“And you as well, Miss Dyer,” he told her as he bowed, keeping his eyes on her as he did. “A great pleasure.”

His accent was not the common Cornish one she had expected, but there was an edge to it that did not quite belong in London’s high society. And his voice… well, it was rather like a cup of warm drinking chocolate, and her throat begged for a swallow, much as it did after the first sip of that glorious beverage.

First impressions were dreadful things.

Adelaide sniffed to hide her disgruntlement. “I should hope so, my lord… Basket, was it?”

“Basset, Miss Dyer,” Lord Basset corrected without malice, his mouth curving in a peculiar way that tickled the smallest toe on her left foot. “As in Sir Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstaville, who is a distant family connection.”

“How fascinating,” she replied with an even blander smile than before.

The curve of Lord Basset’s mouth deepened. “Not interested?”

“It’s a title,” she snapped, sitting back down beside her cousin without the same grace she’d employed before. “That’s all I care about.”

“A shame,” Lord Basset said without an iota of concern. “I was prepared to recite my entire pedigree for your approval.”

She jerked her eyes to him, barely restraining a snarl of irritation at his blatant sarcasm.

He was still smiling in that peculiar way at her, and something about that smile set fire to another toe on her left foot, and she ground her teeth in response. So he was not polite enough to ignore her barbs, and he was impudent enough to return them.

A gentleman in name only, perhaps. Yet her father would never promise her to a man with a less than excellent reputation; he was too protective of his own to make unfortunate connections in that way. Therefore, he must have had all the requirements of a gentleman, apart from restraint in his speech.

How could he be a gentleman and speak to her like that in her own home? No one in her circle or among her acquaintance was crass enough to do so. She was the most popular debutante for two Seasons, her suitors were more numerous than anyone had predicted for her. The only reason she had not married last Season—and had not become engaged yet in this one—was because of her father’s peculiar views on each man and offer and her own overly-discerning tastes.