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Mr. Burry and Sir Helmsdon paused at the doorway. Mr. Burry laughed and prodded Sir Helmsdon in the ribs. "Hey, lad, here’s a turn. The ladies are up before times! We’ll be called sluggards, that’s certain.”

“I will not care a jot, so long as they do not demand we join them at some godforsaken early hour,” Sir Helmsdon drawled.

He sauntered into the room and picked up a cup and the coffeepot.

He smelled the heavy, rich aroma of the coffee and quirked a smile.

"Devil take the Far East, I’ll take the West Indies bounty,” he whimsically vowed before taking a sip.

Laughing, the others agreed.

“But where are Mrs. Hedgeworth and Miss Grantley?” he inquired.

“I’m right here,” said Jane, coming around from behind him. "But I’m afraid Mrs. Hedgeworth is still abed. Do you think we shall be able to raise her before noon?” she asked her aunt.

“I believe so.”

“Well, that’s certainly a better response than the groom brought me from Royceland.”

“Royceland?”

“Yes, I invited Lord Royce and Lord Conisbrough. Our numbers would otherwise not be even."

Sir Helmsdon raised an eyebrow and snorted softly. "I wouldn’t put too much faith in their attending. Neither gentleman has the best reputation for timeliness or manners,” he drawled.

Jane shrugged. It appeared Sir Helmsdon’s conciliating manner of last evening was going to be a thing of the past. Just as well.

She rather liked the gentleman she’d met yesterday, but it would not do to encourage him further.

"I am not well enough acquainted with either gentleman to know, and I have recently discovered that it is not wise to place one’s faith in hearsay.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have several other things to attend to this morning. " She nodded to all and left the room.

"Ice Witch,” Mr. Burry muttered.

The others heard him, and though a few eyebrows rose at his unnatural want of manners, no one commented.

Jane purposefully kept herself busy for the next several hours.

She checked on the old butler, spoke to the head gardener concerning the outdoor games and the alfresco meal she was planning for the next day, saw that the boys did their lessons, and conferred with Mrs. Phibbs on housekeeping arrangements.

Her activities served their purpose. They kept her out of the realm of their guests.

They also prevented her from any private speech with Lady Elsbeth.

That last troubled her. Ever since Lady Elsbeth had fainted, Jane had been consumed by curiosity about her relationship with the notorious marquis.

She vowed, however, she would not ask anyone but Elsbeth for the tale.

It wasn’t until it was time to change for their planned entertainment that Jane even saw Lady Elsbeth again. They met in the old family wing. Jane thought Lady Elsbeth looked younger and more energetic than she’d seen her in many a day. She told her so.

Lady Elsbeth laughed. "Yes, I fear I was in danger of becoming a hoary old woman. One of those querulous, dusts of the ages, spinster women that people whisper about, shake their heads over, and pity. By the way, Lord Royce sent a note around. He and Lord Conisbrough will attend, but they will be bringing their horses and riding. He suggested this would be a good opportunity for Bertram to try the horse he left for him. He wrote something about speaking with you about it last evening?”

“Yes, he thinks Bertram is old enough to graduate from his little pony to a horse. He said he possesses the perfect animal, which he brought over and had installed in the stables here last night.”

“How considerate of him!”

“Yes, but do you think Litton would approve?”

“Certainly. If he were around, I daresay he’d realize the boy needs a horse and would see to it himself.

Which, by the way, is something I mean to discuss with Mary and Litton when they return.

Their sons are bright, intelligent, active boys.

Besides needing a tutor, they need their parents’ attentions. ”

“I agree. But can you see Delbert Litton curtailing his jaunts for them?”

“No. What I intend to suggest is that they take the boys, with a tutor, along with them on these journeys.”

“Hmm, I agree. And it would serve a multitude of purposes. Not only would the boys get an education they’re not otherwise likely to receive, but Litton and Mary will be educated as well as to the personality and needs of their children!”

“Precisely,” Lady Elsbeth said, turning to go into her room.

Jane followed her. "Elsbeth,” she said hesitantly.

She looked down at her hands clasped before her, then back up at her aunt.

"Elsbeth, could you, I mean, would you consider telling me how you know Lord Conisbrough? I wouldn’t inquire in this odious fashion, but there are tales . . . I mean, Aunt Serena said . . .”

