A Lifetime of Love Begins….. With this ring

"I must insist, Cassandra, the neckline is far too daring," Lady Mayville declared, scrutinizing the sea-green ball gown as Cassandra twirled around the opulent parlor of Miss Lacey's esteemed establishment on Conduit Street. "It's positively scandalous."

Kofi, resplendent in a tailored black coat with fitted breeches and polished boots, strode into the room, his dark eyes glinting with amusement. "Ah, Aunt Belle, I think you're being overly dramatic. The neckline is merely...alluring," he said, his gaze drifting to Cassandra's décolletage.

Cassandra's cheeks flushed as she shot Kofi a withering glance. "And what, pray tell, qualifies you as an expert on ladies' fashion, Kofi?" she asked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

Kofi chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "Merely a keen observer of the human form, my dear. And I must say, Cassandra, you look stunning. The gown was made for you."

Lady Mayville huffed, her expression disapproving. "Kofi, you're not helping. The neckline must be raised. It's unseemly."

Kofi raised an eyebrow, his smile never wavering. "Ah, but Aunt Belle, sometimes a gentleman must take a stand for what's truly important. And in this case, that's Cassandra's exquisite taste in fashion."

Cassandra's lips twitched, and she shot Kofi a grateful glance. "Thank you, Kofi. I think the gown is perfect just the way it is."

Lady Mayville threw up her hands. "Fine, have it your way. But mark my words, Cassandra, you'll be the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons."

Kofi offered Cassandra his arm, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Shall we take a stroll, my dear? I promise to protect you from the ravages of society's gossipmongers."

"Quite," Kofi said, walking around Cassandra in a slow inspection of the gown. He pulled out his quizzing glass and stared right at her décolletage. Cassandra gasped and crossed her hands over her bosom. For some reason, a gown that seemed perfectly respectable a moment ago seemed quite otherwise under his frank appraisal.

"Kofi Warrender!" Lady Mayville said disapprovingly. "If you have come into this shop merely to put poor little Cassandra out of countenance, you may turn around and go back out again."

Poor little Cassandra could have died of embarrassment.

"Actually, no. I am here to meet someone," Kofi said.

At that moment, Miss Lacey herself came forward, wreathed in smiles to greet him. "Mr. Warrender! What a pleasure it is to see you again."

"There you are, Kofi!" a stunning brunette said gaily as she followed Miss Lacey into the room. She was wearing a revealing ball gown in carmine red with black lace and jet bead trim. The skirt was daringly cut to expose a bit more of her trim ankles than was strictly proper. Lord Adderly was right. Her face was painted, although it was done with such taste and skill it was hardly detectable.

"I knew you would not fail me!" she exclaimed.

"I hope you are grateful, ma'am," Kofi said, laughing into her eyes. "I had to cut short a most satisfying match at Gentleman Jackson's to place myself at your service."

"What a brute you are!" she scoffed. "I hope your opponent will be properly obliged to me for saving him a prodigious thrashing. What do you think of my new gown?"

"I find it perfectly delightful," Kofi said, his eyes roving over her curves.

Of course he did. Cassandra noted sourly that Mrs. Benningham's gown showed at least twice as much bosom as Cassandra's. "You have such exquisite taste, darling," Mrs. Benningham said as she batted her long eyelashes at Kofi.

The beautiful brunette managed to tear her eyes away from Kofi long enough to notice his companions. "Lady Mayville! How delightful to see you!" Her eyes passed to Cassandra, and she waited.

"Mrs. Benningham, may I introduce my grandfather's ward, Miss Davies?" Kofi said smoothly.

Mrs. Benningham's eyes passed to Cassandra, and she waited. "Ah, so this is the famous Cassandra," Mrs. Benningham said. "What a pretty little thing you are." She might as well have been describing an infant or a lapdog.

"Thank you," Cassandra said with narrowed eyes. She indicated Kofi with a nod of her head. "What did he tell you about me?"

