“Well, my child, you certainly knocked him from his high horse.” The Earl chuckled, much amused by his granddaughter's spirited behaviour. Emily swung back to face him, her face crumpled and tears filling her eyes. “I have offended him, my lord. He will never offer for me now.” The weight of failure was crushing her chest.

“Come and sit by me, my dear, and do not look so woebegone. If he does not want you, that will be his loss. There are plenty more eligible gentlemen out there for you to choose from, I can assure you. You are an heiress now.”

Her mouth fell open. “But I thought I had to marry Viscount Yardley. I thought that was the arrangement between us.”

Her grandfather frowned. “What arrangement, Emily? You wrote to me asking for my help in finding a husband; Sebastian is just the first suitable bachelor I have introduced you to.”

Emily sat down beside the old man. “Are you saying that you do not mind if my cousin does not offer for me? You're not going to send us back?”

“Good God no! Of course not! Whatever gave you that ridiculous notion?”

Emily recalled the letter from the Earl. In it he had offered to find her a husband and suggested that Viscount Yardley might do; he had also offered to give them a permanent home. There had been no mention of sending them back. Her fevered imagination had manufactured the threat. She nodded, her eyes still damp.

“It appears I have misunderstood, my lord,” she said stiffly. “But after the callous way you have treated my mother these past years, it is small wonder that I did so.”

He shifted on his chair and his lined face flushed. “You are right to take me to task, Emily, my dear. I have behaved abominably. I blamed my dear Althea for her mother's demise; I was so distraught at the time I was not thinking rationally.”