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Prologue

At the age of ten, Miss Miranda Cheever showed no signs of Great Beauty Her hair was brown- las, which were unco that could be rerace Her mother often remarked that she positively loped around the house

Unfortunately for Miranda, the society into which she was born placed great stock on feh she was only ten, she knew that in this regard she was considered inferior to irls who lived nearby Children have a way of finding these things out, usually from other children

Just such an unpleasant incident occurred at the eleventh birthday party of Lady Olivia and the Honorable Winston Bevelstoke, twin children of the Earl and Countess of Rudland Miranda's home was quite close to Haverbreaks, the Rudlands' ancestral home near Ambleside, in the Lake District of Cumberland, and she had always shared lessons with Olivia and Winston when they were in residence They had become quite an inseparable threesome and rarely bothered to play with the other children in the area, most of whom lived nearly an hour's ride away

But a dozen or so times a year, and especially on birthdays, all the children of the local nobility and gentry gathered together It was for this reason that Lady Rudland let out a leefully tra rooarden was disrupted by rain

"You'veout to wipe it away

Olivia let out a drao to the washroom, then I shouldn't want Mama to seeto her tell me how much she abhors it"

"I don't see how she will have tiot it all over the carpet" Miranda glanced over at William Evans, who let out a war cry and cannonballed onto the sofa She pursed her lips; otherwise, she'd so do so about it"

She slipped out of the roo Miranda near the doorway Miranda watched the commotion for a minute or so, quite content to be in her usual spot as an observer, until, out of the corner of her eye, she saw so Olivia for her birthday, Miranda?"

Miranda turned to see Fiona Bennet standing before her, prettily dressed in a white frock with a pink sash "A book," she replied "Olivia likes to read What did you bring?"

Fiona held up a gaily painted box tied with a silver cord "A collection of ribbons Silk and satin and even velvet Do you want to see?"

"Oh, but I wouldn't want to ruin the wrapping"

Fiona shrugged "All you need to do is untie the cord carefully I do it every Christmas" She slipped off the cord and lifted the lid

Miranda caught her breath At least two dozen ribbons lay on the black velvet of the box, each exquisitely tied into a bow "They're beautiful, Fiona May I see one?"

Fiona narrowed her eyes

"I haven't any mud on my hands See?" Miranda held her hands up for inspection

"Oh, very well"