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