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A lice rolled over in her commodious bed and dragged the counterpane over her head.

Nell, humming the tune of a particularly bawdy song, refused to take the hint and continued to pull open the curtains over the floor to ceiling windows on either side of the bed.

Alice reached around her and found a pillow which she threw in the direction of the humming.

“Missed me,” Nell sang. She snatched the counterpane and dragged it down the bed. “The time is nearly noon, Lady Alice. You promised you’d attended Captain Atherton’s exhibition at the Royal Academy with Their Graces.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m too ill to attend. Offer my apologies to—Nell!” Alice landed unceremoniously on the Aubusson carpet. “Have you run mad?”

“Offer your own apologies. Every soul in this house is tired of you wallowing in self-pity. The gentleman proposed. You turned him down. You refused to see him. Do you intend to live with your decision?” Nell began to lay out Alice’s clothes across the blanket chest at the foot of the bed.

“Of course I intend to live with my decision.” Alice stood up and went to the screen in the corner to begin her morning ablutions. The sun streaming in from the windows blinded her as it struck the mirror of her dressing table. Make that her mid-morning ablutions.

“Then be about it, milady. Living, that is. This is your last social event before you have us running off to Scotland. Their Graces will be disappointed if you miss this. Captain Atherton is a particular friend of your uncle, Lord Daedalus, is he not?”

“Yes.” Alice sighed and sat down at her dressing table. “And I do admire the captain’s work.” She worried her bottom lip. “Has the post come this morning? Or any other missives?”

“No, milady.” Nell began to brush out Alice’s hair. “Only the one caller you refused. Then Mister Frederick Perriton spoke with your uncle and took your note to…”

“Yes, I know.” She’d lain in bed and listened to the comings and goings all morning.

She’d slept very little in the past four days, and she’d especially been wide awake each time Sinjin came to call and was refused.

Today she’d decided to put an end to both her and his misery.

The note she’d written had been cold and to the point.

She could not allow herself to write as she always had to him.

This last letter had to be quick and impersonal so there could be no doubt of her intentions.

Her intentions? To break her own heart and to make amends for betraying him.

He’d never trust her again, and Sinjin of all men deserved a wife he could trust. He would do the correct thing and marry her, but he would never forgive her for what she’d done.

She could never bear to live with him knowing how hard he would try to hide the pain she’d caused him.

And he would. He’d do his utmost to hide the pain and behave as if all was well.

She’d sacrificed the most important friendship of her life and her only chance at happiness for the sake of revenge.

The vengeance she’d wreaked on those who had hurt her was well-deserved.

The hurt she’d caused Sinjin was not. He’d return to Surrey and his plants.

She’d go to Scotland for a while and then perhaps one day find a nice cottage in the countryside around Bath or close to the sea in Brighton and live out her life as she pleased.

Perhaps one day she’d convince herself that was the life she’d always wanted.

Today was not that day. She blinked back her tears and took a deep breath.

“Come along then,” she said with a bravado she did not feel. “If this is to be my last foray into London society, I shall wear my finest and hold my head high.”

“That’s my girl,” Nell replied. “The wine and gold striped gown with the black velvet pelisse. Yes?”

“Most definitely.” She would go to the exhibition as if her life was perfect.

Thank goodness she need not fear Sinjin would be there.

Events like this, certain to be attended by all of London’s elite, was not something with which he would ever be comfortable.

The sight of his face on seeing the destruction of his conservatory would be the last image of him in her memory, which was assurance enough she had done the right thing.

S omething was definitely afoot. From the moment Alice and the Duke and Duchess of Chelmsford stepped into the main exhibition hall at the Royal Academy every hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

People milled about in groups, and as she and her aunt and uncle passed each group went silent, only to erupt into whispered conversations the moment they were out of earshot.

Aunt Eleanor was far more attuned to what was going on as she looped her arm through Alice’s and leveled various people with the glare that had made her one of the most infamous sea captains ever to set sail.