"Only that you grew up in Devonshire with Kofi, quite like a little sister." She seemed to notice Cassandra's gown for the first time. "Dear me. Are you going to purchase that? Hardly the thing for a girl just out of the schoolroom."

"I have been out of the schoolroom for quite some time, thank you, ma'am," Cassandra said with a sweet, insincere smile on her face.

"Well, that puts me in my place! I only meant the gown is a bit... mature for a girl of your years," Mrs. Benningham said with a trill of laughter.

"I told you so," Lady Mayville said triumphantly. "Now she's pouting."

"Kofi, she's a perfectly charming child," Mrs. Benningham said with a smug look at an indignant Cassandra. "No wonder you're so fond of her."

Cassandra didn't miss the quizzical glance Kofi sent her way, but she refused to meet his eyes.

Kofi cast a look at his inamorata. "Wait here, if you please, darling. I will be changed in a moment."

"Oh, dear," said Lady Mayville in dismay. "We must go at once, Cassandra. My brother will have an apoplexy if he finds out you have met her here."

"Is there anything that will not give Lord Adderly an apoplexy?" Cassandra asked wistfully.

"If there is, I have yet to find it," Kofi said.

"Here I am, darling," Mrs. Benningham called out as she drew on her gloves. She had changed into her street costume much sooner than anyone could have expected. She couldn't wait to have Kofi to herself, Cassandra supposed.

"I shall reward you with an ice at Gunter's," Mrs. Benningham said, taking Kofi's arm. "Lady Mayville," she said with a nod of her head. "It was pleasant to meet you, Miss Davies," she added sweetly.

Cassandra watched the way the woman managed to touch Kofi in many little ways - removing a mote of lint from his coat, touching his arm to direct his attention to a ready-made gown on display, brushing against him as she adjusted her hat - on their way out the door.

Kofi smiled into his companion's eyes and opened the door for her. Cassandra supposed he had already forgotten her very existence and that of his aunt. But then he surprised her by looking back.

"Cassandra?"

"Yes?"

His eyes traveled slowly from her face to the neckline of the gown. "Buy the gown," he told her solemnly. Then he gave her a prodigious wink.

Once back on the street, he detached his arm from Caroline's possessive grasp. "Doing it much too brown, Caroline, my dear," Kofi said, amused. "Cassandra is sure to tell my grandfather that you were about to eat me alive in the dressmaker's shop, and I shall be in for a tremendous scold the next time I see him."

Caroline gave a long, rueful sigh. "I'm sorry, darling. She is so fresh-faced and pretty."

"I couldn't help wanting to punish her a little," she continued. "I don't believe I was ever that young. I would adore being her."

"How curious," Kofi said. "She would adore being you. She insists that she will have a curricle someday, and drive it in the park as you do. She thinks you are dashing."

"Does she?" Caroline said. "Well, so I am."

"Maybe she isn't as insipid as she looks," Caroline added.

Cassandra gratified Lady Mayville, after all, by instructing Miss Lacey's assistant to raise the neckline on the sea-green gauze ball gown. When it was delivered, she saw that the woman in the shop had been right, and it ruined the line of the bodice. It didn't matter. She knew she probably wouldn't wear it, anyway, because it somehow was tainted for her by Kofi's and Mrs. Benningham's amusement at her expense.

Imagine Kofi dancing attendance on women at dressmakers' establishments like the most dissipated of rakes. Did he pay for Mrs. Benningham's gowns as well? Was she his mistress, despite everything he had said?

Then the mental image of his grandfather's fury at receiving a collection of dressmakers' bills on behalf of his heir had the effect of putting a smile on Cassandra's face.

It was nonsense, of course. And even if it were true, Cassandra was sure she did not care in the least. The night of her first ball in London arrived, and Cassandra managed to keep from wriggling with nervousness as Lady Mayville twitched the small puffed sleeves of Cassandra's gown a bit higher to conceal an additional fraction of an inch of shoulder.

