The Grand Deception

TER

"Lavinia was always an impulsive child, but this time she has gone too far, Arvini

ake out the smudges and scribbles that made up her cousi

icance. "I was sure I told you. But then, I am not as young as

ce growing thin. "Now be so kind as to tell

e is already married to dear Bernard with whom she has now run away, leaving me to explain things to the duke and, worse, to my brothe

cannot." Sitting down before a small secretary, she dipped a quill pen in ink and began to hastily write. "See that this is carried to my father immediately," she said, rising

solutely on her finger: "Well?" she said pointedly t

to take advantage of one of the overstuffed wing chairs ranged cozily before the fireplace. Even the relatively short journey to London from Thornhill in Surrey, had taken its toll, just as the doctor had warned that it would. He would pay the price with a sleepless night. Be

become an integral part of himself. Now the sword was retired to a closet at Thornhill, along with his regimentals. All that was left as a reminder of the past eleven years spent serving king and country as one of Wellington's most trusted young officers was the only parti

ring,which a ten-year-old child had placed on his finger the day before he embarked for Germany, should serve not only as his only tie to a past so remote that it seemed somehow to belong to someone else, but as his single bond to the prese

of the door handle turning. The handsome features hardened, assuming their ha

le the description in her uncle's letters. This statuesque beauty, with her grave bearing and decidedly pensive air, hardly conformed to his expectations of "a high-spirited, impetu

My lord Duke of Alfreton?" she in

d over the slender hand she offered. "

er chin with a peculiar air of determination. "Your

, Alexander lifted

s not their color precisely that took her breath away, though they were of a particularly brilliant hue. Like the dazzling blue of the sky on a still, cle

denly to an awareness that she had been staring in mute