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“I care,” Saye replied, very reasonably. “I cannot have people thinking this is some half-hearted masquerade, as they will if our hostess herself is unmasked.”

“If you are so worried about what people are thinking, then you should know the enthusiasm of our disguise should be the least of your worries. All of these people you invited are hearing the tales of the goings-on here, and word will get out to London!”

“So let it. Why should I care?”

Aurelia’s eyes nearly popped out of her head for his blithe response and regretfully, Saye saw Lilly slip away with a little wave to him, retrieving her domino from the footman as she went.

“Aurelia, I have half a mind to murder you dead,” he scolded.

“The pièce de résistance of my entire party, and you turn the whole thing into a dry bob with your nonsense.”

“As murder is the only scandal this party has wanted for so far, you might as well! I have just heard it reported that Lady Penelope Frey is here. Lady Penelope! That will only confirm what people are saying—that it has been a debauchery, all of us behaving as savages and half the ladies ruined!”

“Well the maids can set everyone straight on that account,” Saye replied. “The bed-linens at Matlock are yet pristine.”

“We hope so,” Aurelia replied darkly. “After all, where has Darcy been these last days? Where is Miss Elizabeth Bennet?”

Saye considered that for a moment. Darcy had been notably absent from the croquet and his dance lesson…

had he dined with them last night? This was the trouble with the taciturn, you scarcely noted when they were not there.

“If Darcy had not taken her before he got here, he surely could have restrained himself in his uncle’s house. ”

“Well, where is he then? Because I have not seen him in at least two days complete.”

“And you are choosing to seek him now? During a masquerade?” Saye shook his head. “Aurelia, go and enjoy the party. We can fuss over Miss Bennet’s chastity later. I must go and find Lilly.”

Feeling thoroughly discomposed, Lilly walked away from Saye.

She could not say why it was so important to her, this matter of what he had done for Georgette—well, that was untrue.

She knew why it mattered. Her entire opinion of Saye, her understanding of everything he did and said and thought was based on her belief that he was a selfish rake, pleasure-bent and heedless of anything that did not benefit him directly.

If he somehow persuaded his mother’s cousin to accept Anderson’s suit—an act which can only degrade him, no matter how much delight it brings dear Georgette—why, then I suppose he is not so selfish after all.

These ridiculous proposals he had offered…were they in earnest? Unappetising , she reminded herself. He finds the notion of marriage unappetising.

She found Georgette and Anderson moments later in the library. Anderson’s mask had been laid aside, and Georgette’s was down around her neck; Lilly belatedly realised she had caught them kissing. “Oh, um, apologies, I can come back. I just had a question for you.”

“No, no.” Georgette grinned rather roguishly and ran a hand over her skirts. “What is it?”

Anderson turned his back and made what appeared to be some adjustments to his trousers, and a hot blush assailed Lilly.

Thankful for the dimness of the room, she hurriedly spoke.

“I only wondered what it was Saye did to change your father’s mind.

You seemed so very thankful, I thought it must be something excessively grand.

Does he have some gossip to hang over your father?

Some debt?” She laughed, weakly, to show she meant the last in jest.

“Saye, and Darcy as well, have lent their support.” Anderson turned back to face her, speaking with earnest feeling. “Not only in money, but in name. They both intend to be recognised patrons.”

“So the unfashionable shall become the fashion,” Georgette finished. “You know how Saye is, by Easter, everyone will know that Anderson’s children are absolutely the prevailing concern, and, by Ascot, people will be in the depths of despair if they are not themselves involved in the cause.”

“Of course, being Saye, he intends to have a party attached to it. A ball in town, one which people pay to attend and the proceeds go to the children.” Anderson shook his head, clearly in wonderment at his good fortune.

“I cannot deny that having such a man for a friend will do the institution untold good.”

“What if he forgets?” Lilly asked. “Saye does tend to just rattle away, drunk half the time and always trying to scandalise or provoke people.”

“That was my concern initially, Miss Goddard, but I can assure you such worries are without foundation. Lord Saye had his man of business writing letters within the hour. It is all done.”

“I will say this for Saye, once he sets his mind to something…” Georgette lost interest in her own sentence, plainly having become distracted by her betrothed’s warm look.

It seemed they were about to begin kissing again directly before her, and Lilly realised she should do best to leave them to it.

With a little pained clearing of her throat, she quit the room, moving back towards the ballroom.

Another dance was in progress, and Saye was dancing with a lady harlequin.

She studied him for a moment. He was, as always, elegant and expert in his rendering of the figures.

As she watched him, he saw her and, although the mask made it difficult to tell, it seemed that he gave her a little wink that made her feel fluttery inside.

She turned, walking away from the dancers, intent on getting a drink or finding a friend or something, when a conversation stopped her in her tracks. Jolly Rawlings and someone she did not know—perhaps one of Matlock’s neighbours in Derbyshire.

“…just like him, is it not? Some grand expense of a house party, all to win a lady.” Jolly chuckled. “I can tell you my father would not have sanctioned this.”

“Surely not? There are parties aplenty in London if you want to woo a lady. Call on her, man, send some flowers, it will be far less expensive. ”

“I was sitting beside them at the club when they spoke of it,” Jolly said.

“Saye, Fitzwilliam, Darcy, all sitting there talking about it. I am not one to listen where I am not part of the conversation, but he was not very quiet. Rather overset, if I must say so. Some other fellow was about to propose or did propose and he was determined to put a stop to it.”