"You look charming," Lady Mayville said. "Doesn't she look charming, Jasper?"

"Charming," he grumbled. "Come along, the both of you, and let us get this over with."

Lord Adderly was still annoyed by Kofi's refusal to be browbeaten into escorting the ladies to the ball, so he could spend the evening with a good book and a glass of his late brother-in-law's excellent brandy in Lady Mayville's library. But Kofi had been adamant, and Lord Adderly had no choice in the matter. He was not about to permit Cassandra to attend a London ball with only his sentimental sister as chaperon.

Cassandra took her chicken-skin fan in her gloved hands and held her head high as she walked to the carriage, practicing the blasé attitude of a young lady who attended balls in London every night of the week. Inside, she was quivering with anticipation.

As a rule, Lady Mayville explained, town would be quite thin of company this late in the Season, but because of the Peace Celebrations, everyone who was anyone was here. If they were very, very fortunate, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg would attend the ball.

Along with her brother, Tsar Alexander of Russia, the Savior of Europe. Lady Mayville knew the Russian Royals had been invited. "Bunch of foreigners," Lord Adderly grumbled.

"I am so glad you came to stay with me, Lady Mayville said affectionately to Cassandra. "Otherwise I would have stayed home alone, as has become my habit."

"I have told you for years that you should have married after Mayville's death," her brother said.

"Yes, to a husband of your choosing, brother dear," she said with some spirit. "The choice of one's husband is too important to entrust to one's male relatives. I remember how Papa voiced his objections to Lord Mayville, and he was the very best of husbands."

"And cut up warm into the bargain," Lord Adderly conceded. "Who would have thought he would amount to anything? A good bit of luck, that, when his elder brother stuck his spoon in the wall and left the title to him. Rum customer, the elder brother. Father had no way of knowing your precious Harry wouldn't turn out the same."

"I listened to my heart," Lady Mayville said, and it guided me well."

"Do not be filling Cassandra's head with that mawkish nonsense," Lord Adderly said with a snort of disgust. "For every love match that turned out right, I could point out dozens that did not. You'll be guided by me, miss, in the matter of your marriage. Old heads are wiser."

"Yes, my lord," Cassandra said primly, even though she had no intention of letting her crusty guardian choose her future husband. Lord Adderly was the one who had tried to marry her off to Kofi, for heaven's sake, and he had turned into a brawler, a rake, and a womanizer the moment he escaped from Devonshire.

What a disaster that match would have been. Cassandra squeezed Lady Mayville's gloved hand with excitement when the carriage pulled into the line of conveyances in front of the mansion. Fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen alighted from the carriages, and Cassandra could see the ladies' jewels reflecting the glimmer of lights shining from the candles in every window and from the front door left open to the sultry night.

It was quite ten minutes before their turn came to be handed out of the carriage, but while Lord Adderly fussed at the wait, Cassandra had occupied her time in drinking in all the sights and sounds of Mayfair in summer.

"Lady Mayville!" exclaimed their hostess, Lady Houghton. "How delightful! I hoped you would come. We will have a comfortable coze later."

She gave a peal of laughter when she saw Cassandra's guardian. "Lord Adderly! Is it really you? Lady Mayville, however did you prevail upon him to come? I made sure he would be immured in all his dusty old books in Devonshire."

"Evening, Gwendolyn," Lord Adderly mumbled. "Are you still as fine a dancer as you were in our youth?"

Their hostess went on. "I shall coax you onto the floor later this evening. Just see if I do not! And do not think to hide in the card room, for I shall snuff you out."

Cassandra realized her mouth was hanging open at the thought of her guardian ever being young--let alone being a fine dancer--and she closed it abruptly.

Their hostess gave Cassandra a friendly smile. "And who is this pretty young lady?" she asked.

Lady Houghton, this is my ward, Cassandra Davies," Lord Adderly said.

