He dropped a kiss on her nose and turned to leave. Gabby stretched out her hand, but let it fall. After what had just happened, she couldn’t follow Sophie’s advice and try to seduce her own husband. In fact, she ended up pleading a headache and eating a light supper in her room, conscious of her own cowardice and unable to overcome it.

THOSE LADIES of the ton who specialized in gaping, gadding, and gossiping often found London sadly flat in the months before the Season truly began. But this year the prattling crowd had reached the conclusion that the household of the new Viscountess Dewland was likely to provide them some entertainment.

“After all,” Lady Prestlefield gleefully reported to her crony, Lady Cucklesham, “not only has the girl created a scandal by dropping her bodice, but it must be clear to the simplest mind that she jilted her fiancé the very moment his elder brother inherited a title.”

“I think we need have no doubt about her motives,” Lady Cucklesham agreed, conscious of the fact that she herself had married a man old enough to be her father for precisely the same reason. “We might, however,” she added, “question the graceless manner by which she traded a fiancé for his brother within moments of his father’s death, if I have heard correctly!”

“Yes,” Lady Prestlefield added, “and we can only hope that she didn’t make a bad bargain…given the rumored extent of Erskine Dewland’s injuries.”

There was a delicate pause.

“Perhaps we should pay a visit to the young viscountess,” Lady Cucklesham remarked. “Hers must be a most interesting household. And if she is as encroaching and, to be blunt, as scandalous as she would seem, it is our duty to unveil her character before the Season begins.”

Lady Prestlefield offered no objection to this thoughtful and fair observation.

“HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF GISLE, Lady Prestlefield, Lady Cucklesham,” Codswallop said majestically. There was nothing he preferred to welcoming a whole gaggle of aristocrats into the household.

“What a pleasure to see you,” Gabby said, curtsying to Ladies Prestlefield and Cucklesham and offering a shy smile. She had clear memories of the withering advice each lady had offered regarding her lost bodice.

“We simply could not wait to offer you our congratulations,” Lady Cucklesham announced.

Luckily, Sophie walked in just behind Lady Cucklesham. “How is your husband today?” she asked.

“Quite well, thank you,” Gabby replied, trying not to blush. She knew what Sophie’s teasing look was truly saying.

Codswallop reappeared. “Mrs. Ewing and Miss Phoebe Pensington.”

Gabby looked up in surprise. “Phoebe, sweetheart. And Mrs. Ewing, how lovely to see you!” To tell the truth, she was rather surprised. She had visited Phoebe several times since returning to London, but Mrs. Ewing had never paid her a return call.