The countess shook her head. “Because you aren’t afraid of Lord Fielding,” she corrected, laughing.

Victoria looked at the stunning brunette in her elegant finery, but what she saw was the mischievous gleam in those dancing gray eyes and the offer of friendship in her smile. She had met a kindred spirit in this seemingly unfriendly country, she realized, and her spirits soared. “Actually, I was terrified,” Victoria admitted, turning toward the back of the house where she had decided to chain her dog until such time as she could convince Jason to let him come into the house.

“But you didn’t show it, you see, and that is a very good thing, because it seems to me that once a male realizes a female is frightened of something, he uses that knowledge against her in perfectly horrid ways. For example, as soon as my brother Carlton realized I was afraid of snakes, he put one in my handkerchief drawer. And before I was quite finished having hysterics over that, my brother Abbott put one in my dancing slippers.”

Victoria shuddered. “I loathe snakes. How many brothers do you have?”

“Six and they all did perfectly wretched things to me until I learned to retaliate in kind. Do you have any brothers?”

“No—a sister.”

By the time the gentlemen finished their business discussion and joined the ladies for an early supper, Victoria and Caroline Collingwood were on a first-name basis and well on the way to becoming fast friends. Victoria had already explained that her betrothal to Lord Fielding was an error made by Charles—but with the best of intentions—and she had talked about Andrew; Caroline had confided that her parents had chosen Lord Collingwood as her husband, but from the things she said and the way her eyes lit up whenever she spoke of him, it was perfectly obvious to Victoria that she adored him.

The meal sparkled with their laughing conversation as Victoria and Caroline continued exchanging confidences and comparing some of their childhood exploits. Even Lord Collingwood contributed stories about his boyhood, and it soon became apparent to Victoria that all three of them had enjoyed carefree childhoods and the security of loving parents. Jason, however, refused to discuss his own youth, though he seemed to genuinely enjoy listening to the stories they were telling of theirs.

“Can you really shoot a gun?” Caroline asked Victoria admiringly while two footmen served trout sautéed in butter and herbs and covered with a delicate sauce.

“Yes,” Victoria admitted. “Andrew taught me how because he wanted someone to give him competition when he shot at targets.”

“And did you? Give him competition, I mean.”

Victoria nodded, the candleglow catching the fiery lights in her hair and turning it into a molten halo. “A great deal of it. It was the most peculiar thing imaginable, but the very first time he put the gun in my hand, I followed his instructions, aimed, and hit the target. It didn’t seem very hard.”

“And after that?”

“It became easier,” Victoria said with a twinkle.

“I liked sabers,” Caroline confessed. “My brother Richard used to let me be his fencing partner. All it takes is a good arm.”

“And a steady eye,” added Victoria.

Lord Collingwood chuckled. “I used to pretend I was a knight of old and joust with the grooms. I did quite well in the lists—but then, the grooms were undoubtedly reluctant to knock a fledgling earl off his horse, so I probably wasn’t as good as I thought I was at the time.”

“Did you play tug-of-war in America?” Caroline asked eagerly.

“Yes, and it was invariably the boys against the girls.”

“But that isn’t fair at all—boys are always stronger.”

“Not,” Victoria said with a laughing, rueful look, “if the girls manage to choose a place where there is a tree and then contrive—very casually—to wrap the rope partway around the tree as they’re pulling.”

“Shameless!” Jason chuckled. “You were cheating.”

“True, but the odds were against us otherwise, so it wasn’t really cheating.”

“What do you know of ‘odds’?” he teased.

“As they pertain to cards?” Victoria asked, her face lit with infectious merriment. “To tell you the shameful truth, I am nearly as adept at calculating the odds of various hands as I am at dealing the cards in such a way as to produce those particular hands. In short,” she admitted baldly, “I know how to cheat.”

Jason’s dark brows drew together in a slight frown. “Who taught you to cheat?”

“Andrew. He said they were ‘card tricks’ he learned when he was away at school.”

“Remind me never to put this Andrew up for membership at any of my clubs,” Collingwood said dryly. “He wouldn’t live to see the next day.”

“Andrew never cheats,” Victoria corrected loyally. “He felt it was important to know how cheating is done, so one can’t be cheated by an unscrupulous gambler—but he was only sixteen at the time, and I don’t think he realized yet he was unlikely ever to meet such a person. .. .”

Jason leaned back in his chair, watching Victoria with fascinated interest, amazed by the gracious ease with which she conducted herself with his guests and the way she effortlessly charmed Robert Collingwood into participating in the dinner table conversation. He noticed the way her face glowed with fondness whenever she spoke of her Andrew, and the way she brought the dining room to life with her smile.

She was fresh and alive and unspoiled. Despite her youth, there was a natural sophistication about her that came from an active mind, a lively wit, and a genuine interest in others. He smiled to himself, remembering her courageous defense of her dog, which she had announced would henceforth be called Wolf, not Willie. Jason had known a few men with true courage in his lifetime, but he had never met a courageous woman. He remembered her shy responsiveness to his kiss and the incredible surge of hot desire she had ignited in his body.

Victoria Seaton was full of surprises, full of promise, he thought, studying her surreptitiously. Vivid beauty was molded into every flawlessly sculpted feature of her face, but her allure went much further than that; it was in her musical laughter and her graceful movements. There was something deep within her that made her sparkle and glow like a flawless jewel, a jewel that needed only the proper background and setting: elegant clothes to complement her alluring figure and exquisite features; a magnificent home where she could reign as its queen; a husband to curb her wilder impulses; a baby at her breast to cuddle and nourish....