"Oh yes. Aunt Alex told me that she was thrown at you because her papa needed money desperately, but, she told me, since I'm not in that situation, I can just skip about and smile and flirt with whomever pleases me. Papa kept telling me that I was to waltz and learn how everything worked and remain reasonably modest. Mary Rose wants me to see all the plays. Now that I think about it, Uncle Douglas, I don't think Papa wants me to marry and leave the vicarage until I'm thirty."

"That's possible," Douglas said, and smiled, imagining that he wouldn't want a man near his daughter, if he and Alex had produced one, which they hadn't.

"Grandmother Lydia tells me I must be vigilant or I will end up on the shelf like Aunt Sinjun nearly did. She kept insisting that eighteen was the perfect age to marry."

Douglas laughed. "Bless my mother, at least she will never change. You will have fun, Meggie, that's what it's all about."

The evening of the Ranleigh ball, Alex said as she smoothed her hands over the soft silk of her deep rose ball gown, "I am so pleased that my waistline is finally down to where my waist actually is."

"On the other hand," Douglas said, looking over at his wife, "you always looked splendid in the empire style, with the focus on your endowments."

Meggie wasn't particularly surprised; it had always been so with her aunts and uncles. She saw her uncle's fingers creep toward her aunt's shoulder, pause, then fall back to his side.

After Douglas had seated his two ladies in the Northcliffe carriage, tapped his gloved fist against the roof, he said to Meggie as the carriage rolled forward, "You will be treated very nicely because, to be very honest about it, no one would ever dare to insult one of my family. On the other hand, both Alex and I are rather well liked in society, as is your uncle Ryder and aunt Sophie. You will be your charming self, and if you have a question about how to behave in any given situation, just ask either Alex or me."