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needn’t fear that he is vacillating. His injuries are real and more than slight. He was a fellow guest at the Blue Boar the night of the fire. His valet was the man who required the surgery.”
    Lady Thorne shook her head at this coincidence, though it was really not that surprising. The Blue Boar was the natural stopping place for those traveling to Thornridge Court from London. “I have never met him, though his grandmother was a close friend. She claims all virtues for the lad, but her mind has been wandering so much these last few years that it is difficult to know what to believe. Will he make a suitable husband for Emily?”
    “Speculation is useless,” Amanda reminded her. “I have not seen Emily since she was eight years old. Is she like her parents?”
    “She has been raised to be a dutiful daughter.”
    “Then they will probably suit. He is as toplofty and arrogant a man as I have ever encountered, save for my father, though there does seem to be a softer streak buried beneath. I presume his visit will be rescheduled..” Knowing the duke’s injuries to be real, she did not for a moment believe that he would cry off.
    “Emily is already talking of a shooting party when the partridge season opens in September,” admitted Lady Thorne. “They have not yet heard back from the duke.”
    Amanda merely nodded, not particularly interested. Her siblings had never been close, especially the girls. Emily was the oldest female, being nine years younger than Amanda. Marianne had been only five when Amanda left. The boys had arrived between her and her sisters, but they had spent the years before her own departure at school. She had not minded. All of them followed their father’s lead and despised her, tormenting her so ceaselessly that she deliberately avoided their company. Likewise, her stepmother had disdained her, noticing her only when she wished to encourage her own children by comparing them favorably to the hoydenish Amanda.
    She turned the conversation to her own affairs and spent a pleasant hour describing her plans for the cottage and her hopes that she could establish herself as a teacher of music and French. Or other languages, if there was a demand for such. She was fluent in several.
    “There was quite a scandal here last week,” commented Lady Thorne when tea was over and they went outside to admire the rose garden.
    “And what was that?”
    “Do you remember Lord Quinn?”
    “Yes, a curmudgeonly old gentleman in rather ill health.”
    “That was the former viscount. He died several years ago and was succeeded by his grandson.”
    “Toby?” asked Amanda in surprise.
    “Yes. Toby is now married to Elkington’s eldest daughter and has two small children – both girls, to his disgust.”
    “What scandal could he be involved in?  I cannot imagine him changing so much. He was always one for propriety. In fact, he and Edgar shared so many ideas, they might as well have been brothers..” Edgar was Thorne’s heir, Lord Englewood.
    “His cousin is visiting for the summer,” reported Lady Thorne. “Mr. Hawkins has already earned a reputation for rascally tricks, according to Lady Beatrice.”
    “I’ve heard of Lady Beatrice,” admitted Amanda. “She is said to be a most knowing gossip.”
    “She always was,” agreed her grandmother. “Inquisitive as a cat, even as a girl. And just as cruel. Anyway, Mr. Hawkins is acquainted with Mr. Raintree and Lord Peter Barnhard, who were guests at Thorne’s house party. They were schoolmates, I gather, before Hawkins was sent down for misconduct – some prank involving a performing bear, I believe, though it happened some years ago. Apparently the three stole away last Friday to play ghost in Sir Timothy’s stables. In the resulting chaos, one of the stable lads broke a leg.”
    Amanda, who had been trying to stifle giggles, suddenly sobered. “Poor boy. Is he all right?”
    “It was a clean break. But Thorne was not impressed with the