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Cecilia sed, trying to hold back tears of frustration There it was again That simple, inescapable truth When it came to the search for her brother, all that really mattered was that one knew the correct people

Her unease ave her hand a reassuring pat "You should not feel uncohter and now the daughter-in-law of the Earl of Manston You have every right to attend that ball"

"It’s not that," Cecilia said, although it was, a little She had no experience hobnobbing with high-ranking officials Then again, she had no experience hobnobbing with sons of earls either, but she seemed to be fake-married to one

"Can you dance?" Edward asked

"Of course I can dance," she practically snapped

"Then you’ll be fine"

She stared at him "You have no clue, do you?"

He sat back in his chair, his left cheek bulging out as he pressed his tongue against the inside of it He did that a fair bit, she realized She wasn’t quite sure yet what it s about which I have no clue," he said in a voice that was far too patient to ever be n "The events of the last three months, for exa on my head How I ca

"But what I do know," he went on, "is that it will give own and attend a frivolous entertainlittering with a strange, indecipherable ferocity "It will be blessedly, inoffensively normal Do you have any idea how much I crave the blessed, the inoffensive, and the norht not," he murmured "So let’s buy you a dress, shall we?"

She nodded What else could she do?

As it turned out, it was not so easy to have an evening gown made for a woman in three days One seamstress actually hen she heard the a to spend She couldn’t do it, she’d tearfully told him Not without forty more pairs of hands

"Will you take her measurements?" Edward asked

"To what purpose?" an exasperated Cecilia demanded

"Humor me," he said, and then he deposited her back at the Devil’s Head while he paid a call upon his gods, for both herself and her daughter, and Edas quite certain that she could be persuaded to share

The governor and Mrs Tryon lived with their daughter in a rented hoe of the town and had done--with the exception of a visit back to England--since the governor’s round in 1773 Edward had not been in New York at the time, but he’d heard all about it froaret Tryon They’d lost everything they owned, and had very nearly lost their daughter too Little Margaret--generally called May to differentiate fro of her governess, who had thrown her from a second-storyinto a snowbank

Edward took a deep breath as the butler admitted him into the hall He would have to keep his wits about hiaret Tryon was nobody’s fool, and there was no point even trying to pretend he was in hale and hearty health Indeed, the first words out of herrooaret," he said

She gave hi--a throwback froh he wasn’t sure when, exactly, she’d been a the French--then presented her cheek for a kiss, which he dutifully gave

She drew back, assessing hiodray, your eyes are hollow, and you’ve lost at least a stone"

He took a est this, then said, "You look lovely"

Thisboy"

Edward declined to point out that he ell into his third decade of life He was fairly certain that godes as boys and girls until they toddled off into the grave