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her hairline. “I suppose I could tolerate your company more easily if you would try to behave like a gentleman.”
    “For example?”
    “To begin with, the… the way you like to correct people…”
    “Isn’t honesty a virtue?”
    “Yes… but it hardly makes for the best conversation!” Ignoring his low laugh, she continued. “And the way you talk so openly about money is vulgar, especially to those in higher circles. Nice people pretend that they don’t care about money, or how to earn it, or invest it, or any of the other things you like to discuss.”
    “I’ve never understood why the enthusiastic pursuit of wealth should be held in such disdain.”
    “Perhaps because such pursuit is accompanied by so many vices… greed, selfishness, duplicity—”
    “Those aren’t my faults.”
    Annabelle raised her brows. “Oh?”
    Smiling, Hunt shook his head slowly, the sunlight glittering on his sable locks. “If I were greedy and selfish, I would keep most of the profits from my businesses. However, my partners will tell you that they have been handsomely rewarded for their investments. And my employees are well paid by anyone’s standards. As for being duplicitous — I think it’s fairly obvious that I have the opposite problem. I’m truthful — which is very nearly unpardonable in civilized society.”
    For some reason, Annabelle could not help grinning back at the ill-bred scoundrel. She pushed away from the table and dusted her skirts. “I’m not going to waste any more of my time telling you how to be polite when it’s perfectly obvious that you don’t wish to be.”
    “Your time wasn’t wasted,” he said, coming around to her. “I’m going to lend some deep consideration to changing my ways.”
    “Don’t bother,” she said, the smile lingering on her lips. “You’re a hopeless cause, I’m afraid. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to continue my walk through the garden. Have a pleasant afternoon, Mr. Hunt.”
    “Let me come with you,” he said softly. “You can lecture me some more. I’ll even listen.”
    She wrinkled her nose at him impudently. “No, you won’t.” She started off on the gravel path, aware of his gaze on her back until she disappeared into the pear orchard.
     
     
     

Chapter 6
     
     
    J ust before supper on the first evening of the party, Annabelle, Lillian, and Daisy met in the downstairs receiving room, a spacious area set with clusters of chairs and tables where many of the guests had chosen to congregate.
    “I should have known that dress would look a hundred times better on you than me,” Lillian Bowman said gleefully, hugging Annabelle and holding her at arm’s length to gaze at her. “Oh, it’s torture, being friends with someone so ravishing.”
    Annabelle was wearing another of her new gowns, a yellow silk with fluttering tulle skirts caught up at narrow intervals with tiny bunches of silk violets. Her hair was pinned at the back of her head in an intricately braided plait. “I have many flaws,” Annabelle informed Lillian with a smile.
    “Really? What are they?”
    Annabelle grinned. “I’m hardly going to admit them if you haven’t already noticed.”
    “Lillian tells everyone about her flaws,” Daisy said, her brown eyes twinkling. “She’s
proud
of them.”
    “I do have a terrible temper,” Lillian acknowledged smugly. “And I can curse like a sailor.”
    “Who taught you to do that?” Annabelle asked.
    “My grandmother. She was a washerwoman. And my grandfather was the soap maker from whom she bought her supplies. Since she worked near the docks, most of her customers were sailors and dockers, who taught her words so vulgar that it would curl your hair ribbons to hear them.”
    Laughter rustled in Annabelle’s chest. She was thoroughly charmed by the mischievous spirit of two girls who were unlike anyone she had ever known before. Unfortunately, it was difficult to imagine either Lillian or Daisy being happy as the wife