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compromised in any way. So why are you upset? Do you know anything about him that I don’t?”
    â€œNo,” her father said slowly. “But I had thought to know all about him by now. I don’t. I think that’s what it is. He came to England not long before he met you. He’s lived abroad for most of his life. So I thought time might provide any missing information. But now, this haste of yours, or his. I don’t understand it. It isn’t like you.”
    â€œWhat do you think could be discovered to his detriment?” she asked, her nostrils pinched. “He has a fortune, does he not?”
    Her father nodded.
    â€œHis family is old and well thought of, is it not?”
    Her father looked hunted.
    â€œThen do you think he’s some sort of Bluebeard, with headless wives littering a dungeon somewhere?”
    Her father waved a hand at her nonsense. Her brother’s eyes widened.
    â€œHe’s eminently eligible,” her father admitted. “But I’d thought you’d give yourself time to get to know him better.”
    â€œThis isn’t exactly a race to Gretna Green, Father,” she said proudly. “We’ll have known each other over three months by our wedding day. I know that isn’t very long, but if you know your heart it is. I do, I’m no ingénue.” She took a breath, controlled herself, and then asked seriously, “Father, am I that much of an antidote that this match is unbelievable to you? Never mind how I feel about him. Is it that odd that any woman would feel that way about Aubrey Ashford? Is it that strange that such a man would want me so much?”
    She stopped because tears threatened. She wanted to know if there was a problem, and yet she didn’t want to know.
    Her father and brother eyed her. She wore a simple blue gown this morning; her curly hair was pulled back by a ribbon. Her eyes were shining, as they’d been since she’d met Aubrey Ashford. She sang as she walked about the house these days. She never had before. She looked younger andhappier than they’d ever seen her too. In all, she was charming to look at, but even so, and though they loved her, they couldn’t claim she looked spectacularly beautiful. Aubrey Ashford was incontestably spectacularly handsome.
    â€œWell, I’d have thought he’d go for a dasher, Eve,” Sherry said with truth, adding nervously, because of the looks he got from both his sister and his father, “Not that there’s a thing wrong with you. Pretty as you can stare. But you’re a pixie, and such a chap usually goes for the dashers, is all I’m saying.”
    â€œSo why do you think he’s asked me to marry him, and begged me to move up the wedding day?” she asked, one slipper tapping the floor in tune to her rising heartbeat.
    â€œMaybe he doesn’t like competition,” Sherry said unwisely.
    Eve’s eyes narrowed.
    â€œBecause love ignores everything but the heart,” her father said. “Hush, Sheridan. Your mother and I didn’t always see eye to eye. Aye, she was a forceful woman, and I was content to let her rule our roost. But I loved her, even so. I never thought I’d come to love a managing female. Still, I did. I wish she were still here. She’d know what to say and do now.”
    He held up a hand. “But now there’s only me,and what can I say? No one’s been able to explain love, though the greatest philosophers and poets have tried. So how can I? Ashford loves you, you love him, and there’s an end to it. A happy end, I hope. I suppose,” he said, looking at Eve, “I just didn’t want to let you go so soon.”
    She was three and twenty, and he’d never paid much attention to her in her entire life, so Eve knew this was a lie. But she didn’t care. If it was a lie, it was a kindly one, and she didn’t want any more opposition. It woke too many doubts in