ord Wrenworth might not have heard of Louisa Cantwell until the spring of 1888, but ever since 1883, years before he’d declared his hand available, his name had sat atop her list of eligible young men.

But while Louisa maintained and frequently revised her list of the rich bachelors of the realm, she rarely thought of the almost mythical Lord Wrenworth. He was an abstract concept, too lofty and perfect to figure into the calculations of a pragmatic girl under no illusion that she was good enough for The Ideal Gentleman.

To begin with, the Cantwells were poor. Louisa, her four sisters, and her mother subsisted on an annuity that had been settled on Mrs. Cantwell long ago. Once Mrs. Cantwell drew her last breath, the Cantwell girls would have little more than the clothes on their backs.

In addition, the family was somewhat scandalous, due to the late Mr. Cantwell having once been a fortune hunter. He was not particularly evil: When he realized that his pretty new wife was nowhere near as wealthy as he had thought, he shrugged and made peace with his failure. But Mrs. Cantwell was not received by her family and old friends as long as her husband lived. And while her daughters were respectable, their respectability was as threadbare as some of Louisa’s petticoats.

And even if a prospective bridegroom could overlook both Louisa’s empty purse and her dubious parentage, he must still deal with the fact that she was something of a bumpkin. She could not paint, play the pianoforte, or speak a foreign language. She had only the faintest grasp of art, history, and literature. And of her penmanship, the less said the better.

Her lack of fortune, pedigree, and accomplishments did not particularly bother Louisa. She was, however, greatly frustrated by the fact that for someone who needed to marry a great deal of money, she was not a singular beauty—as great a handicap as setting out on safari without a working firearm.

Her two elder sisters were both exquisite, but Frederica had not left her room since becoming mildly pockmarked after a bout of smallpox, and Cecilia was determined to kiss only her best friend, Miss Emily Milton.

Of her two younger sisters, Julia was of completely the wrong temperament for the wooing of gentlemen, and Matilda, dear, dear Matilda, was an epileptic and therefore out of the question.

All the other Cantwell sisters were able-bodied, capable of working as governesses or ladies’ companions to support themselves—even Frederica, Louisa was sure, would abandon her reclusive ways if she were actually starving. But Matilda must be looked after at all times. She needed a man of means. Since Matilda could not handle the rigors of a London Season herself, Louisa had to be the one to try.

On the day Louisa realized this, when she was sixteen, she walked three miles from her house so she could despair without anyone seeing her. She gave herself one hour. Then she returned home, opened her notebook, and turned to the last page.

Everything I want.

A small cottage

Books, as many as said cottage can hold

A good telescope

Messier’s Catalogue

A tutor in higher mathematics

When it had seemed that both Frederica and Cecilia might make brilliant matches, Louisa had dreamed of being a happily independent spinster. But dreams were for girls who could afford them—and she was no longer one of them. She crossed out the list and started a new one.

Everything I need to win a man with five thousand pounds a year.

• • •

Louisa would have liked to win that rich man when she was nineteen—Lady Balfour, Mrs. Cantwell’s cousin, had promised to sponsor one of Mrs. Cantwell’s daughters to a Season. But first Lady Balfour had to marry her own daughters; then she had to refrain from going out in public during her mourning period for Sir Augustus, her husband.

When Louisa finally arrived in London, in the spring of 1888, this was how the list looked.

Everything I need to win a man with five seven thousand pounds a year.

(Being impecunious herself, Louisa had quite underestimated the kind of expenses a man with a large income would have, as well as the number of relations who depended on his largesse.)

Bust improvers

Recipes for shiny hair, bright teeth, and soft skin

An understanding of fashion, fabrics, and the styles and cuts of garments that best flatter figure

Familiarity with French, as commonly seen on menus

The ability to dance passably well

Deftness at flattering a gentleman

Deftness at flattering said gentleman’s mother and sisters

The understanding that no matter how much interest a man professes in a young lady, he is still more interested in himself

The understanding that if a young lady is seen to be having a good time, she is much less likely to be thought of as scheming

A coherent strategy before the beginning of the Season and tactics in place before each engagement. Time is limited. Preparation is critical.

