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“If you’ll believe me, I did not once put my foot out of doors, though I was there a fortnight. Not one party, or scheme, or anything!”

—Pride and Prejudice

LYDIA DIDN’T SEE much of Kingston over the next few days, and when she did, he was silent, his facial expression serious.

Neither did he speak much when he ate meals with her and Chloe.

The viscount seemed content to merely listen to their conversation without needing to add anything else.

He intrigued her, and Lydia found herself wondering what he was thinking.

Shaking her head, she attempted to clear her thoughts.

It didn’t matter what Kingston thought of her.

She was merely his employee. And tonight was Harriet’s card party.

It would be the first social event that Lydia would be in the role of chaperone.

She intended for it to go flawlessly. Lydia had even arranged Chloe’s hair in a more becoming style, with curls around her face, coral ribbons in her braids, and extra curls around her chignon.

Chloe touched the coral necklace around the slender column of her throat. It looked very fine next to the new diamond earrings that had been pierced through her ears that very afternoon. “Am I being immodest to wear so much jewelry, Lydia?”

Holding in her smirk, Lydia was able to assure her charge, “Not at all. Every young lady there will be wearing earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and even rings.”

“My late mother would not have approved. She believed in simplicity of dress and no ornamentation. I was only allowed to look in a mirror for two minutes each day.”

Lydia shrugged her shoulders. “Then, take off the necklace if you’d like. You do not need to wear it to please me. You only need to please yourself.”

“Then, why do you not wear more jewelry?”

Lydia touched her naked neck. “I would if I could. But I have pawned all but my mother’s necklace this last year. And it is a lovely sentimental piece with little circular paintings of my sisters. It’s not the sort of jewelry to wear to a card party such as this one.”

Chloe turned in her seat to meet Lydia’s eyes. “And this hairstyle isn’t too much?”

Compared to the simple chignon that Chloe had worn at the base of her neck for the last two days, this new hairstyle was ornate.

“I think that you look beautiful, but again, it isn’t what I think that matters.

It’s what you feel. If you’d like, we can take your hair back down and return to your usual style. ”

The young woman touched the curls that framed her face. “I think that I do look pretty—is it vain to say that?”

“It’s only vain if you are comparing yourself to others. That you believe that you are prettier than someone else. But it is perfectly acceptable—in fact, desirable—to find your own appearance pleasing.”

Blushing, Chloe grinned, and the color did much for her features and complexion. The young girl was fair of hair and pale of skin. The coral enhanced what was already there. Her young charge stood up. “I believe that I am ready to go to Mrs. Forster’s card party.”

“Good. You will love Harriet. She is the dearest-hearted person I know and quite the jolliest of hostesses.”

Chloe tucked her head to her chest. “And she doesn’t mind that she doesn’t know Papa or me?”

Lydia linked arms with the young woman. “Chloe, you’re an honorable and your father is a viscount. Anyone would be simply agog to have you at their party. No doubt, Harriet will boast about your attendance for weeks to all her friends and acquaintances.”

“And I am not very good at cards either.”

Lydia led Chloe from her room. “My dear, that is wonderful news. You will be the most popular young lady there. Everyone will love to win your money.”

Chloe burst out into giggles as they went down the stairs.

Lord Kingston stood at the bottom and looked up at them.

Lydia felt her cheeks growing hot. What had possessed her to tell the man that she found him attractive?

At the advanced age of two and thirty, she should have been able to control both her thoughts and her tongue.

But when he smiled up at them, Lydia knew that she could not control either.

Kingston was wearing a very proper wig and an even more proper suit of clothes.

He should have felt like a lord and a stranger to her.

But all she could think about and feel was that this man had searched the beaches of Brighton for over an hour to ensure that she was safe.

How could he be anything but handsome to her?

Chloe pulled away from Lydia when they reached her father. “How do I look, Papa?”

Kingston glanced briefly at Lydia before saying, “So pretty, Chloe. So very pretty. Perhaps I ought to bring a stick with me to the party to beat away the young men.”

Sucking in a breath, Lydia’s eyes filled with tears. Kingston had listened to her, and his daughter’s countenance glowed brighter than any candle from inner confidence. Lydia wiped away an errant tear and said, “We must not keep my dear Harriet waiting. She is so thrilled to meet you both.”

Kingston bowed to Lydia as if they were of the same rank. “I have already called the carriage.” Then he offered both his daughter and Lydia his arms to hold. Lydia’s heart felt lighter than it had in years when she took it.

THOMAS’S PERSONALITY SHINED best in a four-sheet letter where every word could be carefully chosen and placed.

He was not good at parties or small talk.

Yet he would endure tonight for his daughter’s sake.

Chloe positively beamed as the butler ushered them inside the fashionable town house.

Their hostess was a plump and pretty woman around his own age, or perhaps a little younger.

Her husband looked to be at least fifteen years her senior.

General Forster had salt-and-pepper hair and deep wrinkles around his eyes and mouth.

The general bowed to them. His lovely wife grinned.

Lydia took Chloe’s hand, and they both curtsied. “General and Mrs. Forster, allow me to present the honorable Miss Holden, and her father, Viscount Kingston.”

Thomas nodded his head—feeling like a stiff marionette.

Lydia diffused the tension by hugging Mrs. Forster and loudly declaring, “Why, isn’t this the most beautiful card party that I have ever attended? Is there another rose to be found in all of Brighton, or did you buy them all, Harriet?”

Mrs. Forster warmly returned the embrace and grinned. “The rooms did turn out rather lovely, didn’t they, Lydia?”

“The loveliest! Almost as lovely as Chloe here.”

Had he not known Lydia for five days now, he might have thought that her words were studied or false flattery.

