He could still feel the coldness of her hand when he had touched it and the way that her fingers had trembled beneath his.

“Drink a little more champagne,” he suggested. “I think you need it.”

Thalia obeyed him. At the same time she felt such a surge of relief sweeping over her that she had no need of champagne and after the anxiety and misery of the day it was as if she was suddenly enveloped in sunshine.

“Tell me about your book,” the Earl asked.

“Who else knows that I am the – author of it?” Thalia asked.

“Only my friend Richard Rowlands,” the Earl replied, “who discovered your identity.”

“Please – can he be – persuaded not to tell – anybody else?”

“I am sure he will do that if I ask him to. But, as you can imagine, he is longing to confront the members of White’s with the information that they have been made to look fools by a mere woman.”

“I – did not intend them to feel – like that,” Thalia said, “it was just when the idea came to me I remembered some of the things I had read and I suppose heard and I – jotted them down.”

“And used your clever little brain to invent a number of others,” the Earl smiled.

“Yes – that is true, but if it sells a lot of copies – then I shall make some money – and perhaps be able to write another book.”

“On the same subject?” the Earl asked. “How can you be so knowledgeable about men when you tell me you know none?”

“Mama asked me the same thing,” Thalia replied. “I think the answer is that people are kind enough to find more in what I have said than what I meant in the first place.”

“Now you are being modest,” the Earl remarked. “You know as well as I do that your book is both witty and provocative and, uncomfortably for some people, it hits the nail on the head!”

“Perhaps the dandies will feel like that.”

“If they do, it serves them right,” the Earl answered. “They deserve everything that is said about them.”

“You don’t consider yourself to be a dandy?” she asked provocatively.

“I do not!” the Earl replied firmly, “and, if you call me one, I shall prove very forcefully that I am a very different type of character entirely!”

Thalia laughed and it swept the last vestige of anxiety and fear from her face.

“Now you are offering me a challenge, my Lord,” she said. “Be careful in case I find it irresistible!”

“There are so many challenges between us,” the Earl said, “the most important still being what I am to do about you.”

“The answer to that is – nothing and that is why I refused your invitation in the first place.”

“I am aware of that,” he said, “but Fate in the shape of Richard Rowlands stepped in on my side and you are here.”