The understanding that—God help me—I must not fail

• • •

By the time Louisa walked down the grand staircase at her first ball, she was twenty-four, well past the first bloom of youth. But all her extra years of practice—she didn’t simply make a list and consider her task done—had paid off and London was quite taken with her. Or rather, with the Miss Cantwell she presented to Society. She was warm but not overfamiliar, sweet but not cloying, and appreciative of her moment in the sun without the least whiff of graspingness or, worse, desperation.

Best of all, Miss Cantwell, it was generally agreed, was a beauty.

For a beauty, one hauled out a different set of adjectives. Her neck was praised as sylphish or swanlike. Her eyes, hitherto simply blue, were now either azure or aquamarine, and sometimes nothing less than cerulean. And apparently no one in London had ever heard of that decent, hardworking word brown. Her admirers insisted her hair was mahogany, chestnut, or any other arboreal hues that struck their fancy. A few, bent on ever more poetic rubbish, called it Titian or coppery, preferring to give emphasis to the flecks of reddish gold embedded therein.

All this linguistic extravagance sometimes made Louisa laugh at night, under her blanket. And it sometimes made her quake—for surely the illusion couldn’t last the entire Season. Soon people would realize that her hair was glossy only because of all the mayonnaise she’d put in it over the years, that her trademark closemouthed smile was to hide several crooked teeth, and that, of course, the bodices of her dresses would look awfully concave if it weren’t for the artful and stalwart bust improvers in her wardrobe.

But all in all, things were going very well for this early in the Season.

Gentlemen flocked to her, as attentive and eligible a group as she had hoped for in her most ambitious dreams. Perhaps too much so: Among them were a number who paid court to popular girls by habit; a few were in her vicinity simply because it was where their friends gathered. This crowding of the field worried her, as the two gentlemen she most wished to encourage were not forward enough to compete with the more exuberant swains who did not interest her, and she dared not be any more obvious in her encouragement when surrounded thus.

Viscount Firth and Mr. William Pitt, the latter heir to Baron Sunderley, were her choices. Both were prosperous, kind, solid country gentlemen. Both were earnestly looking to settle down. Lord Firth was in his midthirties, more rugged than handsome, but not displeasing to view. He was, by all accounts, an excellent fellow, if rather straitlaced in his views. But he seemed to be of the nature to be open to a woman’s persuasion, provided he believed that the woman essentially agreed with him.

Mr. Pitt, bespectacled and a bit rotund, was an even greater favorite with Louisa. In him she sensed a much more malleable nature. His income would be less than Lord Firth’s. But in the end, what mattered most was not the gross amount, but the percentage she could command.

Mr. Pitt would make a supremely acceptable spouse, Louisa was certain. Unfortunately, he happened to be a most awkward suitor. He didn’t dance, lacked a commanding presence, and was minimally accomplished at the art of small talk, which relegated him to the periphery of her circle, a place he uncomfortably yet obdurately occupied.

Her heart rather went out to him. There was much she could do to help him better negotiate a crowd, if she were his wife. Or, once they married, they could settle in the country and he wouldn’t have to socialize at all, if he didn’t wish to. But before any of those ameliorations could take place, she must become his wife.

So toward that noble goal, she redoubled her effort on the night of Lady Savarin’s ball. “Will we have a wet summer? What do you think, gentlemen?” she asked as thunder boomed audibly in the distance.

“That won’t be fair,” a young fop protested. “Rain, if it must come, might as well come in winter, when it’s miserable anyway. The English summer is short enough as it is.”

“Right-ho,” his friend seconded. “A crying shame.”

“What do you think, Mr. Pitt?” Louisa reached out to her quarry. “I understand that you take a keen interest in meteorology. Have you observed any signs of soggy months to come?”

Mr. Pitt cleared his throat with flustered happiness. “As a matter of fact, I have. I have been going over some records. The current atmospheric conditions, I believe, combined with...”

“What is this? A session at the Royal Society? Did I stumble upon the wrong gathering? But lo and behold, Miss Cantwell, it is you. Why do you let fellows bore you with such trivia? Who gives a tuppence for atmospheric conditions?”

