“No,” William said. “One failed attempt after another, perhaps, but none were disasters until Waterloo. You needed our help for that.”
It was so exactly what Maxwell had just been thinking that he snorted half a laugh despite himself.
“The coincidence of the names is curious, don’t you think?” William went on. “His young brother William and his betrothed Elizabeth. He goes on at some length about them both. They were paragons of perfection, it would appear, Elizabeth in particular.” He flipped back a few pages.
Her hair was the brightest living gold…a crown of distinction upon her head. Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless, and her lips and the molding of her face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness, that none could behold her without looking on her as of a disti
