emily had promised to bring supper to her. Ash Denison was keeping her company when a ravishing redhead in a form-fitting scarlet gown swooped down like a hawk. The diamonds around her throat were magnificent, but did not lessen the impression of a beautiful, exotic bird of prey with gimlet eyes.
    Lord Denison jumped to his feet. “Julia! This is a surprise!”
    He sounded more shocked than surprised, and Marion almost pitied him, thinking that she wouldn’t like to be in his shoes. She sensed a lovers’ quarrel and was highly amused. Then she saw that those gimlet eyes were trained on her, and she automatically reached for her cane.
    Denison said, “Lady Marion…ah…allow me to present Mrs. Milford, Mrs. Julia Milford.”
    Marion didn’t try to get to her feet. She acknowledged the introduction with a slight inclination of her head. “How do you do, Mrs. Milford,” she said. “As you see, I am slightly indisposed or I would greet you properly.”
    â€œOh, pray don’t apologize.” Julia Milford showed off a perfect set of porcelains. “I heard about your accident.” Her expression registered a mild sympathy. “It was to your right foot, was it not?”
    â€œNo. To my left.”
    Marion gazed down at her feet. She was wearing a pair of Fanny’s satin pumps because they were the only shoes she could get into without feeling as though her toes were in a vise.
    She lifted the hem of her gown to get a better look at her foot, and that’s when Mrs. Milford did the unthinkable. Quite deliberately, she stepped on Marion’s stubbed toes. Marion would have screamed if she could have found the breath, but the pain was so excruciating that she could do no more than gasp. Tears sprang to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
    The pressure was removed when Ash grabbed the gimlet-eyed predator and hauled her off. “Behave yourself, Julia,” he remonstrated, giving the woman a rough shake.
    Whatever Mrs. Milford may have said was lost as Ash’s angry words drowned her out. He had her firmly by the elbow and was propelling her to the door. If Marion had had the strength, she would have chased after them with the