"So pleased you could come, my dear," Lady Houghton said as Cassandra curtsied to her. "I must introduce you to some of the other young people when I am done receiving."

Thank you, Lady Houghton," Cassandra said as her party took the hint to move on and progressed to the ballroom.

Woman always did talk too much," Lord Adderly grumbled when they were out of Lady Houghton's hearing. But he couldn't stifle the faint, reminiscent smile that hovered about his usually stern mouth.

Good heavens! Wouldn't it be a remarkable thing if her guardian actually enjoyed himself tonight? Cassandra hoped that Lady Houghton would make good her promise to inveigle Lord Adderly onto the dance floor. It would do him a world of good.

"It is all so beautiful," she said to Lady Mayville when she was seated beside her on the chairs lining the wall to watch the dancing.

Look, there is Kofi!" Cassandra said.

Where? I do not see him," Lord Adderly said, squinting toward the doorway.

Ah, I see him," Lady Mayville said. "Coming down the steps, Adderly. Your eyesight has not deteriorated to that extent, I hope!"

Lord Adderly gasped, and Cassandra barely restrained herself from laughing. Kofi looked almost unbearably handsome in black evening dress with snowy white linen - and on his arm was Mrs. Benningham, wearing the carmine red gown she had flaunted herself in at Miss Lacey's dress shop.

"You are trying to get me disinherited," Kofi said in a low voice to Caroline as he smiled at his hostess. "My grandfather looks as if he would like to draw my claret."

"I could not be remiss in my obligation to Lady Houghton after she was kind enough to send me an invitation," Caroline replied.

"Very proper," Kofi said, knowing perfectly well that her desire to accompany him to the ball stemmed from nothing but pure mischief. She had shown no interest in attending a gathering that was sure to be a crush of prosy old bores until she learned that he was engaged to make an appearance for the sole purpose of saving Cassandra from the stigma of being a wallflower.

However, it did him enormous credit in the eyes of society to arrive at one of the summer's most exclusive balls with the dashing Mrs. Benningham on his arm, and he owed the lady too much to refuse her so modest a request as his escort. He was perfectly aware that it did her credit to appear on the arm of a presentable gentleman several years her junior, as well as a satisfactory arrangement for them both.

Despite Caroline's bravado and the fact that she continued to be mobbed by attentive gentlemen wherever she went, Kofi knew that her inexorable progress toward the dreaded age of forty had made her hungry for reassurance that she was still desirable. Never mind that most of the gentlemen in London would sell their souls for an evening of fun and frolic in the lady's boudoir.

It was no small source of amusement to Kofi that every one of these men believed that he had been admitted to this holy of holies and attributed to him a reputation for conquering feminine hearts that was wholly undeserved.

The dashing widow's presence on his arm perpetuated the convenient fiction that Kofi's prowess was prodigious enough to cause a prize such as Caroline Benningham to exert herself to bring a previously unknown country bumpkin into fashion, and he was grateful for it. Kofi was only human, after all, and he rather liked the way other men's envy-filled eyes followed his and Caroline's progress into the ballroom. Even more gratifying was the way females hung on his every word and fluttered their eyelashes at him.

In the Fortress of Bitche, he could only dream of such pleasures. He had begun to think he would die forgotten in some cell without seeing a pretty woman ever again.

"Well, I had better do my duty by Miss Davies so we can get on to the salon," he said when, as usual, Caroline was instantly surrounded by male admirers clamoring for attention.

"Not yet," she said, grasping his arm. She gave flirtatious little waves of her fingers to the members of her court, promising them she would dance with them all in turn. "The first dance is always for my escort. It is a rule of mine."

She lowered her voice. "Let your grandfather see that you are not into submission by him."

She was finding this far too amusing, he reflected. Then he caught sight of Cassandra's eyes upon him and smiled down into Caroline's upturned face. Let her see him dancing with the most exciting woman in the room!