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But Caro shook her head vehemently. “Don’t tell Freddy!” she said. “He’ll be too happy, I know. He doesn’t like Mr. Greene and would do anything to part us but, oh, that has already happened, and my heart feels like it has been torn from my breast. I don’t know how I’ll ever be happy again.”

“He’s withdrawn his interest?” Amelia asked hopefully, while trying hard not to sound gleeful. “I’m so sorry. What did he say?”

Caro shrugged. “He just hinted that perhaps we were not as suited as he had thought and perhaps it would be kinder of him to allow me to lose my heart to someone else since he might be adventuring abroad shortly.”

Amelia patted the girl’s shoulder. “My poor Caro. I, too, know the pain of a broken heart, but believe me, the pain does ease.”

To her surprise, she realized as she said these words that indeed the pain did ease. In fact, the last few hours she’d barely felt pain during any moment of reflection that included Thomas. No, she’d been thinking too much about Sir Frederick.

That is, about matching him with someone else, she reminded herself quickly, turning unconsciously to scan the room for a glimpse of him and blushing when her gaze alighted upon him across the room at exactly the moment he turned and locked eyes with her.

Immediately, he nodded to his companion to terminate their conversation and strode across the dance floor, his smile turning to one of concern as he asked his sister for the cause of her distress.

Since Amelia knew Caroline was not going to reveal the truth, she said ingenuously, “Poor Caro had formed a tendre for a gentleman who hinted he might be going abroad shortly when she was so certain he harbored feelings for her.”

“My poor Caro,” said Sir Frederick, giving his sister’s shoulder a sympathetic pat while his grin over the top of the young girl’s head revealed his delight.

“A good night’s sleep will have you feeling far more yourself, my dear,” said Sir Frederick, taking her hand and caging it on his sleeve. “I think it’s time to hand you over to your chaperone. I’m sure that a good night’s sleep is all you need to be feeling a great deal better about the future.”

*

The dancing had finished by 3 a.m. and Amelia trailed off to bed thinking that she’d fall into an immediate slumber. Strangely, however, she was too wound-up to sleep. It seemed she’d only just closed her eyes when she was roused at a ridiculously early hour by insistent rapping upon her door.

“Well, sis, you solved the puzzle and won yourself some treasure, but I’m here to tell you the match-making with Sir Frederick is off to a wonderful start!

” It was her brother, looking ridiculously perky for this time of the morning.

He strode into the room and immediately settled himself in the single armchair, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

“You voiced concerns last night that Miss Playford was too young and innocent for Sir Frederick’s liking…

Well, I saw him deep in conversation with Mrs. Perry.

In fact, I could barely sleep for thinking of how deeply in conversation the pair of them were. ”

Amelia pushed her dark hair out of her eyes and blinked as she tried to clear her head. “Who is Mrs. Perry?”

“Why, only the season’s most delicious and desirable widow. Tiny, golden-haired, and vivacious to boot. I don’t know why I didn’t consider her. Perhaps because I assumed Sir Frederick liked the young and innocent ones. But we don’t all have the same taste, do we?”

“We do not,” said Amelia, not sure she liked what Edward was telling her.

“Anyway, as soon as you told me that Sir Frederick likes ladies with more experience, my eye was caught by Mrs. Perry who, I will tell you now, was angling the most meaningful glances in Sir Frederick’s direction of which he appeared quite oblivious until I ingeniously cried out, ‘Why, Sir Frederick, I believe Mrs. Perry has dropped a pearl earring.’ At least, she’d solicited help in finding it earlier—which she had, sister dear, though I heard she since had found it.

Nevertheless, I went on, ‘I dare say you haven’t found it?

’ And then, suddenly, the pair were in conversation and the last I saw them, had their heads bent towards each other and were enjoying the most delightful coze.

Why, I do believe I have found his perfect match.

Mrs. Perry has something of a dubious reputation. She’s a tremendous flirt and—”

“Not a grieving widow, then?”

“Good lord, no! It’s an open secret she’s been waiting for her aged husband to quit this mortal coil from the moment he shuffled her down the aisle two years ago.

It’s also no secret she’d been holding out for a peer, but old Mr. Perry was so fabulously rich and so very ready to die, it would have been foolish to refuse him.

Now she’s independently wealthy and only needs a title to secure her wildest dreams.” He looked smug.

“And I’ve neatly arranged that for her conveniently after her twelvemonth of mourning is over.

Pity I don’t get a fee for my efforts, though my reward will be seeing you happy.

” He frowned. “Though you don’t look as happy as I thought you would. ”

“Of course I’m very happy at the prospect of marrying off Sir Frederick as required.

” Amelia forced a smile and tried to understand her flat and heavy mood, which she put down to lack of sleep.

But the more she thought about Sir Frederick’s head close to that of a captivating blonde widow, the greater the heaviness of her mood.

She’d not felt that way when she’d obviously dangled Miss Playford beneath his nose as a marital contender.

Or was that because she clearly did not appeal to him in any way other than a sweet and unformed child—and Amelia knew that was not what he was looking for in a wife? “You are very clever, Edward.”

“I am, aren’t I?” he congratulated himself. “I could see what Sir Frederick wanted. Vivacity, wickedness, a certain empty-headedness that would make him feel superior.”

“Oh, you are good, Edward,” Amelia murmured, thinking not of her brother’s words but of Sir Frederick’s kind eyes when he’d almost commiserated with her disappointment at discovering that Lady Pernilla was a fabrication.

“—Just as I know you like serious, brooding fellows with copious amounts of courage and it is a tragedy there will never be another Thomas for you because your heart is as loyal as the stone foundations beneath a cathedral and that is why I berate myself every day for being so foolish that I nearly jeopardized that which would make you happy, dear sister. But I am atoning, and I believe Mrs. Perry may be the answer to your happiness, for she is everything Sir Frederick wants in a wife—”

“Vivacity, wickedness, a certain empty-headedness that would make him feel superior,” intoned Amelia, not feeling the smile she managed for her brother’s benefit.