“Very well, Miss Fadden. I will send a footman for your belongings so as to spare you any embarrassment, and my man of business will settle your rent. Now, there is one thing I must make clear. My uncle, he has many affairs to attend to during the day so he is not free to escort us until the hours of darkness. We shall be setting out for our social occasions very late indeed. I do not wish this strange fact to be discussed in public.”

“Oh, no!” breathed Miss Fadden. “My lips are sealed as with fish glue and they may torture and torment me but never a word will I breathe.”

“Tiens!” exclaimed Alice. “It is not so serious as that.”

“What is our first engagement, my lady?”

“My uncle has chosen the affairs to which we are to attend. He will inform us this evening of his plans. The first thing we are going to do, Miss Fadden, is to supply you with a wardrobe.”

Miss Fadden clasped her hands together and stared at Alice as if she could not believe her ears. “Clothes. For me?” she said. “Oh, my lady, do I have to wear mourning? I have only these gray clothes since Papa deemed it seemly wear for a lady of my years. I had not enough money to buy black but I do so long to wear a color and no one in society knew Papa so they won’t know I am supposed to be in mourning because, it is a sad fact my lady, but I do not mourn. He was such a good man, you see. And it is so hard to feel affection for people who are really good. Once he lost his sermon and kicked the cat and I felt a genuine rush of affection for him but he spoiled it all by praying over the cat and apologizing most humbly to it and for so long that the poor animal walked away in disgust.”

“You can have all the colors you want,” laughed Alice. “Come! Allez-vous en!”

Chapter 6

Late that evening, Miss Fadden sat in Alice’s drawing room in a state of silent rapture. If she had not been so overwhelmed, so ecstatic over her shot-silk ball gown and her new coiffure, she would have noticed something odd in her mistress’s behavior.

Alice was nervously pacing up and down the room, dreading the Duke’s arrival and longing for it at the same time. Had that kiss meant nothing to him? Of course it hadn’t, she told herself severely. He was a philanderer and, by all accounts, had been one when he was alive. But would he notice her new ball gown of silver net worn over a silk slip of palest rose? Would he notice her black curls à la Grecque? Oh, horrid thought! Perhaps he would not come at all!