Anna scoffed very softly, earning herself a quick flick in the arm from Adelaide.

“You underestimate those demands, Basset. It would be inconceivable to have less than thirty gowns, with accompanying undergarments, jewelry, shoes, stockings, and the entire list you were so against hearing of before.”

“It is true,” Anna added sincerely, if a bit too eagerly. “Jane Michaels, daughter of the Earl of Rippon, had thirty-four gowns, two riding habits, and fourteen pelisses.”

“And let us not forget the wedding gown itself,” Adelaide interjected with a nod. “I must have the finest. Otherwise, it will be said that one of our families is lacking in funds, if not both of them.”

“Let it never be said that I am any such thing,” her intended replied in the driest tone known to man. “Very well, have the modiste of your choice send the bills to me. I am sure she will find a great deal to charge in her efforts. If it will satisfy you, Miss Dyer, I will see to it that the family diamonds and tiara are sent to you in the next few days. Perhaps you might wear them to the wedding, as so many of the previous Lady Bassets have done. If they suit, of course. I would hate to think of tradition standing in the way of fashion.”

Family diamonds? Tiara?What sort of family wealth was she marrying into?

She stared at the man, her chest beginning to pulse strangely, words impossible to form.

He raised a brow. “Do you object to diamonds?” He glanced over at Anna rather calmly for a man apparently concerned with his bride’s tastes. “Are diamonds no longer in fashion, Miss Lumley-Jones?”

Anna seemed to squeak at being addressed under the circumstances. “I believe they are in fashion, sir. ‘Tis the setting of them that may need alteration.”

Bless her cousin for still being in possession of her wit when Adelaide needed it most.

“Yes,” she managed to add, nodding in lieu of finding additional words. “Setting.”

Basset looked at her again, his mouth still sitting in the slightest of curves. “I cannot speak to the necklace and earrings, but I do believe the tiara may have to remain as it is. I am told it is magnificently delicate, though I have no eye for such a thing. But if you find the rest of the set to need alteration to something more modern, I shall have the jeweler do so.” He moved his attention to her mother, now smiling in truth, which did the most extraordinary things to Adelaide’s fingertips. “I trust diamonds are welcome at St. George’s.”

Adelaide’s mother sputtered in a relatively genteel, ladylike fashion. “Yes, my lord, I believe so.”

Trust her mother to miss the humor in the statement. She had never been one to detect sarcasm or irony, and that wouldn’t change in the foreseeable future.

“What if I wish for sapphires, my lord?” Adelaide asked him, raising her chin as she found the base of her spine once more.