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Mr. Drake’s eyes opened from his pretended and violent death, and he went up on his elbow, looking thoughtful for a moment.

Selina’s heart knocked against her ribs, and she nearly pushed through the door to intervene, but something kept her feet planted in place.

“Your aunt,” Mr. Drake said, “is one of the cleverest and kindest people I have met. I admire her very much. Don’t you?”

Selina searched for the manipulation or guile in Mr. Drake’s answer, but she could not find it. It angered her deeply. How could he be so convincing when she knew he wanted her money? How could she be so blinded by her desire to be loved and wanted for reasons outside of her appearance or wealth?

All four children nodded in response to his question.

“And today she gave us as many helpings of marzipan as we wanted,” Teddy said as they all began to rise to their feet.

“I think you should marry her,” Kitty said with the authority of someone whose opinion was of paramount importance.

“As soon as you can,” agreed Teddy as he lunged toward a pretended enemy with his imaginary sword. “Mama says Aunt Selina is very beautiful and is bound to lose her heart to someone while in Town.”

Selina’s eyes widened. This scene was supposed to be for her entertainment and Mr. Drake’s undoing, but it was turning out quite the opposite. It was time to put a stop to it.

Fanning her cheeks to cool them for a moment, she pushed the door open.

“Are you the friend taking care of Pip?” Arthur asked Mr. Drake as she entered, changing the subject in an abrupt way that had Selina wishing to wring his neck and thank him all at once.

Mr. Drake turned at the sound of the door closing behind Selina. He smiled at her, and his gaze dropped to the bodice of her dress.

With a wrenching in her stomach, she realized she had forgotten to attend to it.

His gaze flicked back to hers.

“My maid was so occupied, I could not bear to bother her with such a minor issue,” she explained. “I hope you will forgive the state of us all.”

Mr. Drake looked around. “Forgive it? I feel quite overdressed being the only one without marzipan on my clothing.”

Did he never lack a charming answer? This man would be the death of her.

“Ah”—Selina strode to the table, picked up the last piece of marzipan, and pressed it against Mr. Drake’s clean, pressed shirt—“there you go.”

The room froze with silence.

Heart beating erratically and hardly believing her own audacity, she met Mr. Drake’s gaze, feeling a jolt when she realized how near his face was to hers.

He was unbearably handsome. Alluring. Skilled with children. And he smelled divine.

But he was a miserably manipulative fortune hunter.

His eyes explored hers, sparkling with amusement. “Thank you, Mrs. Lawrence. I feel quite at home now. ”

She took a step back and looked at her nieces and nephews, wide-eyed at what they had just witnessed. If she knew Kitty, a lecture was well on its way.

“ Are you the friend with Pip?” Arthur asked, recovering from his surprise enough to refocus on that most important question.

“Guilty,” Mr. Drake said.

“Why did you not bring him?” Teddy complained.

“It is for the best I did not. If I had, he would be crawling all over the lot of you, trying to eat the marzipan from your faces and fingers and clothes. And his teeth are quite sharp.”

“Can we meet him?” Kitty asked, and beside her, Lou nodded her head fervently.

“We will take baths tonight if we must,” Teddy said, a lamb prepared to surrender itself for slaughter.

“That is a great sacrifice indeed,” Mr. Drake said. “But this is your aunt’s home, and she must be the one to make that decision.”

Five sets of eyes swept to Selina.

“Please, Aunt Selina,” Arthur asked, and an echo of the same words followed from all of his siblings, including a pwease from Lou.

Selina could no more have refused them than she could have taught Pip to fetch Mr. Tolliver’s glove on horseback. “Very well. Mr. Drake may bring Pip for a short visit tomorrow if ”—she held up a hand to stem the tide of gratitude—“you take baths tonight, and if he has no other engagements.”

All heads turned to Mr. Drake.

He covered the lower half of his face thoughtfully. “Hmm…have I any other engagements tomorrow?”

The children seemed to lean toward him with anticipation. Selina felt it too.

A grin formed beneath his hand, and he dropped it. “Tomorrow it is.”

The four children swarmed Selina and Mr. Drake, as though they could not decide to whom they owed their thanks. The force of the gratitude pressed them together, and they shared laughing glances.

Despite the pleas of the children for him to remain, Mr. Drake made his excuses shortly after, something Selina supported whole-heartedly. She needed the time away from him to realign herself, remember her goal, and most importantly, to plan in what way she would next torture him.

For torture him she must.

She would be the princess, leading herself into battle on behalf of every woman who had been used for beauty or wealth. And tomorrow, Mr. Drake would leave with more than a smattering of marzipan on his clothing when it was over.