"Because you ask me, I shall tell you, Gussie, but it is never to be discussed with Allegra, or anyone else for that matter. Yes, I know where my sister is. She married her count, and they live outside of Rome. They are quite well liked, I am told."

"How could a divorced woman be remarried?" Charlotte asked.

"Pandora's first marriage was not performed in the Roman Catholic faith, and therefore not recognized by that church. My sister was first baptized into the old faith, and then married to her count. Septimius knows, but Allegra has never been told."

"She can hardly remember her mama," Augustus said. "She was only two when Aunt Pandora ran off."

"She doesn't remember her at all, but for the portrait of my sister which hangs at Morgan Court. Septimius has never taken it down because he has never stopped loving Pandora. My sister did not deserve such a good man."

"Why, madame," Charlotte giggled inanely, "you sound as if you had a tendre for Lord Morgan." She looked slyly at her mother-in-law, giggling again in a particularly irritating fashion.

What had Augustus seen in this ridiculous girl, Lady Abbott thought. Her dear husband had been dead a year, and Lady Abbott was barely out of mourning when they had met. Charlotte's parents, the earl and his countess, had been delighted with their daughter's prize catch. They certainly should have been! They had rushed the young couple to the altar almost immediately, hosting a large wedding at St. George's on Hanover Square, followed by a wedding breakfast afterward at their rented town house. There had been no time to point out to her son that Charlotte was a featherbrained chit who could be both selfish and mean. Still, she seemed to make Augustus happy, even if she had not yet produced a child. Her son said that Charlotte was afraid of childbirth, having been treated to horror stories from her mother, a brainless creature who had easily managed to produce three offspring despite her alleged fears.