But thinking of the secret she’d kept longer than she should have, she suddenly asked her cousin, “Can you keep a secret?”

Amy chuckled. “I’m not sure!”

Which changed Jack’s mind about mentioning the note and asking if Amy had any feelings about what might have happened if Jack had handed it over sooner. So she said instead, “I met someone at the masked ball last night that I can’t place.”

“You have such a legion of beaus, surely he—”

“No, he was quick to say he wasn’t one of them.”

“And the secret is?”

“I was interested,” Jack admitted, abashed.

“But that’s wonderful news! And shame on you for trying to convince me my feeling wasn’t about you.”

Jack tsked. “But this isn’t wonderful a’tall when he could be anyone, even someone quite inappropriate. Besides, I was merely intrigued.”

“Clever fellow. Perhaps that was his strategy. He wanted to pique your curiosity so he would stand out from the pack, and he succeeded. It is going to take someone quite out of the ordinary to win you, m’dear, and that’s not just my opinion. All of our aunts have said the same thing, including your mother. But I’m not sure I like that reference to ‘inappropriate.’ You’ve really no idea who he might be?”

“No, and he didn’t stay for the unmasking at midnight, so I don’t even know what his face looks like. It’s annoying that I could pass him on the street and not know it.”

She did worry that she might not recognize him in the park today. Or that he’d found out exactly who her father was last night after their dance—how could he not when James’s confirmed presence had put the gossip mill in full swing? But that might have been why the stranger had left early. He could be a coward after all and not want to tempt fate by getting anywhere near James Malory again—or his daughter.

Finished eating, Jacqueline stood up to put her jacket on, then her jaunty hat with the single powder-blue feather. Noting the riding habit, Amy raised a black brow and asked, “D’you need an escort? I’d be happy to join you.”

Jack laughed. “You don’t know about the four bruisers my father hired? I can’t leave the house without them. And Artie wouldn’t have had my horse brought around without sending for them first. I’ll see you later, Aunt Minx. And stop having your feelings about me!”

“I’ve agreed my feeling might not have been about you, but it was still a good feeling!” Amy yelled after her as Jack rushed out of the room.

Her escorts were indeed waiting for her, one of them dismounting to help her onto her sorrel mare. She imagined she was still early for her meeting with her mystery man, so she rode slowly on the way to the park. She couldn’t really call it a rendezvous with the man with her bodyguards tagging along. But the two of them could ride side by side while they got better acquainted. And she’d find out who he really was!

Chapter Seven

JACQUELINE FOUND THE SINGLE red rose with the small sealed envelope attached lying on the side table with a new stack of party invitations next to it. She picked up everything and took it to her bedroom, tossing it onto her vanity before she flounced on her bed with a forlorn sigh. She wasn’t angry, though she was definitely vexed and keenly disappointed, and the combination wasn’t pleasant. Anger was preferable and easily dealt with. She could yell and scowl, then put it aside, but this crushing combination of feelings would linger until some other emotion took its place.

She finally sat up with another sigh to remove her hat and shrug out of her riding jacket. And stared at the single red rose across the room. If it was from him, she’d shred every petal, but she didn’t think it was. Her many beaus were in the habit of sending her flowers. They filled every room of the house, and before those withered and died, they were replaced with new flowers that were even more extravagant. But none had ever sent her just one rose.

She didn’t exactly rush back to the vanity, but she was a little breathless when she opened the envelope and held the note in her hand: A thousand apologies. I was unavoidably detained. And signed, Yours truly. He even underlined the truly. But she wasn’t the least bit mollified after she’d stayed in the park for hours, traversing the riding path back and forth a dozen times. He could have sent someone else to tell her they wouldn’t be riding today.

Then her maid arrived to prepare her for the soirée she was to attend tonight, another reminder that the hour had grown late because she’d wasted far too much time in the park. But she was excited again by the time she was dressed in a new evening gown of the palest aqua and hurried downstairs. Only a little of that excitement was due to her expectation of seeing the stranger tonight. Most of it was because her brother Jeremy would be escorting her, with his wife, Danny, to give Georgina a respite from the round of parties. And aside from Judy’s wedding, Jack had seen far too little of her older brother since spring when she and Judy had sailed to her American debut.

She grinned at her brother’s wife, who had snow-white hair and looked stunningly beautiful as usual. Danny had never let her hair grow out, despite not needing to disguise herself as a boy anymore. Having been separated from her parents when she was a child, she’d grown up in one of the worst sections of London with a pack of orphaned thieves, and the short-cropped hair had been to pass herself off as a boy to avoid trouble of the salacious sort. Jeremy would never have met her if he hadn’t needed to hire a thief to help his friend Percival Alden with a personal matter. It had been amusing when Danny had met Nathan Tremayne for the first time and he’d asked if they were related by blood, since his hair was as light a shade of blond as hers.

“Tell me who I need to scowl at and who gets a friendly pat on the back tonight,” Jeremy said as he put her arm through his to lead her outside to his coach.

“You don’t need to scowl at anyone. They’re all nice enough chaps. Besides, you really can’t pull it off the way our father does. You’re too handsome, Brother. It quite keeps you from being intimidating. Why don’t you tell me instead why you didn’t show up this morning to bid our father good-bye?”

“I was too angry,” Jeremy mumbled, then added in a growl, “I hope he thought I stowed away on The Maiden George and he wasted time searching for me before he sailed.”