But he sensed that she truly meant them, and that she’d wanted to reassure her friend that her party was perfect.

Lydia had wanted Chloe to feel lovely, too.

Thomas didn’t know if it was Lydia’s compliments or the change of Chloe’s hairstyle, but his daughter had never looked better or appeared happier.

He’d never before made the connection between beauty and happiness.

“Miss Holden, you are quite the prettiest young lady here,” Mrs. Forster agreed. “Thank you so much for coming.”

His daughter bowed her head. “It is my pleasure, ma’am, and honor.”

Mrs. Forster raised her eyebrows at Lydia. “Pretty and well-behaved. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from a girl in your chaperonage, Lydia.”

Smiling, Lydia kissed Mrs. Forster’s cheek and then took Chloe’s hand and led them farther into the house.

The rooms were rather crowded with both roses and young soldiers—all of whom seemed to recognize Lydia on sight.

Thomas felt his temperature rise when a young man not much older than his daughter came up to Lydia and swept her off her feet and swung her around the room in a very inappropriate embrace.

Her laughter was light and high. Thomas’s hands clenched into fists.

“Lydia, you’re finally out of mourning. How we’ve missed you in the regiment!”

Once her dancing slippers were back on the ground, Lydia tapped the young man’s shoulder with her fan. “I am certain that you have all missed me dreadfully—you have had to sew on your own buttons and darn your own socks. I shiver at the state they must be in.”

Chloe giggled, and the young man’s attention swiveled to her.

“Lydia—Mrs. Wickham—my dear old friend, please introduce me to this lovely young woman beside you.”

Thomas couldn’t help but shake his head at the young man calling Lydia old . Although the buck who swung her around was probably at least five years younger than her.

“Major Lord Mark Ross, it is my pleasure to introduce the honorable Miss Holden, and her father, Viscount Kingston,” Lydia said. Then, her eyes met Thomas’s. “Major Ross is the fourth son of the Duke of Milton and is an officer in my late husband’s regiment.”

The young major’s ears turned pink. He bowed formally to Thomas, but his eyes were on Chloe.

Beside the left eye there was a small white scar that ran into his dark hair.

“Miss Holden, my lord, it is a great honor to make your acquaintance. Perhaps, Miss Holden, you will do me the honor of being my partner in whist?”

Beaming, Chloe glanced at Lydia.

“Miss Holden doesn’t have much experience with cards, Mark,” Lydia said in a low voice. “Don’t let the other team fleece her.”

The major placed a hand over his chest. “I will protect her with my life.”

“As serious as that?” Thomas asked.

“Cards can be extremely dangerous,” Major Ross said, smirking and touching the scar on the left side of his face.

“Ask Lydia—Mrs. Wickham. I nearly lost this eye over a game of cards in Antigua. She broke a bottle of rum over the head of a Portuguese pirate when he came at me with a knife. Now, Miss Holden, please allow me to escort you to the table.”

The young major whisked Thomas’s daughter out from underneath his nose before Thomas could say or do anything. He opened his mouth as if to call her back when Lydia placed her hand on his arm. Thomas closed his lips and looked down into her dark eyes—they were depthless.

“Chloe will not come to any harm from Mark. In truth, he does owe me his life, twice over. I have known him since he enlisted at seventeen. He’s good all the way through. Trust me, I was married to a scoundrel, and I know how to accurately take a man’s measure.”

The strange thing was that Thomas did trust her, even after such a short acquaintance. She had saved a stranger from an unwanted elopement and asked for nothing in return—although she was clearly struggling financially and half-starved when they met.

“And my measure?” he whispered.

Lydia gave him a bright smile that he felt down to his toes.

“I know that you don’t approve of extravagant compliments, but I knew that you were a good person when you insisted on walking me home that first night.

Then, I knew that you were a kind one when you offered me employment.

I discovered that you were caring, when you came looking for me on the beach last night.

I think that you are a perfectly wonderful man, father, and viscount, and I am privileged to know you. ”

His lips tugged upward. “And that wasn’t extravagant?”

She winked at him. “I didn’t say a word about how attractive you are.”

Then, Lydia covered her mouth with one of her gloves as if she hadn’t meant to add that last part. Her cheeks flushed a pretty pink, and he couldn’t help but gaze at her newly licked lips. “I am so sorry. That was inappropriate. Please forgive me.”

Thomas shook his head, his heart sinking in his chest. “I cannot. I am not used to idle flirtations. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.”

Lydia bit her lower lip, and despite his disappointment from her apology, Thomas’s entire body thrummed with awareness of her.

“I meant what I said, too, but you are of a higher rank than me, and you are my employer. I realize that I should not find you attractive—let alone say it out loud. It puts you in an awkward position, and I do not want to risk my employment.”

Thomas gulped. “And if I wasn’t a viscount and your employer?”

“I’d be very tempted to kiss you.”

Before Thomas could reply, Lydia spun away and greeted an acquaintance.

Thomas wanted to call her back to his side and ask more questions.

But he needed time to think. He hadn’t thought about courting after his wife’s death.

His mother wanted him to marry again and provide a son and heir to his title.

She had chosen his first wife, and she seemed to think that she could choose his second.

His mother had invited him and Chloe to visit her in Bath for that very reason.

Instead, Thomas had fled to Brighton. He did not want another twenty years with a woman who did not love him or welcome his touch. Living with Euphemia had been such a misery. And as awful as it was, her death felt like he was finally free. Thomas was in no rush to marry again.

But how he longed for Lydia to kiss him.

Instead, he watched her and Chloe laugh and play cards all evening from the shadows. The only place where he felt comfortable.