"May I promise her, my lord?" Her voice was chocked with emotion, but it also was indisputably Cherry's.

"Cherry?" he said disbelievingly.

"How... when..."

Christabel rounded on him.

"Don't let her leave again, Uncle Gavin!

Please? "

Staring at Frederica with eyes newly opened, Gavin wondered how he could have been so blind. He had danced twice with her the night before, spent an hour with her at supper . Though he still did not fully understand, he smiled, his first real smile in days.

"I should like her to stay for always--if she is willing." Frederica returned his smile with a tremulous one of her own.

"I am perfectly willing, my lord." Her cheeks were wet, but happiness and love, pure love, shone from her eyes. She then glanced down at Christabel, who was bouncing on her lap with delight, and said in an altered tone that sounded precisely like the nanny he remembered,

"Whatever do you have all over your face, young lady?"

"Freckles," answered Christabel readily. Gavin noticed then that his niece's face was decorated with spots and c'trcles of brown.

"I found this pencil under your bed and gave myself freckles, just as you used to do," she explained matter-of factly

Frederica turned bright pink and Gavin exclaimed,

"You little imp! Do you mean to say that you knew all along that Cherry's--Miss Chesterton's--freckles were false? Why did you not say so?"

"Do not all ladies who want freckles paint them on?" asked Christabel innocently.

Gavin was torn between a desire to shake her and to laugh. He gave in to the latter.

"The eyes of a child see more clearly than those of a jaded old fellow like myself, it would appear. Go with Abby, then, and wash your face, Christabel.

Cherry will be here when you return."

With a final, fierce hug, Christabel relinquished her hold on Frederica and followed the housekeeper from the room. As soon as they were alone, Gavin came to sit next to Frederica.

"I still cannot credit it," he said, shaking his head.

"How did you do it? And why?"

"As you once observed, my lord, I have strong opinions. When my brother told me of our betrothal, I was determined to undo it, if I could. Miss Milliken helped me to obtain the post, and to disguise myself."

"Miss Milliken--your companion? Does she perchance live in a cottage at the edge of Town?"

At her nod, he shook his head.

"And I never thought to ask for a name," he murmured.

"So you came here in an effort to escape our engagement? How so?"

"I thought that if I could spy upon you, from within your own household, I might find something to your discredit that would convince Thomas to release me from it.

It seemed a perfect plan. " Frederica gave him a rueful smile. " Little did I know how my feelings would change once I came to know you. I meant to prove you a scoundrel. Instead, I found you to be a man of honour, a man I could not help but love. " " Then you forgive me for what I did? " he asked seriously.

"For forcing you to this betrothal, and for trifling with your affections while you were here as Christabel's nanny? For not explaining to you then what my own feelings were?"

The depth of love in his eyes made her catch her breath.

"If you will forgive me for the deception I practised on you," she replied.

"And for the pain I put you through as a result of my cowardice."

He chuckled.

"I suppose neither of us is entirely blameless. But if love conquers all, as they say, we can put all of our past sins behind us and begin afresh."

Taking her in his arms, he kissed her lingeringly, pa.s.sionately, with no hint of restraint.

Frederiea returned his kiss wholeheartedly, her every sense fully alive. As he probed deeper, she opened to him willingly, eagerly. This was a kiss to seal their troth, to bind them together--forever. And it was just a taste of the pleasures to come.

"Love conquers all," she murmured, when she could speak again. That was the one point of strategy Miss Milliken had forgotten to mention during all of their scheming, the most important one of all.