“Well, I have known Saye many years, and if you want my opinion, ’tis likely this is but a contest between him and the other suitor.”

Exactly! Lilly thought. He does not want me. He just wants to defeat Balton-Sycke!

“No,” Jolly said, and he sounded quite certain.

“Darcy and Fitzwilliam both asked that same thing, and Saye grew quite angry with them. Told them in no uncertain terms that he loved her and would die of misery without her. Of course, he did admit that besting the other fellow would be sweet, but he did not mince words. He loves her.”

The other man chuckled. “I do not know Miss Goddard, although I do know her elder brother Arthur. He is a fine fellow. His sister must be uncommon indeed to have brought Saye to heel.”

“Firmly on her apron strings, he is,” Jolly agreed.

Lilly heard no more than that. Nearly stumbling, she went back towards the dance floor.

The set had just ended, and she went to find Saye, rising on her toes to find the enormous mask he was wearing in the crowd.

When she found him, she went to him directly, determined there would be plain words between them before she lost her courage.

“May I speak to you?” she asked him.

“Of course. Where?”

“Somewhere more private,” she said. “Perhaps…?” She gestured towards the door that would lead them outside.

He offered her his arm, and they walked out together, finding themselves on the terrace only moments later.

The crisp late winter air was a relief after the heat of the ballroom, and Lilly removed her mask to thoroughly enjoy it.

The moon had lent everything a spectral glow; it was all really quite enchanting, even if Lilly refused to be enchanted.

Saye removed his mask, setting it on the balustrade beside him. She placed hers beside it.

“Are you well?” he asked in a concerned voice.

“Yes, it is only that I, um, I heard some people talking about this, your party.”

“The ball? Or?—”

“All of it.”

“What about it?”

She found that her mouth had gone suddenly very dry. She turned, looking out over the lawn, unable to meet his eyes. Quietly, she said, “They said you planned this house party as a means of winning a lady’s hand…to win my hand.”

She heard him take a deep breath before admitting, “Yes.” After a short pause, he added, “It is rather an odd time of year to host a house party. Hence we are playing frozen croquet and doing archery in the mud.”

Then in a softer voice, he added, “But well worth it for the privilege of having you under my roof for a fortnight.”

She turned back to look at him. “So all of this was to prevent me from accepting Mr Balton-Sycke?”

He stepped closer to her and took her face in his hands, his eyes intent upon her. She closed her eyes a moment, a most inconsequential thought in her mind—when did he remove his gloves?—then opened them again to find him looking intently at her.

“Lilly, if you can tell me right now that marrying Balton-Sycke is what you truly want, what will make you happy, then I will walk away.”

“And hate me forever?”

“No.” He kissed her, so lightly she wondered if it even happened, on her forehead, then dropped his hands. “No, I will always love you, always be a friend to you, no matter what you decide. But I think you should pick me, for surely no other man could ever love you as much as I do.”

“But-but you are not the marrying kind,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Not in the general sense, no,” he said.

“But I am the kind who wants to marry you. You have changed my opinion on the subject simply because I find I want to be with you all the time. Is that not what marriage should be? One finds the person who one wishes to spend time with above any other, the person to whom one is unafraid to show one’s real self, the person of endless fascination…

and then if it turns out one would like to tup that person as well, then it is as good as done. ”

“Saye…”

“I suppose it is rather badly done to use the word ‘tup’ in a marriage proposal, hm? Forgive me. Just know that to me, you are the person I want to be with all the time, the person whose happiness…” He ran one finger along her cheek.

“The person whose happiness means more to me than my own. No, I did not ever believe I would find such a person, but now I have, and it is you.”

It was shockingly frank, delivered in the most grave, un-mocking tones she had ever heard from him. He stood before her, his mask discarded in every sense of the word, and the most astonishing of all notions came into her head. He is in my power. I can make him happy in a way no other lady could.

“Are you truly proposing to me?”

He smiled a little then and took both of her hands in his. In excessively formal accents, he said, “Miss Goddard, pray do me the very great honour of becoming my wife?”

Pure elated giddiness came into her chest, and her eyes blurred with tears.

She was breathless and weightless all at once, and could not even speak the required syllable, sure she would burst if she did.

So she nodded, vigorously, and then he pulled her into his chest, putting one finger beneath her chin and one arm tightly around her waist, while he kissed her.

He pulled away eventually, telling her, “My friend Gatto here has something for you.”

Taking his mask, he removed the cat’s collar; Lilly was shocked to realise it was a bracelet—a beautiful bracelet of diamonds and aquamarines—and that Saye intended to put it on her wrist. “This diamond right here?” He touched one finger to the largest gem.

“That was the main stone on the engagement ring given to Miss Anne Stringer-Montagu by the very first earl of Matlock, John Fitzwilliam. The aquamarines are for you, for your eyes.”

It took her breath away to have such a piece of jewellery, a part of his family history, already on her wrist. “But how did you do this? Have this made, I mean. When did you?—”

“In London, the very day I thought of having this party,” he replied with a cocksure grin.

With a laugh, she said, “You were very sure of getting what you wished for then!”

“Lilly.” His voice had grown serious again. “What I was sure of was that if I did not have you, I would surely die trying.”

When he uses that voice, my knees weaken , she thought, just as his lips met hers and made her feel utterly insensible once again.