“No, of course not,” Nerina murmured.
“As I have already told you,” Sir Rupert continued, “I noticed you even when you were a child and I have heard many complimentary things about your beauty since you grew up, I should have been deaf as well as blind if I had not been aware that there was somebody exceptionally lovely living at Rowanfield Manor.”
“So you fell in love with what you had heard about me?” Nerina said. “How – precipitate!”
She noticed that Sir Rupert gave her a sharp glance, but fortunately it was impossible for him to see the expression on her face for the fine net mesh of her veil obscured her features.
“Perhaps the idea of falling in love with you was implanted in my mind by what I had heard about you,” he said as he was not a Diplomat for nothing, “but it was when I c