“To hell with them, my dear,” Aunt Eleanor whispered. “They’re all pale pattern cards compared to you. Never forget that.”

“Lady Alice, how kind of you to come.” Lady Honoria Atherton, daughter of the Duke of Avonlea, and now Captain Atherton’s wife, crossed the room, hands extended, and greeted Alice with a kiss to her cheek.

“Leonidas is so eager to show you the landscapes he painted in Surrey. Come with me.” Alice allowed herself to be led to a series of landscapes hung above the line.

They were breathtaking and made her instantly homesick for her father’s estate and for Sinjin.

Captain Atherton waved to her from a group of art experts she recognized.

Uncle Percy and Aunt Eleanor had joined Lady Camilla and her nephew who were admiring some smaller canvases, portraits Captain Atherton had painted.

“Is the captain going to sell any of these?” Alice asked Lady Honoria. “I should very much like to have one.”

“I know Leo would be all too happy to make a gift of one to you. You must choose the one you like best, and we’ll have it sent round once the exhibition is over.”

“Oh, I couldn’t. That is too generous.”

“Nonsense. We insist. Now which is your favorite.”

Alice studied the paintings and marveled at how wonderful Lady Honoria’s life was to be so certain of her husband, to think of the two of them as we, rather than him and her.

“You must think yourself very clever, Lady Alice.” The entire room went still.

Alice turned to find Lord Earden walking towards her.

She glanced behind him to see Lord Weatherly and Lord Stanton.

Next to them Millicent, Ophelia, and Margaret stood like Macbeth’s three witches, their coiffures hidden entirely by elaborate bejeweled turbans.

“That’s close enough, Earden.” Uncle Percy’s quiet voice carried in the large room. He had started forward, but was stayed by Aunt Eleanor’s hand on his arm.

“Not to worry, Your Grace. I would not want to come within range of Lady Alice’s pistol.”

“A wise decision on your part,” a voice called from behind the crowd which parted immediately.

“The lady is a crack shot. I taught her myself.” Sinjin strode through the crowd and put himself between Earden and Alice.

“Did you think her only wounding Ravenwood was an accident? Although if ever a man deserves death, it is him.”

“See here, Perriton.” Weatherly stepped forward to stand next to Earden.

“No, you see here. All of you. Having a title and being heir to a title does not give any man the right to kidnap and rape women and sell them into slavery. Nor does it give that man the right to try and force an honorable young lady to marry him so he can use her dowry to settle his debts. Ravenwood was a despicable human being. You have all made Lady Alice’s life a misery because she dared to do what all of you could not.

You created a monster by allowing him to do as he pleased.

And she is the only one of you who had the courage to rid London of that monster. ”

Alice did not know when she began to cry. Once the tears began to blur her vision of Sinjin standing there defending her, she dragged her sleeve across her face over and over. She wanted to see him. She had to see him.

“Speaking of monsters,” Stanton said as he pushed people out of the way to join Earden and Weatherly.

“What do you have to say about a woman who tried to poison the three of us not once but twice and played a most heinous and deceitful trick on three innocent young ladies, perhaps ruining their beautiful hair forever?”

The collective gasp of everyone in attendance was deafening.

Alice should have known her secret would not remain safe once the journal page in her handwriting was discovered.

The page had obviously fallen from her reticule when she dropped it at Lady Stanton’s.

All it took was one person recognizing her very distinctive handwriting and reporting back to Millicent for this entire humiliation to unfold.

“I assure you the hair dye will wash out in a few weeks,” Sinjin said as he strolled closer to Millicent, Ophelia, and Margaret. “Your hair will be beautiful once more, ladies, which is more than I can say for your characters.”

“How dare you!” Millicent screeched.

“How dare I? How dare you, Miss Rutherford. How dare all of you who did your utmost to make Lady Alice’s last two seasons a nightmare.

And for what? For the sins of her father?

For shooting Ravenwood? Simply because you could?

Beautiful hair and a beautiful face are temporary.

