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CHAPTER ONE

London—May 1823

So this was how dreanobly Expeditiously dispatched to the hereafter in a eoned to death in Lady Burton’s ballrooible future Duke of Orentle techniques he’d seen demonstrated on his latest diplomatic excursion: ‘It takes two sticks and a beastly anant reminder that it was unfair to place all the bla Caesar, he had help

Dove leaned forward, one white-gloved hand gently resting on Percivale’s dark sleeve to forestall any further coentlemen ‘It’s probably easier when one of the sticks is a match’

On her right, young Lord Fredericks’s fair brow knit in confusion, not grasping her re-nurtured dream of a London debut breathed its last

‘A ht the other one,’ she explained patiently

‘Oh, I do see! A match’ He chortled, overloud and over-exuberant ‘Quite so, quite so’ Lord Fredericks’s brow relaxed ‘You’re a wit, you are, Lady Dove’

She was also quite disgusted and it was only her first forusted Disappointed Devastated even Her dream had betrayed her Neither her debut nor London were reht they would be and yet the source of that betrayal was hard to pinpoint

Dove surveyed her god for the cause of her antipathy a clothes, finding it everywhere and nowhere She was surrounded by bland perfection on all sides, which , and to explain her sense of dissatisfaction

The ballroom itself was architectural excellence with its twin colonnades parading down the left and right sides of the dance floor, columns draped in expensive but si and ivory roses bred in her godht to town especially for the ball Pairs of ilittered overhead, a gift froodfather Every inch of the room was decorated to emphasise the three essential ‘E’s’ of tonnish entertainance, excellence and expense

There was no doubting the elegance of the decoration, just the creativity of it Beneath it there was a strong note of uniformity—or was that conformity? Minus the Metternich chandeliers, Dove suspected other ballrooinal and uninspired, a setting worthy, unfortunately, of the guest list Where was the colour she’d dreamed of? Where was the life? How could the ‘happy ever after’ she’d spent her girlhood i occur in such a sterile environment?

Several girls hadroom today, but only the crème de la crème was present with her at her debut, and none of theance that drove her to that conclusion Lady Dove Sanford-Wallis knew her oorth She was the pampered, well-loved only child of the Duke of Redruth She came with a dowry valued at fifteen thousand pounds annually, plus an initial bridal portion of twenty thousand and three coal-producing properties in the West Country She would have been the most anticipated debutante of the Season even if she’d had the face of a horse That she didn’t was a pleasant bonus for this year’s crop of entlemen

And yet, knowing this had not ht anyway She’d approached the year leading up to her Season with excite the isolated West—she’d never left the environs of Cornwall in eighteen years—excite her wardrobe in London with the finest drapers in the business—up until now she had worn only proper , dark wools in the winter, as befitted a young girl—and excite London with its entertainments