Lord Rowden shut the door behind him and I felt that we were very alone.
“I’m sure we ought not to leave your party like this,” I said nervously. “People will think it odd.”
“They’ll think it quite natural where you are concerned,” Lord Rowden said, “and all the other men are wishing they were in my shoes.”
He opened the drawer of a table that stood near the fireplace and took out a long leather box.
“I bought this for you, Samantha,” he said. “I hope you will like it.”
“What is it?” I asked.
I thought perhaps it was a fan as the box looked rather the shape, but when I opened it there was a watch-bracelet inside set with diamonds.
I stared at it in astonishment.
“Let me put it on for you, Samantha,” Lord Rowden said with a kind of silky note in his voice.
I shut the box with a lit
