For how long?"

"About ten days now, but" -- "And you have the audacity to take me to task?"

He was now fully as angry as she.

"You realize, of course, that your reputation is completely ruined?"

"Ssh! Moderate your tone, Thomas. Lord Sea brooke has no notion of whom I am, as yet, and I would prefer to keep it that way," hissed Frederica, with a hasty glance towards the door.

"As long as no one discovers that Miss Cherrystone and Miss Chesterton are one and the same, my reputation should not suffer. And how can you presume to condemn me when it was you who forced me into this situation to begin with?" Brother and sister glared at each other for a long moment, and in the sudden silence, they heard firm footsteps coming toward the library.

Frederica said quickly,

"Meet me in Hyde Park tomorrow morning. We can discuss it further there." '

The door opened, and she turned.

"Good evening, my lord," she said smoothly.

"I came to find a book. I had no notion that you were entertaining this evening."

Lord Sea brooke raised his eyebrows slightly at the sight of the nanny face to face with his future brother-in-law, but he merely said,

"I take it you have made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas Chesterton?"

Thomas remained mute, apparently still struggling with the remarkable situation, so Frederica said quickly,

"I've only been here a moment, my lord. I fear I rather startled Sir Thomas."

"Then allow me to present Christabel's nanny, Miss Cherrystone.

Cherry has made herself most invaluable to us already," he added, with a warm smile at Frederiea.

She returned it perfunctorily, fearful of what Thomas might think.

"Pleased to meet you, sir,"

she said, bobbing a quick curtsey.

"I'll just get my book and leave you gentlemen to your brandy. My apologies for intruding." Seizing a volume at random, she hurried from the room before she could lose her precarious control. Once in the hallway, the door safely closed behind her, she had to fight an incredible urge to giggle. What an absurd situation! Glancing down, she noticed the t.i.tle of the book she held.

A Thesis on Geometrical Equations. One hand over her mouth, she ran for the stairs before her laughter could bring the earl or the servants to investigate.

Gavin, meanwhile, watched her go with something like regret. Why had he not informed her that Sir Thomas was his future brother-in: law? The more unavoidable his approaching wedding became, the more he felt, with every fibre of his being, that he was doing the wrong thing.

ON THE V'W to the Park the next morning, Frederica wondered whether she ought to give Christabel some warning about their meeting with her brother.

Glancing down at the child's happy, shining face, she decided against it.

They had brought along another sack of stale bread to feed to the ducks, and her charge would doubtless be too occupied with that favourite pastime to notice whom her nanny spoke to. Thomas was awaiting them at the Park gates.

"Good morning, Sir Thomas," she said with a polite nod.

"How pleasant to see you here.

Would you care to walk with us to the duck pond? "

He took his cue from her and answered in the same style, and they conversed on general topics until Christabel was surrounded by an eager flock of ducks and laughing happily as she fed them.

"Now, perhaps you will explain to me what is going on," Thomas said softly once they had moved a short distance away.

"I nearly had an apoplexy when I saw you at Sea brooke House last night. Why are you not at Miss Milliken's?"

"I was," replied Frederica.

"It became obvious that the only way I could discover anything of importance about Lord Sea brooke was by becoming a spy in his household." She went on to describe the procedure they had followed to procure her position there.

Thomas listened with open scepticism.

"And has it worked? Have you managed to prove him a scoundrel?"

Frederica bit her lip. It rankled to admit to Thomas that he had been right, but the only alternative was to ruin a man she now considered a good friend.

"He is no saint, that is certain,"

she said finally.

"But no, I cannot call him a scoundrel. Though I still think it reprehensible of you to betroth me to him without my consent!" Her green eyes met his blue ones squarely.

"It was hardly likely to promote a felicitous marriage. And now I fear that may be even harder to achieve. He is far from happy about the match himself, Thomas."

"He gave no hint of that to me," her brother protested.

"Not even when I informed him that I had put the announcement in the papers yesterday."

"How dared you do so when I had not finished my investigation?"

Frederiea flared.

"You could not know that I would not find anything!"

Thomas looked smug.

"But you have not, have you? And it is just as well, for I'd never let you off marrying him now that you've been living in the same house with him! We can only hope that word of it never leaks out. Still," he said, looking at her with respect, "it was a plucky thing to do, Freddie, and more than I expected of you."

"It is good in you to say so," she said cut tingly

"But I have another concern. How am I to reveal what I have done? Lord Sea brooke does not strike me as a man who will look kindly on deceit."

"Perhaps you need not tell him. Quit your post as nanny and appear as yourself. He may never make the connection."

Frederica cast him a withering glance. I'll grant that you might be fooled, Thomas, but Lord Sea brooke is more observant. He'll know who I am the moment I speak two words to him.

I don't believe he is the sort of man who puts great stock in appearances. "