Just the sort of gown that Giles would prefer she wear, actually. Not a bit of skin showing.

“Very elegant,” her grandfather approved, as she walked into the breakfast chamber.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said, allowing their butler to usher her to her seat.

“I trust your hat has a plume or two?”

“Three,” Yasmin said, smiling at his enthusiasm. “It stands like a striped box on my head, and the three plumes nod to the right.”

“Excellent. I do not approve of Quakerish simplicity in ladies’ dress. I prefer feathers and jewels.” He raised a languid hand. Carson turned to the sideboard, picked up a velvet box, and handed it to him.

“Grandfather,” Yasmin exclaimed.

“You are about to entertain an offer of marriage from an earl,” the duke remarked.

“How did you know that?” she asked. “I am about to refuse an offer of marriage from that earl, Grandfather.”

“Lilford paid me a visit last night to ask for my permission. Very proper of him. Your response is up to you, of course. Yet you must be attired to your station, Yasmin. Let the earl know what he missed by failing to persuade you of his virtues.”

The duke flipped open the top of the jewelry box to reveal a large sapphire hung from a string of smaller stones. “All sapphires,” he said, taking out the necklace and handing it to Yasmin.

It was an exquisite piece, even the smaller jewels delicately cut.

“Belonged to my mother,” her grandfather said. “I remember the queen herself praising it. My mother didn’t offer it to Her Majesty, as perhaps she ought to have done under those circumstances. Yet as Her Grace commented on the way home, the queen had a treasure trove and no need for our sapphires.”

“It’s beautiful,” Yasmin breathed. “I love the necklace, Grandfather.”

“Then put it on.” He took up his fork again. “I can’t bear to see any woman past the age of twenty in pearls.”

Yasmin winced. He didn’t mean to remind her of her advanced age, but he was likely right. A moment later, the sapphire slid between her breasts and settled in just the right place.

Carson picked up the string of pearls she had set aside. “I shall have these returned to your chamber, my lady.”

“That necklace looks as if it’d been made for you,” her grandfather commented. “I gather from your attire that you will be going for a drive, rather than welcoming the earl in the drawing room?”

“I am,” she affirmed.

She knew full well that Carson would have regaled her grandfather with the tale of yesterday’s improprieties. That locked door.

“Lilford comes from a good family,” her grandfather said. Then, considering, “Well, perhaps that’s not the right term, but excellent ancestry and an ancient title. As I told him, I’d like you to marry a nobleman, and I’d prefer him over Huntington or Templeton.”

“You told him that?”

“I didn’t mince words. He had a suicidal father and a cracked mother, but only that generation was afflicted. The family of the Duke of Huntington, on the other hand, boasts eccentrics and worse going back centuries. My own father told me tales of outrageous behavior back in Queen Elizabeth’s day. Lilford doesn’t talk much, does he?”