Allegra heard the annoyance in his voice, and now it was she who found herself irritated. "I am curious, Quinton," she told him. "I have been taught that curiosity isn't a mortal sin, but rather to be cultivated. As I told you, I have never before been kissed by a gentleman. I am sorry if my interest offended you. If you mean to wed me then you will have to get used to it, I fear."

"I shall also have to get used to your bluntness," he replied, his tone still distinctly annoyed.

Allegra burst out laughing. "Gracious, sir, we are having our first quarrel, and we are not even wed. I will wager that Sirena and Ocky have not quarreled yet."

"They are in love. Cow-eyed, and moonstruck," he answered her, a faint hint of scorn in his voice.

"And we are not in love," Allegra said. She wasn't certain now how she felt about that fact. Then she shook herself inwardly. Love led only to betrayal and unhappiness. Better a couple suit.

"You do not hold a grudge, do you?" the duke said to her, his humor beginning to return.

"Not often," she responded with a small smile.

"Ahh, here you are, my dears." Her aunt came out into the wide terraced balcony. "Your papa was looking for you, Allegra, but I see that you are fine. I shall tell him." She smiled and hurried off again.

"Would you like to see the sunrise?" the duke asked.

"In London? Such a thing isn't possible," Allegra replied.

"We can take my coach and drive outside the city. There is time," he said. "Perhaps Ocky and Sirena would like to come with us."

"If you can manage to live with their constant billing and cooing," Allegra told him, "I suppose I can, too."

He laughed. "Is that your subtle way of saying you want to be alone with me, Allegra?"

"We are to be married in a few months' time, Quinton. I want to know you better," she said. "If you would really like my cousin and her affianced to come, however, I will send a servant for them."

"No," he said softly, and drew her into the circle of his arms. "I want to get to know you better, too, Allegra." He looked down into her small face, a half smile upon his lips.

Her heart hammered suddenly. Damn, he was a handsome man! Those silvery gray eyes were mesmerizing. "Your eyelashes are surely longer than mine," she said breathily.

He smiled openly now. "Are they?"

"Yes!" she said. Then her eyes fastened upon the mouth that had earlier given her her first kiss. It was a big mouth, and yet it had an air of delicacy about it.

"I think, Allegra," the duke said, "that you need to be kissed once more before we go off to see the sunrise." Then he kissed her again, this time his arms wrapping themselves tightly about her, his mouth pressing harder against her lips.

A shiver raced down her spine. For the briefest moment she felt weak and helpless, then the feeling passed as quickly as it had come. When he drew away she smiled up at him, but this time she uttered not a word. She had learned after their first kiss that gentlemen didn't like to be questioned about their technique. As far as she was concerned his skills pleased her, and wasn't that enough? It was going to have to be, she reasoned to herself.

The duke called for his carriage while Allegra sought out her father to tell him where they were going.

"It was a wonderful ball, Papa," she said, finding him in his library with her aunt. "Thank you so very much." She kissed his cheek.

"And to think you are to be a duchess!" her aunt enthused excitedly. "What a naughty pair you two were keeping such news from me these past few weeks." She wagged a finger at them playfully.

"I wanted Sirena to have her due," Allegra replied. "You know quite well, Aunt Olympia, that had my betrothal been announced when Sirena's was, no one would have paid the least attention to my cousin at all. Part of having a successful season is having the people who thought little, or not at all of you, be astounded by your wonderful success in the husband hunt!" She laughed. "I doubt many thought that the modestly dowered baby sister of the Marquis of Rowley could bag an earl's heir, but Sirena did with her sweetness and her charm. I wanted her to enjoy her triumph, not have to bask in the shadow of mine."

Olympia Abbott's hand flew to her mouth to stifle her cry. Then the hand fell away and she said, "That you love my daughter so dearly, even as if she were your own sister, makes me so happy." Several tears slid down her cheeks with her pleasure.

"Now, now, my dear," Lord Morgan said, and leaning over he wiped the lady's tears from her cheek tenderly. "Of course Allegra loves Sirena like a sister, and have you not been a mother to my dearest child? The mother her own was not?"

"Ohh, Septimius," the good woman murmured, somewhat overcome.

"The duke and I are going to ride out and see the sunrise," Allegra said, wondering as she did if they even heard her. Then she departed the library, leaving her father and her aunt seemingly lost in each other. With a little encouragement he would marry her, Allegra thought, and it was, of course, the right thing to do.

The duke's black coach was wonderfully well sprung and quite comfortable inside. It was drawn by four bay horses with blond manes and tails. The coach took an easterly road leaving the city. Above them the sky was fading from black to a stone gray which eased into a blue that grew lighter and brighter. Atop a hill their vehicle stopped, and they descended into the road.

"Wait for us here," the duke ordered his coachmen, and then taking Allegra's hand they walked forward until ahead of them they could see the first faint ribbons of pink, peach, and lavender decorating the horizon. These colors were followed by a slash of red orange, and at last the sun. Red gold at first as it rose, mellowing as it slipped over the purview of the distant sea.

Allegra sniffed the fresh country air appreciatively. "Ahh, how good that smells," she said. "It seems we have been in town so long that I had almost forgotten what good country air is like. We shall go home after Sirena's wedding, and it cannot be soon enough for me!"

"You do not like London?" he asked.

