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him.
    “How is your nose, William?” she asked.
    A blushing boy, no older than five, peered at her with curiosity and some apprehension.
    “It hurts a little,” he confessed. “I…I’m sorry!” he added hurriedly.
    “You should be,” Letitia replied, glancing at the reddened appendage on his face. “You would be in a heap of trouble if I were a marble statue. It is always better to look ahead and not behind when you run. Where were you going so quickly?”
    “We were racing to the end of the corridor,” the other boy explained. “No one ever walks through here, except Uncle Percy, so that’s why William wasn’t careful.”
    “Well, let it be your lesson,” she said, amused despite the chocolate still sitting somewhere between her stomach and her mouth. “Do you want to tell me who you are?”
    “Henry Vernon,” said the older boy, “and this is my brother, William.”
    “Henry lost another tooth yesterday!” William announced triumphantly.
    Henry opened his mouth wide to show the gap.
    “Soon you’ll have a new one,” Letitia said. “Do you often visit your uncle?”
    “He’s not really our uncle,” William explained. “We call him uncle because he’s Mama’s best friend. Mama always asks him for help, and there’s a cow having a baby, and Mr. Lipkin went to the market in King’s Lynn, and the cow has a problem, and Mama didn’t know what to do, so she came to ask Uncle Percy to help because he knows everything about cows.”
    “I see,” Letitia said, although she didn’t see at all. Why couldn’t Mr. Vernon take care of his cow? “Where is your mama now?”
    “She needs to find Uncle Percy. We mustn’t disturb them when they talk about grown-up matters,” Henry explained.
    “Do you want to play with us?” William piped in, his gaze encouragingly hopeful.
    “Perhaps I ought to ask your mama,” Letitia said and began walking toward the hall. Who was the woman whose children ran unrestrained through this house and who called Sir Percival her best friend? Her chest tightened when she considered the answer.
    “She won’t mind,” Henry told her.
    Just then, a female voice called out from the center of the house. “William! Henry! Where are you now?”
    “Here, Mama!” Henry called. “There’s a lady here in the corridor.”
    “Is there?” replied the voice with a hint of laughter and sounding closer than before. “I hope she’s not wearing a white dress.”
    The boys giggled in reply.
    “She’s not a ghost, Mama,” William shouted back, clearly amused by the suggestion. “Her dress is blue.”
    “Well, what sort of a jes—” The woman who appeared around the corner stopped abruptly, too astonished to finish the sentence. But she re-collected herself almost immediately.
    “I do beg your pardon, ma’am,” she said. “That is indeed a surprise. Have you just arrived?”
    Clearly, Sir Percival had not deemed it necessary to inform his mistress of his marriage. Letitia took quick stock. Mrs. Vernon was rather tall for a woman and past the first bloom of youth, but her features were handsome. Locks of dark hair peeked from under the bonnet, and dark-gray eyes smiled at Letitia with a mixture of apology and encouragement.
    “I do beg your pardon,” she repeated. “I am Mrs. Vernon, Percy’s neighbor. I’d hoped to find him at home. He is always very helpful when it comes to farm problems. Mr. Petre, his steward, might do just as well, but unfortunately he is gone for the day too. Oh, Slater”—she turned to the butler who appeared in the corridor—“I’m sorry for leaving you behind while William and Henry dashed for the library, especially since Percy has a guest. But, you were about to tell me something when they took off and I followed them.”
    Slater stopped and took a deep breath, probably to disguise the fact that he was panting like an old bellows.
    “Yes, indeed, ma’am. My lady”—he turned to Letitia—“Mrs. Vernon came in search of Sir