But she managed to nod her head.
Then she felt him gather her up as if she was a child and carry her to the door of the salon.
“My sister has had a most terrible fright,” she heard him say. “I must attend to her, if you will excuse me.”
And then they were outside in the fresh cold air and he put her down, so that she was standing next to him on the deck, under a multitude of stars glimmering in the night sky.
“Lucilla,” the Marquis asked after a short moment. “That was the man you told me about the other day, wasn’t it? The American who wants to marry you?”
Lucilla nodded.
“What was he doing here?”
“I just don’t – know!” she managed to say. “He is a very wealthy man – perhaps he is just the sort of person who would be invited – to these functions.”
“I thought for a moment, when I s
