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ENGLAND

1816

1

As their elegant travelling chaise rocked and swayed along the rutted country road, Lady Anne Gilbert leaned her cheek against her husband’s shoulder and heaved a long, ih “Another whole hour until we arrive, and already the suspense is positively gnawing atwhat Whitney will be like now that she’s grown up”

She lapsed into silence and gazed absently out the coachat the lush, rolling English countryside covered ild pink Foxglove and yellow Buttercups, trying to envision the niece she hadn’t seen in almost eleven years

“She’ll be pretty, just as her entleness, her sweet disposition”

Lord Edward Gilbert cast a skeptical glance at his wife “Sweet disposition?” he echoed in amused disbelief “That isn’t what her father said in his letter”

As a diplomat attached to the British Consulate in Paris, Lord Gilbert was a ues But in his personal life, he preferred the refreshing alternative of blunt truth “Allowin his pockets and retrieving the letter from Whitney’s father He perched his spectacles upon his nose, and ignoring his wife’s grian to read:

“?‘Whitney’s e, her conduct is reprehensible She is a willful hoyden who is the despair of everyone she knows and an embarrassment to me I implore you to take her back to Paris with you, in the hope that you may have more success with the stubborn chit than I have had’?”

Edward chuckled “Shohere it says she’s ‘sweet-tempered’?”

His wife shot hi oodness if Whitney wereelse! Only think of the way he shouted at her and sent her to her rooht after my sister’s funeral”

Edward recognized the mutinous set of his wife’s chin and put his aresture of conciliation “I’m no fonder of thelost his young wife to an early grave, to have his daughter accuse hi her mama in a box so she couldn’t escape had to be rather disconcerting”

“But Whitney was scarcely five years old!” Anne protested heatedly

“Agreed But Martin was grieving Besides, as I recall, it was not for that offense she was banished to her roo room—when she stamped her foot and threatened to report us all to God if we didn’t release her mama at once”

Anne sht for a ht off her nose Adht so too!”

“Well, yes,” Edward agreed sheepishly “I rather thought she was”

As the Gilbert chaise bore inexorably down on the Stone estate, a s on the south lawn, i toward the stable one hundred yards away A petite blonde shed in a way that displayed a very fetching di to do?” she inquired of the handsoht-haired man beside her

Glancing down into Elizabeth Ashton’s wide blue eyes, Paul Sevarin smiled a smile that Whitney would have forfeited both her feet to see focused on herself “Try to be patient, Elizabeth,” he said

“I’m sure none of us have the faintest idea what she is up to, Elizabeth,” Margaret Merryton said tartly “But you can be perfectly certain it will be soeous”

“Margaret, we’re all Whitney’s guests today,” Paul chided

“I don’t knohy you should defend her, Paul,” Margaret argued spitefully “Whitney is creating a horrid scandal chasing after you, and you know it!”

“Margaret!” Paul snapped “I said that was enough” Drawing a long, irritated breath, Paul Sevarin frowned darkly at his glea a spectacle of herself chasing after hi about it