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anywhere else. Just as she had felt when watching the pianist earlier, without hearing one note he had played.
    She despised herself heartily. She had not felt so gauche since she had stepped out of the schoolroom a decade before.

T HE EARL OF AMBERLEY SMILED AT HIS SISTER and his cousin and kissed the latter on the cheek. “You are growing lovelier by the day, young Anna,” he said. “And what are you up to? A great deal of mischief, by the look of it.”
    â€œComing to say good evening to my favorite cousin,” she said almost in a whisper, looking up at him with large and dancing eyes, “and hoping that Mr. Purnell remembers me.”
    â€œAh,” he said, looking at Madeline and giving her the suggestion of a wink, “I thought it strange that you would risk being crushed and jostled coming across here just in order to get a closer look at your, er, favorite cousin, my dear.” He looked back over his shoulder and raised his voice. “James, you are to step over here immediately or sooner, if you please, to see if you recognize this young lady.”
    Anna blushed hotly and looked reproachfully at the earl. She kept her hold of Madeline’s arm. And so Madeline, who had been forming the hasty plan of paying her compliments to Lord and Lady Beckworth, was held in place as James Purnell turned toward them, his dark eyes boring into her for an uncomfortable fraction of a second.
    And the pretty young girl who had been clinging to his arm all evening was still there, looking flushed and anxious. And small and dainty and helpless and altogether as if she belonged to him.
    â€œMiss Carrington,” he said after his eyes had rested on Anna for a few moments. “I scarcely knew you because you have grown up since I saw you last and are considerably more lovely. But yes, I remember you perfectly well.”
    Anna’s discomfort vanished instantly. And finally, when it was too late, she released Madeline’s arm. She smiled dazzlingly up at James. “You were at Amberley the year Edmund and Alexandra were betrothed,” she said. “I was sorry when you left so abruptly. You were the only gentleman there who did not treat me as if I were a fifteen-year-old nuisance.”
    â€œPoor little Anna!” Edmund said, and grinned. “You would have met Madeline this afternoon, of course, James.”
    And finally there was nowhere else to look except right at him. Their eyes met at last, and held.
    â€œYes,” they both said abruptly and simultaneously.
    He was the first to break eye contact and to move his head rather jerkily to one side.
    â€œI would like to present Lady Madeline Raine and Miss Anna Carrington, Jean,” he said. “Edmund’s sister and cousin. This is Miss Jean Cameron from Montreal in Canada.”
    From Canada. He must have brought her with him. Were they betrothed? Married? But no, something would have been said. The girl was curtsying to her and flushing.
Madeline nodded to her.
    â€œFrom Canada?” Anna was saying, enthralled. “How splendid. You simply must tell me all about it at some time. Are there many bears there? And wolves?”
    The girl laughed and immediately looked even prettier than she had a minute before. “People here have funny ideas about Canada,” she said. “But then, I had funny ideas about England, too. I don’t think I would have been wholly surprised to find the streets of London paved with gold.”
    The two girls began to chatter. And Alexandra drew her husband’s attention to something her mother had said. Madeline was aware suddenly that she was standing silently beside an equally silent James Purnell. She looked up at him rather nervously to find his eyes on her.
    And she was dismayed a moment later to find that she had immediately lowered her eyes to the fan she held in one hand.
    â€œThe pianist is marvelously accomplished, is he not?” she said. “I was held