Heloise certainly would be angry and even her father might have disapproved.
Then she knew the magnetism she had sensed in the Earl when she had seen him by peeping through the bannisters was, when she was close to him, so strong that it made her feel exhilarated.
It was difficult to explain in words and yet she remembered hearing once a very old man reminiscing about the great Duke of Wellington and he had said,
“Whenever Wellington came into a room, the tempo rose and everybody sat up and seemed to come alive.”
That, Lydia thought, was exactly the quality the Earl had. Because he teased her or just because he was there, she felt the tempo rise and she became exhilarated almost as if she had drunk a glass of champagne and it had gone to her head.
“You have been a long time!” Heloise
