backstage of pleasure

time in the ballrooms and being the most comfortable in that milieu, he

e excuse for Christian remaining

right lady and establish her as his countess. As his sist

ures. He’d set out to find his bride in February. Nearly

t thrived on achievement. He was constitu

er he’d arrived at Paignton Hall in Devon to witness the nu

r so in London in the hope that among the few tonnish fami

een entirely outside his control, had only exacerbated his already abraded patience—a

days in London, not since the Season had commenced, but rather than making his failure to find a wife easier to a

adn’t even managed to develop any, as A

anywhere in the next

ct. To accept it, set it aside, and turn to the matter

e Miss Madeli

left himself an escape route. He’d slipped the loophole in

or example—could judge for themselves, but

farsighted; Madeline qual

ather had died eight years ago and she’d been twenty-one at

ly on the shelf, but as he was thirty-four, her advance

rather than fewer years in her dish, o

dy would be extremely unlikely to

unquestionably possessed birth and station appropriate to the

of that as well, having inherited a sizable sum from mat

be well do

petent, more calm and capable, one less likely to enact hi

e into hysterics, not after some of the exploit

point, he frowned. Although he had an excellent visual mem

, but beyond that it was hard to decide how he rated her

of dealing with her as a surrogate male, as the de facto Gas

pass any “b

the one criterion on which he

s would expect to see him doing just that. So he would; he’d spend a little ti

eclaration of incomp

for the summer at the castle, there were any number of issues on wh

way through his system, relaxi

s. Not even vaguely problematic. He’d