Ada crossed her arms and stared at Tim, her back to the door as more and more people arrived at the dance. Her heart believed Tim was innocent, but her head needed to hear an explanation for everything left unresolved.

“I…explaining?” Tim burst into a laugh. “I’m not sure that there are any possible explanations for the comedy of errors we’ve been through in the last few days.”

His laughter and the genuine affection in his eyes put Ada at ease. They were forced to take a few more steps toward the dance floor, where couples were beginning to waltz as the band played.

Ada shot a glimpse to the side of the room, where Mrs. Musgrave and Mr. Noakes stood in front of the door to the storage room, frowning at everything they surveyed. She inched closer to Tim. “When I was in your apartment,” she whispered. “There was a garter on your bureau. A lacy garter embroidered with an ‘A’.”

Tim shook his head, resting his hands on Ada’s arms. “Oh, that.”

“So you don’t deny it?” A part of Ada’s heart sank. She rushed on with, “Only, with everything going on and all the confusion, I thought perhaps it belonged to….” She let her words fade, but nodded to where Alice Jones was standing by the refreshment table, glancing up at Tad as though he were the bees’ knees. Surprisingly, Tad gazed back at her as though he’d found the Holy Grail.

Tim made a strangled, embarrassed noise as he winced in Alice’s direction. “I picked he garter up at the cottage because I thought you’d left it for me. As for the rest, unfortunately, Miss Jones has…or at least had…formed a schoolgirl crush on me.” He glanced back to Ada with a sheepish smile. “I’d always heard of young women almost out of the schoolroom forming attachments to their teachers, but I never dreamed it would happen to me. Which is, perhaps, why I handled it so badly.”

“Badly?” Ada arched a brow. She didn’t think he would have indulged Alice’s romantic fantasies, but….

“I didn’t nip it in the bud,” he said in a reassuring voice. “And I didn’t disabuse her of her romantic notions until it was too late because I didn’t think they could possibly be true. Because since the moment I met you, I’ve only had room in my heart for you.” He moved to take her hands.

“Oh,” Ada gasped. The last of her worry melted, and she smiled at Tim as though she’d come home at last.

“Ada, I love you,” he went on, swaying closer to you. “I meant everything I said last night when we were….” He glanced around to be sure no one was eavesdropping. “When I awoke and you weren’t there, I was terrified that you’d left because you thought the things I said were nothing more than a ploy to seduce you.”

“I would never think that,” Ada said, raising a hand to cradle the side of his face, where a bruise was blossoming, thanks to Wat’s blow. “I knew you meant it, even if we were….” She could feel the heat spilling into her cheeks and glanced down coyly.

“I do want to marry you,” Tim went on. “More than anything.”

“And I meant it when I said yes,” Ada told him. “And not just because of the extraordinary things I was feeling,” she added in a whisper, certain her eyes sparkled with mischief.

Tim rested his hand over hers against his cheek. “I want more than that, though,” he went on. “I want you to come teach with me.”

“Really?” she was so startled she pulled her hand away. “Me, a teacher? Why, I couldn’t even read two years ago.”

“But you can now,” he insisted. “You’re such a fast learner. You’re good with figures too. You’d be the perfect teacher for the younger students. I haven’t been able to give them as much attention as they deserve.”

“Me. A teacher,” she repeated, this time with confidence. “I think I’d like that very much.”

“We could marry this spring,” Tim went on. “I could train you over the summer. By the opening of the new school year, everything would be set.”

“Unless,” she said, lowering her eyes and glancing up at him through her lashes, “there were babies on the way.”

He flushed a pleasing shade of pink and looked happy enough to burst. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Then yes,” she said. “Yes to everything. I would love to marry you and teach with you and build a life with you.”

“My darling,” Tim said, then, in spite of the crowd of dancers, he drew her into his arms, slanting his mouth over hers in a kiss. It was the most delightful kiss she’d ever had, not that she’d had many. So much so that she didn’t even care that Mrs. Musgrave and Mr. Noakes could be watching and her position at Winterberry Park would be in jeopardy. She had a new position and a new life waiting for her, represented by the ardor of Tim’s kiss.

But their kiss was cut short by the bellowed accusation of, “Get your hands off my daughter!”

Ada barely had a chance to turn before a strong, meaty hand landed on her shoulder, spinning her away from Tim. Sam Jones took her place, raising a fist that was aimed at Tim’s face. Fortunately, Tim dodged the blow just in time.

Seconds later, Alice’s furious shout of, “Papa!” rang from the other end of the room.