A shuttered expression greeted Jane’s words until she mentioned Lady Serena. Lady Elsbeth sighed, her body sagging as if it were a deflating aerial balloon.

“Yes, my dear sister Serena. I can just imagine what she said,” Elsbeth drawled.

She shook her head and sat down on the edge of her bed to remove her shoes and stockings.

"I met Lord Conisbrough during the little season. I’d just turned eighteen.

I’d had a successful regular season, even received two offers of marriage, both of which I refused with my father’s full blessing.

“I was in London for a holiday fete. Afterward, we were all to return to Larchwyn Hall. Everyone was coming to Larchwyn for the Christmas holidays. Anyway,” she continued, rolling her stockings down, “it was at that party that I met Lord Conisbrough. He was ten years older than I was, already quite shockingly divorced from a woman who ran off to Italy with some Italian aristocrat she’d met while she and Conisbrough were in Italy for their wedding trip.

The man followed them back to England and convinced Conisbrough’s wife to run away with him. Or so the story goes.”

Jane shook her head. "We can’t seem to get away from gossip, can we?”

“No,” Lady Elsbeth said, sighing. "Only that was pretty much the true tale. There were no whispers of cruelty or other sordidness. She simply fell in love with someone else. Here,” she said, turning around, “if you want the whole tale, you’ll have to make yourself useful and help me with these lacings.

I’m not ringing for the maid to overhear all this and exaggerate it to everyone!

“After his wife left him, Conisbrough became quite jaded. He dallied with women here and there, broke endless hearts, and laughed. He gambled hard, rode hard, and played hard. Some say he had a death wish. I don’t think so.

I think he was looking for some kind of cleansing as if in burning himself out, he could burn himself clean.

He was near that point when I met him. He had not yet aged physically, but there were dark shadows beneath his eyes, and his face was unnaturally drawn.

I remember thinking when I first met him that his voice was also unnaturally harsh.

Truthfully, he fascinated me. I found myself wondering about him.

"I blush to admit it now, but I maneuvered to dance with him just before everyone went down for the midnight supper. Afterward, quite naturally, I went down to supper on his arm. Somehow we started talking about herbs. I was surprised to find him quite knowledgeable about them. His mother was a noted herbalist. It was strange, but as we talked, his face seemed to lose some of its sallowness, and his gray eyes lost their harsh metallic edge and turned to a beautiful, soft, foggy gray. I fell in love with those eyes.” Lady Elsbeth sighed and smiled.

She murmured her thanks as Jane unlaced her dress.

She stepped out of it and picked it up, shaking it out.

“We left for Larchwyn the next day. I didn’t see him again before we left, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

I know I mentioned his name to one or two.

I was gently warned to be wary. I did not understand why.

Serena told me he was a callous rake, a user of women.

Her words did give me pause, especially when I remembered the dissipation I’d seen in his face.

Then, the day before Christmas, I received a package.

It was from Lord Conisbrough. It was his mother’s journal, full of notes and recipes for herbal remedies. ”

“Do not tell me that is the same red leather-bound journal you jealously guard, consult daily it seems, and enter quotes in?”

Lady Elsbeth laughed. "The same. With it, Lord Conisbrough sent a note saying that he wished his mother’s beloved work be used and appreciated, not relegated to a dusty library shelf, as it had been since her death. I think I fell in love with him that day."

Elsbeth smiled reminiscently, then briskly continued, “I don’t recall any more of that time at Larchwyn.

My time was taken with studying Lady Conisbrough’s journal.

I do remember that the family was disgusted with me for my passion with herbs and that book.

Everyone wondered why Lord Conisbrough sent it to me.

I had no answers for them, and I didn’t attempt any.

Serena said I probably reminded him of his mother.

I was at first hurt by that statement, then I didn’t care, for I felt that any woman who could write such a beautiful volume must have been a fantastic creature. ”

She poured water into a washbowl, added a few drops of fragrant oil from one of the many bottles that lined her vanity, and splashed her face, neck, and arms, luxuriating in the feel of the cool water on her skin. "Hand me that towel, will you please, Jane? Shouldn’t you be getting ready, too?”

“Yes, but I’m not leaving until I hear the end of the tale. If you do not tell me now, I fear my active imagination shall construct all manner of wild tales to end your story."