Pudgy, pompous and supremely smug, Lord Towsett expected her to be overwhelmingly flattered by his offer. He’d blinked when she refused him the first time—quite pleasantly and politely—then laughed and said he understood what she really meant, and what a naughty puss she was to keep him dangling. He knew what ladies were like, he’d said, saying one thing and meaning another.

“No, I mean it,” George had insisted. “Thank you for your offer, Lord Towsett, but I decline.”

The second time he’d proposed to her, she had been less pleasant and more firm. “I won’t marry you, Lord Towsett, not now, not tomorrow, nor any time in the future. I said no last time, and I meant no.”

In answer to which he’d chuckled knowingly and called her a naughty puss again. It was infuriating.

The third time he’d proposed, she’d been curt, there was no other word for it. “Lord Towsett, stop pestering me! I have no interest in marrying you and I never will. So just go away and leave me alone.”

But the man was as stubborn as a pig. Once more he’d shaken his head in an infuriatingly understanding manner and told her he would never give up hope.

“Give it up,” she’d told him. “There is no hope. I will never change my mind. Find some other girl to annoy.”

And here he was again. And here she was, slipping into the conservatory to lurk amid the ferns and the palms.

It was all Emm’s fault, of course. The last time Lord Towsett had proposed, she’d told Emm in a fit of temper that if he had the gall to propose to her again, she would have no alternative but to punch him on his very prominent nose.

Of course Emm had been horrified, and before George left for the ball this evening, she’d had to promise that she would neither hit nor slap nor smack nor kick Lord Towsett, nor tip wine or ratafia or hot tea or cream trifle with jelly and custard over him. Or in any way make a public scene.

Unfair tactics. She knew George never broke a promise.

“Just avoid him,” Emm had finished airily. Never having had to deal with the man and his impenetrable ego.

It was Penny Peplowe’s birthday ball and both Penny and Lady Peplowe were particular friends of the Rutherfords. Lady Peplowe had gone out of her way to befriend Emm and the girls when they’d first come to London and knew nobody. And Penny was a dear, jolly girl and George wouldn’t upset her for the world.

Besides, she’d been looking forward to Penny’s ball for ages.