Lady Adelaide put her hand on his arm and looked up at him with an expression in her eyes that she knew could send a man crazy with desire.

“Do it for me, dearest Richard,” she said. “You know I would not be, ungrateful.”

For a moment she had almost hypnotised him into agreeing to do anything she asked. Then he had shaken himself free to say,

“I have no more influence over Vargus than you have. If he wishes to return, he will do so. If not, he will stay away.”

It was true that the Earl was a law unto himself.

He was used to commanding and used to being obeyed. Wellington had said that he found him an excellent leader of men owing to the simple reason that he made up his mind what he wanted to achieve and could never visualise for a moment that he would not attain it.

Looking at him now, Richard thought that, while it would be easy for him to get any woman he desired, she would be taking on a very hard task in trying to be the wife he wanted.

For one thing, he would expect perfection and nothing else was acceptable where the Earl was concerned.

Thinking over the women he knew, Richard could not think of one who qualified for that requirement.

As if he realised what his friend was thinking, the Earl said,

“It will not be easy. When I looked at Hellington Park, which has been somewhat neglected since the War, I was aware that it needed a woman’s presence and something else that only she could give it.”

“What is that?” Richard enquired.

“It should be a home,” the Earl said. “That is what it meant to me when I was a young boy and I know that it now lacks what I suppose you could call ‘atmosphere’.”

“I think I understand what you are trying to say,” Richard answered. “I felt the same when my mother died. The house seemed empty.”

“Exactly!” the Earl said. “And also, if I don’t get the heir you suggest, the next in line for the title is an uncle, who is unmarried, and after him another uncle I have never cared for with only four daughters.”

“Good God!” Richard exclaimed. “You will certainly have to get busy to prevent a succession of that sort!”

The Earl drank some more coffee and then said,

“I came back to London to find a pile of invitations waiting for me. There are a number from women who, I believe, are introducing their daughters to Society. I thought you and I might go along to one or two of them.”

Richard gave a groan.

“I cannot imagine anything more depressing,” he said. “Have you ever been to one of those balls where young girls predominate? It is about a thousand times more formal and more boring than Almack’s.”