Sir Anthony Strallan was the result of a long gaze across the ballroom of the Hatfields' London residence at the débutante ball for their daughter Lady Sarah during the London season of 1863. The gaze was, of course, exchanged by his parents, Sir Jonathan Strallan and Lady Elizabeth Kempell.
This ball took place more than ten years before Sir Anthony was actually conceived, but it is still fair to say that it eventually resulted in his birth. Because if Lady Elizabeth hadn't caught Sir Jonathan's eye in that moment, and held it so fearlessly, without a giggle or a blush, Sir Jonathan might never have fallen in love with her in that reckless way. He was already a man in his middle forties, and found it increasingly ridiculous that he was still invited to those débutante balls as an eligible bachelor. Every year the new eighteen-year-olds seemed more silly and childlike to him, he was sure that he would never feel tempted to marry any one of them. If he had wanted to marry an eighteen-year-old he could have done so when he was twenty-something, and as stupid and immature as they were.
What had really been in that first intent gaze across the ballroom from his future wife remained a mystery to Anthony's father. By the time that lady looked at him he had already been watching her with ever-increasing interest for a full ten minutes without her noticing him. She was very tall and very slim, almost skinny, and probably a bit more than six feet tall. At least she was taller than all the other women and most of the men in the room, most likely including Sir Jonathan Strallan himself, who was considered a rather tall man, since he was almost six feet one.
She was really different from all the other women in the room. She stood talking to two younger and shorter girls, probably some kind of relatives. They had almost the same hair colour, but nothing of her imposing height. They were cute, ordinary, beautiful young girls and not a bit interesting. She, on the other hand, was a breathtaking beauty. She was unusually pale, colourless in a colourful way. Her skin was pale, her hair was a pale blond and her dress a very pale yellow. She had a long, straight, aristocratic nose, blue eyes and rather a big mouth, almost as pale as her skin. She was quite a bit older than those other two girls, although she was certainly not old enough to be their mother.
The moment when she at last looked at him and smiled he knew he was lost. Nothing that had ever happened to him in this life compared to meeting that wry smile and that steady gaze in those deep, blue eyes. He hadn't noticed how unbelievably blue her eyes were until he was holding their gaze. For a moment he was transfixed. The next moment he decided that she was going to be his.
He ought to have someone introduce him to her, but he had never seen the lady before, and didn't know whom to ask. So he simply went over the floor, never taking his eyes from her steady gaze and bumping into more than one dancing couple on his way.
He hadn't made up his mind about exactly what to say to her once he got there. The most natural thing was perhaps to greet her and pretend that he thought he had met her before somewhere, and then apologize for his mistake and introduce himself. But that would imply that there was another woman in the world looking like her, and he was fairly positive there wasn't. And he really didn't want to start their relationship with a lie either.
So he just blurted out what first came to his mind, which of course also happened to be the thing that worried him most.
"Are you married?"
His question was a pleasant surprise to Lady Elizabeth, who had wondered which one of her two much younger and decidedly more good-looking sisters that this rather handsome but no longer young gentleman was going to ask her if he could dance with. For a moment she considered asking him if that question was intended as a proposal, but she thought better of it. Maybe he wouldn't understand that she was joking, after all she had never seen this man before and had no idea who he was. And he really was acting a little strangely.
"No, I'm not married", she just answered, quite simply.
"Good!" he said, while his already handsome face was lit up by the most gorgeous smile of relief. She found him even more attractive when he smiled. He was blond with a rather broad jawline and friendly blue eyes that were sparkling by now. He was quite tall, but probably still a little bit shorter than her, maybe half an inch or so. At least she wasn't looking down on him, which often happened to her when she stood close to a man and which made most men feel uneasy.
He just stood there smiling at her, obviously happy but lost for words. So she thought she should dare to ask him the same question.
"What about you? Are you married?"
And so it came about that Sir Anthony's parents knew each other's marital status before they knew each other's names. They used to joke about this start of their first meeting later on, of how they had managed to sort out the most important things first.