Under Lord Harold’s horrified gaze, she slowly came awake. Her dazed eyes stared up into Webb’s. Then she looked at the Earl and his guests, then at the Duke. And then she began to scream and scream and scream.

Chapter 5

Alice was alone in her drawing room in Manchester Square. She was lying on the sofa with her head buried in a new novel. She was completely and blissfully alone. No Miss Snapper. No sharp voices reprimanding her.

She was wearing a pretty sarsenet dress with a dozen flounces at the hem caught up in scallops. It had little puff sleeves and was fastened down the front with a row of little raised buttons. Her hair rioted about her head in artistic disorder. She had a little color in her cheeks. Her feet were comfortably encased in beaded slippers.

Alice put down her book and stared out at the fading light. She would not have much longer to wait.

It was two days since the ball, two whole days since the Duke had cleverly terminated her engagement to Webb.

Alice smiled as she remembered the uproar which had greeted her when she had descended the stairs the next day.

The Earl of Markhampton was as pompous as his son, but for once that pomposity had been deflated. He had told her in hushed tones of the disgrace of his son. Harold, he had said, would have to marry Miss Snapper. She was a gentlewoman and had been compromised under his roof. Alice’s uncle had left instructions that neither of the guilty couple was to approach his niece and that she was to pack her bags and return to London forthwith.

Alice, who did not yet know of the plot against her, could only assume that Webb had been nursing a secret passion for Miss Snapper all along. She did not know how miserable and trapped that young man now felt.

Neither Webb nor Miss Snapper could admit that it had been Alice who was supposed to be lying in his lordship’s bed. But to Webb’s horror, Miss Snapper, after she had recovered from her original screaming shock, had abruptly changed and had become the outraged maiden mixed with the coy virgin. For Miss Snapper’s agile mind had quickly grasped the idea of an advantageous marriage. She was impoverished, but of good family.

Unaware of all this, Alice had listened gravely to the Earl’s apologies and had quietly gone away to order her servants to make ready to depart as soon as possible. She found it hard to conceal her joy.

On her first night home, the Duke had briefly appeared. He had been formal and aloof, only remaining long enough to tell her he was going to advertise for another companion. Alice had tried to protest but he had answered sternly that she could not live alone.