It was hard enough to leave home, the responsible daughter and the eldest of four, but she had persuaded her mother it was the only thing to do after refusing to enter into a loveless marriage, and indeed it was. They had no means to give her sisters a London Season where their sweetness of temper and charming countenances might cause some gentlemen to contemplate an unequal match. At least with Selena gone, there would be one less mouth to feed for her mother. And Lady Harrowden was offering a respectable salary. If ever Selena had needed a sign from Providence that she was on the right path, the timing of this position was it—or so she had thought until now.

The door opened, but the man behind it did not have the look of a servant. His clothes were too fine, and he had a handsome chin and noble brow with a prominent crease in the middle of it. There was a look of haughty superiority on his face, and if she wasn’t mistaken—irony.

“Yes, miss? How may I be of assistance?”

“Good evening, sir. I was bound for Harrowden, but the stagecoach has broken down. I saw the lights in this house from the road and had hoped to find assistance here.”

“I did not expect to host a henhouse when I had the shutters opened today,” was his cryptic reply. “Harrowden? At least you’re in the right town.”

What an odd greeting. It was nothing Selena could answer, so she waited for him to continue.

“And what is your business with Lady Harrowden?” His cynical gaze swept over Selena, and she was made to feel as shabby as she surely looked. Not only was her cloak several seasons old, but it had lost its luster in patches. “A companion, I presume?”

Selena fumed for a moment. If only this man had known her before her disgrace, he would never dare to speak to her in such an impertinent manner. She couldn’t give him the set-down she longed to—not when she was dependent upon him for help.

Why should his reaction surprise her, though? It was the way of Society. “You have surmised correctly, sir.”

Selena waited, still on the doorstep with the cold at her back, but he did not bid her enter. Perhaps she had made a grave error in coming here on her own, but she had nowhere to turn now. The stagecoach driver was long gone, and all she would have was an empty coach or a four-mile trek to Harrowden, where she was sure to get lost or freeze to death before ever she reached it.

Behind the gentleman, a movement caught her eye and revealed itself in the form of a young woman, smartly dressed in a cream gown and a spencer of evening primrose yellow. She looked young to be this man’s wife, but no other explanation offered itself.

Selena relaxed at once and gave her a brilliant smile. “Good evening, ma’am. I am relieved to see the mistress of the house is at home. I had begun to fear I had fallen on a bachelor establishment.”