Henrik Kempell was reading peacefully in his library the day after the ball, when his butler announced the arrival of Sir Jonathan Strallan.

After last nights late talk with Elizabeth, Henrik was not all that surprised to see Sir Jonathan showing up at his door like that. He was a little surprised that Sir Jonathan wanted to see him though, why not talk directly to her?

He felt still more bewildered when Sir Jonathan started out on some very forced kind of light conversation, praising the weather they had enjoyed lately, and discussing the various horses at the Royal Ascot some days later.

Then Sir Jonathan asked if Henrik knew if there were any new people in London for the season.

It suddenly dawned upon Henrik that Sir Jonathan didn't have the slightest idea of who Lady Elizabeth was. Neither did he know that she was at that very moment sitting in the White Salon of Henrik's house, just a few yards away from them, although with a wall in between. She was talking to Henrik's wife and their two young sisters after reading a book to Henrik's two little children.

For some reason Henrik found this whole situation quite amusing. It wasn't very nice of him, but he really enjoyed dragging it all out for a while. Poor Sir Jonathan seemed so embarrassed and helpless. And Henrik didn't actually know what else he could have done, without revealing what Elizabeth had told him in confidence yesterday evening.

So Henrik started out on an animated description of the pros and cons of one of those horses. Sir Jonathan didn't seem at all interested, even though he had been the one to bring up the subject in the first place.

The questions about new people in London, Henrik managed very gracefully to ignore.

...

After they had chatted for some twenty minutes, Henrik talking about horses and Sir Jonathan muttering and agreeing, Sir Jonathan gave some rather obvious hints that he was feeling restless and wanted to be on his way again.

Henrik wondered with a mischievous smile if he should just let the man go. Pretend that he had no idea what, or rather whom, Sir Jonathan was looking for. Say a polite good-bye to him, and leave it at that. It might be quite fun to send the poor man out on a wild goose chase.

After all Sir Jonathan was much closer to his goal than he thought, and by leaving Henrik's place he would only get further away again.

But Elizabeth would most probably never forgive Henrik if he didn't make Sir Jonathan stay. So Henrik took pity on the man and rang for his butler.

"Pearson, would you please ask Lady Elizabeth to join us."

Sir Jonathan looked a little bewildered at that, he had thought Henrik would just ask his butler to show his guest out.

Soon the door opened and Elizabeth stepped in.

"Henrik, what do you want? I..." she said. But then she saw Sir Jonathan and stopped short. A very soft smile spread on her face. Henrik had never seen his sister smiling in quite that way before, and it warmed his heart to see it.

"This is my sister, Lady Elizabeth Kempell, and this is Sir Jonathan Strallan." Henrik found it best to pretend he knew nothing while he introduced them to each other.

"...we...met..." Sir Jonathan stammered out. "So...it is Elizabeth? I should have known."

It wasn't quite clear what he meant by that, perhaps he was still thinking about Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps he was only referring to the very obvious likeness between the two siblings that he hadn't noticed until now.

A very long silence followed.

Henrik looked from one of them to the other, but they only had eyes for each other. And when he saw the way Sir Jonathan was smiling at Elizabeth he was suddenly sure of what he had only guessed at last night. This man was deeply in love with Henrik's sister. Henrik had all the reason in the world to be happy for her, at least if Sir Jonathan was what she wanted. And judging from the way she smiled at him, so he was.

Henrik at once regretted having wanted to make fun of this very kind and friendly man, who was so obviously besotted by his favourite sister. This sweet and gentle man was most likely going to be his brother-in-law, and he was very welcome as such. He obviously made Elizabeth happy, and that was the only really important thing.

"I'll ask someone to bring you a pot of tea", Henrik said, getting up from his desk. "Just feel free to use my library for as long as you need it." Then he slipped out of the door with a smile on his face that reached from one ear to the other.

His wife asked him what had happened, and he filled her in on the details.

Henrik was quite sure by now that Elizabeth wouldn't go back to India when the London season was over. He was getting his sister back, and he was very happy about it.

Maybe, if their parents were unable to come to London for the wedding, Henrik would also have the honour of giving Elizabeth away.