” He turned back to gaze at Alice. “Beauty of the heart, beauty of the spirit, those are eternal. That is the beauty of a woman who is kind to servants, who risked her life to save women of the streets when no one else would, who befriended an awkward, shy, lummox of a boy, and made him feel like a hero, even when his behavior wasn’t very heroic. ”

Alice wanted to laugh at the sighs of several young ladies in the crowd. Sinjin walked across the exhibition hall as he spoke.

“You came here to accuse Lady Alice of enacting a very well-deserved revenge on you for humiliating and embarrassing her when she hadn’t done a damned thing to any of you.

I hate to disavow you of the notion, but I am the one who soaked your clothes with extract of nettle, who dosed your pasties with a little concoction that had you casting up your accounts all over Almack’s, and painted the ladies’ bonnets with hair dye to teach them a lesson about real beauty.

” Hands clasped behind his back he came to stand next to Alice.

She fought not to throw her arms around him and kiss him senseless.

“So, if you wish to blame someone for your comeuppance, blame me.”

“But as Lords Earden, Stanton, and Weatherly broke into my conservatory a few nights ago, assaulted my cook and destroyed ten years of my work I am willing to call all things even.” The chatter around the exhibition hall reached a fevered pitch.

“Especially as I understand you three gentlemen have received a dressing down from one or more of your parents, and you have promised to be good boys from now on, likely to avoid the cessation of your quarterly allowances.” A round of hearty laughter ensued.

“You can defend her all you like,” Earden shouted above the din. “But we all know she is the mad bitch who did this to us. She has no business mingling with good society. She?—”

Suddenly Lord Earden was on the floor, blood gushing from his nose. Alice had but blinked and Sinjin had crossed the room in three long strides and drawn Earden’s cork like a Seven Dials street brawler. When Wheatly and Stanton tried to attack Sinjin, he dispatched them with a single punch each.

“Say another word about Lady Alice Lister and you will be having grass for breakfast, do you understand me?” Sinjin said as he bent down and raised Earden up by the front of his shirt.

“Lady Alice isn’t the only one who is a crack shot.

” The duke’s son nodded wordlessly. Sinjin dropped him back to the floor, stood, dusted his hands together and walked straight to where Alice stood, her hands to her mouth in shock and surprise.

She noticed Sinjin’s brother, Frederick, step around Millicent and her friends to stand over Stanton, Earden, and Weatherly, essentially daring them to move.

Sinjin gently took Alice’s hands in his and pulled them away from her lips.

His eyes never leaving hers he went down on one knee.

A sob escaped her before she could call the sound back.

The room grew quiet and still. His hands in hers shook ever so slightly.

He hated crowds and noise and public displays, yet here he was braving all three for her.

“Lady Alice Lister,” he said solemnly. “I have loved you since the day I met you. A fact my brother, Frederick, took great joy in pointing out only an hour ago. You have been my comfort and friend, my faithful correspondent and steady anchor most of my life. I have come to realize I’m not very good at life without you, so as much as I know it will be a great sacrifice, I truly need you to continue to be my comfort and friend, my love and my steady anchor so long as we both shall live. Alice, my love, will you marry me?”

“Better say yes, gel,” a dowager in a monstrous orange turban said. “If you don’t, I will.”

“Yes, Sinjin,” Alice said as the room broke into laughter and applause.

“Why on earth would I marry anyone else?” He was on his feet in a thrice, took her in his arms and kissed her until she could not breathe.

He lifted her off her feet and spun around three times before lowering her feet to the floor.

She cupped his face in her hands, the dearest face she had ever known.

She feared her heart might burst from her chest with the love she felt for him,

“I am so sorry,” Alice whispered and gave a few hiccupping sobs. “I will spend the rest of our lives making up for deceiving you. I love you so much, Sinjin.”

“My dearest friend,” he whispered. “You are my heart and soul. Between us, there will never be anything to forgive. I love you, Alice Lister, and I always will.”

And he did.