“Now you find he is none of those things,” Claire said. “Oh, Petrina, how much I envy you. I have always longed to meet the Earl but, of course, it is well known that he never speaks to unmarried women.”
“He has to speak to me.”
Petrina was not prepared to acknowledge to her friend that ever since she had arrived at Staverton House she had had no private conversation with its owner and had only seen him at dinner parties at the other end of the table.
From the moment she had arrived her days had been occupied with shopping.
She had found that the Dowager Duchess not only enjoyed visiting the most expensive dressmakers in Bond Street but had positive ideas on how her charge was to be dressed if she was to capture the attention of the Beau Monde.
At first Petrina had been suspicious tha