Mr. Pitt shrank promptly before this onslaught of delighted ignorance. Louisa groaned inwardly. But it wouldn’t do to openly offend Mr. Drummond. He was, incomprehensibly enough, one of the so-called “arbiters” of Society, presumably because everyone cringed to be on the receiving end of his ostentatious rudeness.

“Mr. Drummond,” she acknowledged him with unexceptional cordiality. “We are having a discussion on the weather and Mr. Pitt was just about to give us some very informative—”

If she had hoped to subtly chastise him, she failed utterly, for he interrupted her, too. “I say why talk if you can’t do anything about it.”

Poor Mr. Pitt was now flame red. Louisa gritted her teeth. Mr. Drummond didn’t so much court her as he displayed before her his skills at the game of courtship. And to everyone’s detriment, he was of the belief that to make himself appear superior, others must suffer in comparison.

“Well, I for one do believe there is intrinsic value to the study of meteorology,” said an unfamiliar voice somewhere to Louisa’s right.

Interestingly, Mr. Drummond, instead of dispensing with yet another one of his acerbic remarks, accepted this rebuff without any protestation. “Oh, if you say so, Wren.”

Wren? Could it be...

Mr. Pitt exhaled with relief. “Thank you, my lord Wrenworth.”

The Ideal Gentleman, in the flesh. To say that he would make an excellent husband for Louisa was analogous to declaring that a Thoroughbred stallion qualified as a four-legged beast of burden. His income was in excess of two hundred thousand pounds a year. In addition to that staggering wealth, he possessed good looks, charisma, athleticism, and tact. Not to mention that his character was so far above reproach that reproach would need a telescope to observe his universally lauded conduct.

Prince Charming, absolutely. The Holy Grail, almost.

Louisa had not been in a particular hurry to meet the marquess—a sensible woman who could afford only a gig did not spend her days dreaming of barouches. But now that Lord Wrenworth was in her vicinity, she was not going to pass on a detailed survey of this paragon of masculine virtues.

She would, however, be discreet about it. Lowering her eyes, she started from his shoes.

They had seen at least two Seasons, possibly three. Yet they did not appear worn, only comfortable. The leather, shined and buffed to a high sheen, was as supple and luxurious as a courtesan’s caress.

In contrast, Mr. Pitt’s spanking-new evening pumps looked as if they pinched his toes and chafed the backs of his ankles.

Her gaze traveled up Lord Wrenworth’s expertly pressed trousers to the flute of champagne at his side, dangling from his fingers. Many of the guests at the ball had such crystalware in their hands—Lady Tenwhestle, for one, held hers decorously before her person; Mr. Drummond, for another, idly turned his round and round. Lord Wrenworth’s champagne glass, however, gave the impression that it had leaped off a table of its own will into his hand, because it would never fit better elsewhere, or emanate a quarter so much ease and aplomb.

On that same hand he wore a signet ring, a coat of arms engraved upon a crest of deep, rich carnelian. The white cuff of his shirt extended a perfect quarter inch beyond the dark sleeve of his evening jacket. The cuff links were simple gold studs—or perhaps not so simple studs, for she could see lines and patterns, too fine for her to make out the design from where she stood.

She was stalling, she realized, lingering in the same spot because she was... not afraid, exactly, but rather apprehensive about looking higher. But really, what could he possibly do to a woman as practical as herself? Her soul was devoid of romantic yearnings; if she didn’t need a husband she would have happily embraced spinsterhood.

All at once she lifted her gaze—she might as well get it over with. She was presented with a head of thick black hair and an aristocratic profile. Then, as if sensing her attention, he turned to her.

A pox on everyone who had ever told her that The Ideal Gentleman was handsome. He was not handsome—he was extravagantly gorgeous. One look into his serene yet hypnotic green eyes, and all the romantic yearnings she had never before experienced struck her at once, like a bullet to the heart.

“Miss Cantwell,” said Mr. Drummond, “allow me to present my esteemed friend the Marquess of Wrenworth.”

Lord Wrenworth bowed slightly, his motion fluid, his manners commendable—an open amiability with no arrogance or condescension. “Enchanted, Miss Cantwell.”

The not-quite-smile of his lips threatened to turn her into a gelatinous mass, like a clump of beached sea nettles. How could she defend against such perfection? How could anyone defend against such perfection?

