Twenty-Six

London__April, 1821

Cassy was nervous. In just two months, she would reach her majority. Jonathan would be in charge of his own destiny, and they would both be out from under Eastland's thumb. That was all she ever wanted, to be away from the duke's clucthes.

Pacing the floor of the spacious living room on the second floor of the elegant townhouse that had belonged to their grandfather, she kept glancing out of the window again and again. The duke was expected to call on them that afternoon to arrange the final stages of his guardianship.

A tight knot hung in her throat. It had been almost two years since she'd had any close contact with him, and almost three since the night he'd kissed her on the veranda of his townhouse. The burning memory of that kissed had not faded with time, nor the sharp memories of her infatuation of him.

Cassy flushed slightly. She'd grown much more mature than that green girl who had gazed at him with wide eyes and the lovesick expression of a puppy. Her man