Chapter 1: Page 1

North Hamptonshire, England, 1818

He had waited so long for her.

Lord Irvine Kinneas gazed across his traveling

carriage at Miss Selphie Tilmitt, presently in

animated conversation with her lady's maid. When she

laughed, tendrils of dark hair that peeped from beneath

her bonnet danced.

Had he waited too long? Lord Kinneas feared so.

Ever since he could remember, an eventual match between

the two of them had been an unspoken certainty on the

part of their families. And ever since she had made an

effort to ease the social torture of a party for him six

years ago, his heart had been hers. She'd been so young

then. A mere girl of nineteen, while he had been the same age yet years older still in experience and responsibility.

Knowing she thought of him only as a dear, old friend or

courtesy elder brother, he had scrupulously avoided

revealing the intensity of his feelings, for fear of

frightening her away. She would be his one day and he

had been content to wait, anticipating.

Selphie looked up suddenly and caught him watching her.

Two bewitching dimples blossomed on either side of her

equally bewitching lips. "My dear Kinneas, you look

positively grim! I hope you have not got a toothache,

poor fellow. I would hate to have this lovely visit with

your cousin spoiled for you."

She did not blush when she spoke, which troubled Lord

Kinneas. A young lady should blush if she discovered a

man staring at her with the transparent longing he

feared his face must betray. At least, she should if she

had the slightest romantic interest in the fellow.

"My teeth are quite sound, thank you." He wasn't in his

dotage yet. Though perhaps he might as well be as far as

she was concerned.

He admitted a half-truth to explain his solemn

countenance. "I was only thinking about this sudden

engagement of Leonhart's and wondering what it all

means."