She must. She had a task here in London. She could not trail Lord Wrenworth all about town in the wretched hope that he would notice her. She had no doubt he would, perceptive man that he must be, and he would treat her lunacy with great kindness, sparing her any embarrassment if at all he could, while gently steering her toward less unobtainable gentlemen, thoughtfully reminding her that much depended upon a judicious marriage on her part.

But how could she continue? She was only mildly fraudulent, not profligately so. She could not pursue Lord Firth or Mr. Pitt while her heart burned for someone else, while she compared them to the peerless Lord Wrenworth and found them woefully inadequate at every turn.

“My lord Wrenworth,” she croaked, sinking into a curtsy.

As she straightened, their eyes met again. She managed a few meaningless words of small talk—Yes, I am enjoying my first Season. Alas, my family cannot be here with me. No, I do not find London’s air more noxious than I have been told to expect—heroically holding herself upright, while her spine liquefied vertebra by vertebra.

It was difficult to draw breath. Her heart palpitated in both pleasure and panic. And she flushed furiously, too much heat pulsing through her veins for her to control or disguise.

A heartbeat later, however, she was cold.

She could not say how she knew it, Lord Wrenworth having been nothing but flawlessly courteous. All the same, she was suddenly dead certain that on the inside, he found her patently ridiculous, perhaps even laughable.

Introductions completed, Mr. Drummond began to talk about himself again. Lord Wrenworth appeared content to let his friend garner all the limelight and was soon engaged in conversation with Lady Tenwhestle, Lady Balfour’s daughter and Louisa’s chaperone for the evening.

So civil, so gracious, so gentlemanly—yet Louisa could not shake off the pins-and-needles sensation of his secret, if slight and casual, contempt, as if he viewed her as a toad trying to kiss a prince. And not the sort of toad who was in fact a cursed princess, but just a plain, warty amphibian who didn’t know any better.

She had no idea it was possible to be this mortified when there was no public humiliation involved. Or that it was possible to be this crushed when she ought to be thrilled that she would not, in the end, abandon her fortune hunting to stalk Lord Wrenworth all over London.

So much for her long-delayed romantic awakening, such a starburst of emotions and such a lot of nothing.

She fluttered her fan, if rather too vigorously, and pretended to listen to Mr. Drummond.

Lord Wrenworth did not speak to her again and barely looked in her direction. But as the minutes wore on, she grew more and more acutely aware of his observation, of everyone about her and of herself in particular.

Had she realized this earlier, she would have been in a state of ferment, turning herself inside out with dizzying conjectures of his possible interest. But now she understood that his scrutiny was wholly clinical; he was not curious at all about her, except perhaps as an exercise to keep his mind sharp.

And by this impersonal inspection, he made her feel as if she wore her bust improver on the outside of her bodice for the world to witness. As if he had already seen through her entire facade, from her lack of true beauty to her fundamentally scheming ways.

Had she gone mad? It had to be madness on her part to have fabricated this hysterical response to a cordial greeting followed by little else. No one else seemed to share her disquiet. The gentlemen, Mr. Pitt included, were delighted with Lord Wrenworth in their midst. Lady Tenwhestle positively glowed.

Whereas Louisa felt only unsettled, as if he’d seen her reach into someone’s pocket and she had no choice but to wait to see what he’d do with that incriminating knowledge.

Lord Wrenworth didn’t stay long—no more than ten minutes, given that Mr. Drummond had yet to finish bragging about the chances of one of his horses at the races. When his lordship politely excused himself, saying he was expected elsewhere, she breathed for what seemed like the first time in years.

Mr. Drummond also took to fleeing soon thereafter, upon the arrival of his former mistress, from whom he had severed relations in a most acrimonious manner, according to all reports.

Louisa forced herself to rally, to not waste a moment of her precious London time. Even though she made very little headway with Miss Jane Edwards, Lord Firth’s sister, who sent her poisonous looks, she danced twice with Lord Firth and sat down to supper with him. She was even more gratified when she at last managed to get Mr. Pitt to speak in detail about the hygrometer that he’d commissioned, based on the latest Italian designs.