"Oh, the city is a fine place to visit, but I certainly don't want to live there, Quinton," she told him. "Nor would I want to raise my children in London. Children need the countryside in which to ride, and to run barefoot through the dewy grass of a May morning." She flung out her arms and spun about. "Just a few more weeks, and I shall go home."

"Hunter's Lair will be your home soon," he told her.

"Is it beautiful?" she asked him.

"I think so," he said softly.

"Then I shall love it," Allegra told him.

"I think I had best get you home, Miss Morgan," the duke responded with a smile. "The sun is now up, and you have been dancing all night long." He took her by the hand again. "You danced very well with Prinny. You were every inch a Duchess of Sedgwick, my dear. I was proud."

"Were you?" Her tone indicated that she didn't really care if he was or not. "The prince is very handsome, but I think he is already running to fat. Did you see what he consumed at the supper buffet? I was astounded his waistcoat did not burst open with all the oysters he swallowed down so greedily."

"You will learn not to speak so frankly out of my company, won't you, Allegra?" the duke asked her.

"I am not such a ninny, Quinton, that I would offend the prince," she told him. "But I assume I may be honest with you."

"You must always be honest with me," he said as he helped her back into the coach.

She fell asleep on the ride back into town, her head against his shoulder. What an interesting girl she was, he thought. Mayhap it would not be such a bad match. She might not have a glittering pedigree, but she had manners and was as accomplished as any noble lady. Perhaps even more so. While extremely outspoken, he did not think she was flighty in the least. Her father said she knew how to manage her funds, and God knows that was more than most women knew. Quinton Hunter recalled an ancient aunt from his youth, now long dead. She was always saying he should marry someone of less vaunted family than his own.

"Get some new fresh blood into the line, boy," she would growl at him. "Overbreeding is the ruination of most good families, I tell you. A healthy wench will breed you up more sons than any high-flown miss. Remember what I say, boy!"

Strange that he did remember the old woman's words, but only now that he was betrothed to Miss Allegra Morgan. He turned his head to look down at her. Her dark curls were quite tumbled now. He gently fingered one, and a gentle whiff of her fragrance assailed his nostrils. It was the scent of lilacs, his favorite flowers. How odd, or wonderful, that it should be her perfume. Outside the coach windows the city was coming alive. The vehicle turned into Berkley Square and stopped before Lord Morgan's fine town house. The duke, unable to help himself, bent and kissed Allegra's smooth brow.

"You are home, my dear," he said quietly. "Wake up, now."

"Ummm." The violet eyes opened slowly in confusion and then comprehension, as she realized where she was. "I slept all the way homer" She sounded surprised.

A footman ran from the house to open the carriage door. He helped his young mistress to descend. The duke followed. In the round foyer he gave her a chaste kiss on the lips in farewell.

"I shall call for you at three o'clock this afternoon so we may promenade through the park in my landau. Now that we are formally engaged it will be expected that we be seen together daily."

"I have a fitting for my bridesmaid gown," Allegra said.

"At three?"

"I don't know when. I just know today," she replied.

"Have a footman bring 'round a note to me when you know," he said. Then he bowed, and turning, departed.

Slowly Allegra ascended the staircase. On the ballroom floor footmen and maidservants were still dismantling the décor. She climbed a second flight to the bedroom floor. Entering her bedchamber she saw that Honor, her maid, was sleeping in a chair beside the fading coals of a once-bright fire. "I'm back, Honor," she said.

The servant's eyes opened, and then seeing her mistress she jumped to her feet. "Ohh, Miss Allegra, what time is it?"

"Almost seven o'clock," Allegra answered glancing at the clock on her mantel.

"In the morning?" Honor sounded shocked. "Why Miss Allegra, you've been dancing all night long. Even after all these weeks in the city I'm not used to such hours as you have had to keep."

"We drove out to the countryside and saw the sunrise," Allegra told her maidservant.

"Who? Who was with you, and does your papa know?" Honor was seven years older than her mistress, and extremely protective. Like Allegra she had been born and raised at Morgan Court. She counted her young lady almost like family.

"Ohh, Honor! You do not know, and I promised to tell you. I am to marry the Duke of Sedgwick in the autumn. We are going to live in Hereford, not more than a day's journey from Morgan Court."

"That high-flown gentleman who spoiled your first ball? Is that the one you're going to marry? You can't love him, miss. Why you hardly know him," Honor said indignantly.

"That is why our marriage is scheduled for October, and not for June like Sirena's. Shortly after we get home we will go to Hunter's Lair so I may oversee the renovations and the restorations that are needed. I have to marry, Honor. You know that. The duke is, I am assured, an honorable man, but he is poor. I shall be a duchess when I become his wife. He shall be a rich man the moment he weds me. It is an ideal arrangement, and this summer we shall have the opportunity to become acquainted. There will be no surprises when we are married."

"There're always surprises, miss," Honor said dourly as she helped her mistress from her ball gown. "I wish that you could fall in love like Lady Sirena and her nice young gentleman. Your mama married for money, and look what happened there."

"But the duke's family always married for love, and now they are as poor as church mice," Allegra replied. "The duke and I are entering into this marriage with no illusions at all. I believe that I am actually beginning to like him, and I certainly think that he likes me. We shall become great friends, I am certain, and our marriage shall be quite successful, Honor. Now what time does Madame Paul arrive for my fitting?"