“Pippa doesn’t like her very much,” Alex said. “I don’t seem to pick nannies terribly well. She’s had five of them in the last few weeks, but none of them seemed to take. Here, I’ll show you the problem.” He picked up Pippa and put her down between his body and Charlotte’s. Pippa took one look at the woman to her left and broke into hysterical sobs. Alex hauled her back over his body with a practiced grasp. As soon as she was removed from Charlotte’s vicinity, she gave one final sob and settled back down to picking grass. And eating it, Charlotte noticed.

“Why?” she asked simply.

“Her mother was gravely ill, for three or four weeks, I’m not sure how long. And Pippa was left with a succession of nannies—they kept leaving for fear of catching Maria’s scarlet fever.”

“Oh, poor thing!” Charlotte said. “And now she is afraid of women?”

“That’s it,” said Alex. “So you see,” he added lazily, “I’m afraid the only thing left for me to do is to get married. She doesn’t like nannies, or governesses. I think the only way she’ll ever get used to women is if I marry one.” He looked over at her, his black eyes dancing. “What do you think?”

“Perhaps,” Charlotte replied. “Don’t you think it’s rather an extreme measure?”

Alex shrugged slightly. “You know how it is; there comes a time in every man’s life when he feels the chill of old age … the breath of the grave … the—”

“Oh, please!” Charlotte laughed. “You must be all of what? Thirty-five?”

“Thirty-one actually, but I must marry,” Alex persisted. He had somehow drawn even closer. “Why, Aunt Henrietta has told me so many times. You see,” he said, tickling her nose with a piece of grass, “the future of the Earldom of Sheffield and Downes lies in my hands.”

Charlotte was biting her lip, trying not to laugh. “What about your twin brother?” she whispered. They were so close together now that there was hardly a need to speak out loud at all.

“Alas,” said Alex. “Patrick is in India, and life is so uncertain. No, I must marry—for the good of the earldom, you understand.”

“Hmmm,” said Charlotte. “Such a sacrifice. How lucky I am not to be a man! I could never bring myself to it.”

“No?” Alex asked. “Even if it was truly necessary?”