It was not, however, how others perceived her accomplishments that evening.

“Oh, but I’m excited for you, Louisa,” Lady Tenwhestle said as soon as the carriage door closed behind them. “To have made Wrenworth’s acquaintance. We should have a toast to that.”

His very name tasted acrid.

“That would be premature, wouldn’t it, ma’am? Lord Wrenworth is hardly about to look to me for a wife,” Louisa said, trying to make sure she sounded pragmatic, rather than bitter. “Besides, he expressed no interest in my person.”

“Well, I should think less of him if he did. Considering who he is and how much he is worth, he would be a fool to go around expressing interest. It would cause a stampede,” said Lady Tenwhestle. “He spent ten minutes in your company. That should make Mother quite happy when I tell her.”

“But he spent that time in your company, ma’am, not mine.”

“Commendable discretion, that; the man has the most beautiful sensitivity to etiquette.” Lady Tenwhestle nodded approvingly. “It would only make your hand more desirable if it is perceived that Lord Wrenworth himself might be interested.”

The queen would abandon her widowhood before Lord Wrenworth proposed to Louisa, for whom he felt nothing but a blasé disdain. Therefore any perception of his interest would serve only to set her cause back. How would poor Mr. Pitt react if he were to be told, erroneously, that one of the most eligible gentlemen in the land now numbered among her admirers? It was the last thing she wanted.

Or was it?

She could not deny that as Lady Tenwhestle bent Lord Wrenworth’s action to fit her own interpretation, she had felt a tremor of hope. Perhaps she truly had been out of her mind. Perhaps Lady Tenwhestle’s explanation, however convenient and sanguine, was the correct one. Perhaps despite his less than kind opinion of her, he did find her appealing in some way.

Listen to yourself, came the stern voice of her inner taskmaster. Lady Tenwhestle is overly optimistic and you know it. Do not fictionalize Lord Wrenworth’s sentiments: He has none—none for you, in any case. Now concentrate on the achievable.

She stood for a long time before the small window of her room, gazing up at a thoroughly overcast sky, going over her plans, and praying for a proposal from Mr. Pitt. But just before she left the window, a single star appeared high overhead, and she was suddenly thinking of Lord Wrenworth, a flare of incandescence in her heart.

• • •

Felix stood before the much larger window of his bedroom, examining the same dark clouds, thinking of Miss Cantwell.

Savoring, almost, this unanticipated interest on his part.

Eleven years ago, such a flicker of curiosity would have alarmed him. But eleven years ago he was still a child, his wounds fresh, and his confidence largely a thing of smoke and mirrors.

But now he was The Ideal Gentleman, admired by men and desired by women, his opinions ardently sought, his style eagerly copied.

And it intrigued him that she had turned away from him. Somebody should, but he hadn’t expected it of a woman as insignificant as she—hardly the most impressive debutante he’d met in his life, or even in the course of the current Season.

Granted, she had fine eyes and a good bosom, but the best one could say of her was that she was pleasant. She possessed no remarkable beauty and no particular wit. Nor did she emanate that sometimes mysterious power of the fairer sex, the dark, potent allure that struck a man directly in the groin.

Over the years, he had met a few clever girls who thought they could better intrigue him with a cooler reception. Miss Cantwell was acting, too, of course, a young lady of no wealth and no consequence carrying on as if she had no ulterior motives for being in London. She wasn’t so good an actor that he couldn’t see through her pretense at fifty paces. She was, however, good enough that he’d been slightly surprised at the transparency of her infatuation. When their gaze had met for the first time, he had almost heard the wedding bells ringing in her ears.

Then it dissipated into thin air—not just the look, but the infatuation itself.

And that had firmly caught his attention.

He enjoyed being The Ideal Gentleman—he would go on enjoying it for the remainder of his natural life, he was sure. But there were times when he found himself restless and vaguely dissatisfied. Was it really so easy to fool the entire world? Could no one see the cynicism and amorality underneath? And would anyone ever have the audacity to tell him that he was hardly a gentleman, let alone an example to which others should aspire?

Miss Cantwell would probably prove to be a mirage, just another young lady who couldn’t see an inch beneath his surface.

But he would give her a few chances to prove otherwise.