I smiled broadly, then felt an involuntary chuckle tickle my throat. Uncle stared as though he were riding with a lunatic. “I did not envision humor as your response,” he said.

“I did not envision matrimony as a subject you would broach tonight.” Or rather, broach then retreat!

He looked troubled again. Apparently the situation was uneasy for him, but I could not imagine what sort of participation he sought from me.

“Sometimes,” he said, then seemed to draw courage. “Sometimes men are so enamored with finding a diamond that they fail to see the pearl among them.”

I shook my head, bewildered. Now he was speaking of jewels. I patted his hand. “You are quite a riddle, Uncle Toby.”

His shoulders slumped in a sigh of evident defeat, then he smiled at me fondly. “I fear that I am, my dear. I fear that I am.”

Sir Henry Ransom waited at the doorway to greet us as we alighted from our carriage. He ushered us inside his spacious home, and anticipation fairly took my breath. Or maybe it was the smoky aroma of the multitudinous candles. The crystal chandelier glowed above the generous main room, while wall sconces reflected their own kindred flames. Striped and solid velvet chairs were artfully arranged for conversation. Later, I knew, dinner would be served in the massive dining room. The Ransom home was as comfortable as it was large, like a portly woman with her finest jewels.

All of this might have been mine, for David Ransom and I had been friends since childhood. He and his family rusticated in Oxfordshire every year, and we played explorers and pirates together while young, then later began to eye each other with keener interest.

Then Catherine Allbright became the object of his affection. No words of explanation passed between David and me, but none were needed. We had exchanged no promises save those of a pirate king to his fair lady. Though I would never dream of voicing my doubts, I was at a loss as to David’s selection in Catherine Allbright. Unless it was her well-lined purse. She was the daughter of a prosperous landowner, after all, and I but an orphan. I wished them well on their wedding day.