Alexander turned to Miss Nesper and offered his arm. "Come my dear, you are done with breakfast now."

With fork in midair, she looked up in dismay replying, "No, I am not."

Alex lifted an eyebrow towards the array of plates and stated firmly, "Yes, you are."

Miss Nesper sighed and placed her fork on the table. She stood and curtsied to the assembled group and took Alex's arm. As they were exiting the room, Cave called after them, "Alex, do try to find something to wear that is not so blinding." Alex turned giving him withering look but decided to hold his tongue and left the room.

Mariana glanced at Rosemary. "Maybe we should leave the gentleman to their musings and freshen up a bit," she said, as she walked over to link arms with her and led her out of the room calling for Tibby.

Alistair shook his head in admonishment at Gareth. "Must you two always be at each other? My head cannot take yours and Alex's bickering today." Cave shrugged his shoulders as he plopped into a chair. After watching Mariana flirting with the coachman, he was not in the best of moods either. After wiping the mud from his quizzing glass with a napkin from the breakfast table, Lord Kenneth peered at Alistair searchingly. "You really must stay away from the brandy old boy."

"Thank you," Alistair replied sarcastically. "Oh, by the by, how did you acquire your mudbath?"

Lord Kenneth turned a nice shade of red. Gareth answered for him. "Our coachman was so enamoured of Mariana and engrossed in her, he parked our coach right in front of a large mudpuddle. This clunch was so busy daydreaming, he fell right into it face first."

At this Alistair turned towards the food to hide his grin. Sweeping his arm towards the food, he told them, " You might as well help yourselves to what is left after Miss Nesper's forage."

The miniature china vase smashed into a hundred pieces as Cecily flung it against the wall in rage. She couldn't believe that after all of her careful planning, Rosemary hadn't come to her. Cecily's beautiful face showed her rage but then softened as a new scheme came to mind.

She chuckled softly to herself. 'So Rosemary has gone haring after Anne has she? Well no matter. She must come to me sooner or later. She will come to me. I have something she values very much indeed.'

Cecily rose and pulled the bellpull. As she waited impatiently for a servant to answer the summons she moved restlessly around the room, peering out of the curtains and toying with the objects on the desk. Her hands passed over a miniature of her father, lying face down, and then a pile of letters addressed to "My dearest Cece" and finally came to rest on the letter opener, the one with the carven ivory handle that was so convenient for those potent, accidental scratches. 'Hmm,' she thought, 'This will do very well.'

Cecily turned swiftly at the scratch on the door. She hurriedly composed herself and said to the servant girl who had appeared, "Ask my cousins's Ayah, Primat, to come to me." "Please," she added as an afterthought.

Rosemary stared at the gathered melee in confusion. Just what had become of her otherwise sane and sensible self? Had it flown out the porthole during the long sea voyage? How could she have ever been so feather brained? Just come to England for the first time and what must she do but immediately set off hither and yon on a wild goose chase. That folly was only topped by intruding upon the home of a perfect stranger who had, quite rightly, taken her for a madwoman. "A madwoman!" Rosemary groaned, "I must truly be one to even consider setting off on a journey to who knows where with this group of people I barely know. Why I doubt I can even remember all of their names." Rosemary looked around. "Well, let's see, over there by the carriage is that nice Miss Atwell arguing with... with... Oh drat! He's the Lowlander. I can't remember his name for the life of me." She continued muttering to herself, perhaps trying to earn her label as a madwoman. "There is the Mudman who is, unless I am very much mistaken, Lord Dunnett." He seemed to be presently engaged in contemplating the view from the top of the coach. "And then, of course, there are the twin Adonis.' " Rosemary gave a barely discernable sigh. One of them, who she thought had introduced himself as Mr. Alexander Erskyn, was amusedly watching Miss Atwell get the best of the Lowlander. The other was stalking around the yard, closely followed by a small white haired lady, shouting orders to the servants who were loading the bags. "Well at least I know his name! Mr. Alastair Erskyn." Rosemary groaned as her memory continued, "Evil Erskyn, Archfiend Alastair." She blushed deeply at the thought of her wayward tongue. She hadn't meant to say those things. It was just... just that she had been so very upset about Anne and she had felt so odd while he was holding her. It had slipped out. "Oh! I should have brought Primat, Cecily or no Cecily."

While Rosemary stood in the doorway, blindly contemplating her mental health. The other members of the party were variously squabbling, preparing for the journey, standing around and generally getting in the way of the servants. Particularly annoying to Mr. Tibbits were Gareth Cave and Miss Atwell who seemed intent on decapitating each other for an appreciative audience right there in front of the carriage. And directly by the luggage boot too. Mr. Tibbits shook his head and walked away, voices trailing after him.

"... and furthermore, Miss Atwell, I can't like this annoying tendency you have toward wheedling your way into all of Kenneth's affairs. Why I distinctly heard him say that under no condition was he going to allow you to come along this time."

"Yes, well, he changed his mind now, didn't he?"

"I suppose he did but I can't for the life of me fathom just how you managed it. Kenneth may be a bit out of it at times but he can be amazingly stubborn."

"A little bit of persuasive arguing goes a long way"

"Madam what you call persuasive arguing can be better termed as incessant nagging. Egad! but I have never met a woman more capable of nattering on about nothing for ages while not letting anyone else get a word in edgewise."

Mariana's eyes flashed. "Perhaps the wait will do you good. Or does your witty repartee grow stale with disuse? Patience is a virtue, Mr. Cave."

"Silence is golden, Miss Atwell."

With that Gareth stalked off to pursue more fruitful conversations leaving Mariana staring after him with a bemused look on her face. Alex strolled nonchalantly up to her.

"Well it looks like Gareth came off the best in that duel."

"Yes, I suppose he did," Mariana murmured dazedly and headed for the coach.

It was now Alex's turn to stare after a retreating back. As he watched her go he thought. 'It certainly is a pity that Gareth married that sniveling Catherine Perkins before he met Mariana. I do believe they would have rubbed along quite well together.'

At the other end of the yard Alastair approached Rosemary, who was still standing with a fixed look on her face.

"Mrs. Carlyle? ... Mrs. Carlyle? He tried again after receiving no response. "Er, hum, Ma'am?"

"Oh! Mr. Erskyn!" Rosemary's head snapped up, "I am sorry. I suppose I was woolgathering." She blushed deeply for what felt like the twentieth time today.

"No matter," Alaistair said. "A woman as... " He began to make the obligatory silly complement to lessen her embarrassment before remembering that the heartless man he now was would not care one whit about her discomfort. As a result he continued rather gruffly, "We are beginning to load the coach Madam, I suggest that you seat yourself." He then turned on his heel and stalked away, furious at himself for some reason he could not name.

Rosemary then became the third person that day to stare after a retreating back in confusion. After a moment she shook herself and headed toward the coach where she was handed into the coach by an elegently dressed Alex who had, unfortunately, traded his blinding bathrobe for an equally stunning waistcoat.

As the coach pulled out of the drive Kenneth shouted, "We're off!"

'Yes, but where to?' wondered Rosemary as she waved goodbye to her common sense.