Sam snapped straight, a shocked look on his face. He glanced from Tim, who was recovering from his feint with fists raised to defend himself, to Ada, at whom he blinked, then across the room to Alice. Then he stared at Ada once more.

“You’re not my daughter,” he said.

“No,” Ada panted, breathless with shock. “I’m not.”

Sam sniffed. “You have the same color hair as her. From the back….”

“She doesn’t look a thing like me,” Alice protested, weaving her way through the crowd of dancers, who had stopped to see what was going on. She held Tad’s hand, dragging him with her. When they came to a stop in front of Sam, Alice sniffed and added, “I’m much prettier.”

“I beg to differ,” Tim said, taking Ada’s hand and drawing her back into the shelter of his arms. “My wife will be the most beautiful woman in all of Wiltshire.”

“Oh, Tim,” Ada sighed, melting into his embrace.

“No, I will make the prettiest wife in all of Wiltshire,” Alice insisted. She pivoted to clamp her arms around Tad in imitation of Ada and Tim’s embrace. “Isn’t that right, Tad, my own, true love.”

“Well…I….” Tad grinned down at her. “All right. If you want to get married—”

“No,” Sam bellowed, wrenching Alice away from Tad. “You’re too young.”

“Oh, Papa, I am not,” Alice said, her face screwed into a sullen frown. She stomped her foot.

Sam glared at Tad, who swallowed hard, as though he’d just realized the situation he’d walked into. “You and I need to have a talk,” Sam growled, pounding a fist into his hand.

“I…I….”

Tad was spared having to defend himself as the door to the storage room slammed open. Several people standing nearby screamed as Wat and Mary spilled out. Wat’s shirt was missing and his trousers were undone, as was the front of Mary’s gown. Wat had his hand over one of her bared breasts. Her hair was disheveled, her skirt rucked up, and her lips red from kissing. A second round of scandalized screams filled the room as more people saw the illicit lovers.

“What is the meaning of this?” Mrs. Musgrave shouted. It was Mary’s bad luck that the woman was standing closer to the door than anyone.

“Scandal,” Mr. Noakes growled. “Shameful, immoral scandal!”

“Here! What are you going on about my woman for?” Wat roared, tucking himself back into his trousers and managing to glare threateningly at Mr. Noakes at the same time.

“Yes,” Ada whispered in relief and victory, grabbing Tim’s arm. “Finally, the cat gets caught with the canary.”

“Miss Mull,” Mrs. Musgrave launched into a towering temper, “I have never been so horrified in all my life. Is this any way for an employee of Winterberry Park to behave? You have brought shame on our house, and I will not have it.”

“But…but it’s just Wat,” Mary argued futilely.

“It is never just anyone where immorality is concerned,” Mrs. Musgrave told her, drawing herself up to her full height. “You are sacked immediately, without references.”

“No!” Mary yelped.

“She can’t be,” her sister, Martha shouted from the other side of the eagerly watching crowd.

“I have half a mind to dismiss you as well,” Mrs. Musgrave called to Martha, though judging by the way she scanned the crowd, she didn’t know where the woman was.

“She’d do best to get both of them out of there,” Ada whispered. “Although this means she’ll have to replace the entire maid staff by this summer.”

“I can’t say that I feel sorry for her,” Tim said with a grin, squeezing Ada’s arm. “I’m stealing the best of the lot, and I suspect the others should have been ousted ages ago.”

“Yes, they should have,” Ada agreed, having a hard time not giggling.

Their attention was drawn back to the other confrontation as Mary wailed, “But without references, I’ll be on the street. It’ll ruin me.”

“You ruined yourself, girl,” Mrs. Musgrave said, turning away from her.

“No one is ruined,” Wat bellowed, loud enough to silence the discussion and the whispers around it. He turned to Mary. “You know I’d’ve married you at any time, Mar. I guess that time is now. So come on away from this sour lot and be my missus.”

Ada shared a look with Tim that was part mystification, part amusement. Mary let out a pitiful sound and leaned against Wat’s side. He put his arm around her. A few people standing nearest to them took that as a sign of her acceptance and burst into cheers. The band resumed playing where it had left off, and the dance continued on a jovial note.

“Would you care to dance, my lady?” Tim asked, offering his arm to Ada.

“I’d love to, my darling,” she answered.

He swept her into a waltz, and they joined the other dancing couples.

“This may go down in history as the most eventful dance Lanhill has ever had,” Ada laughed.

“I know that it will always hold a special place in my heart,” Tim answered. “It’s the moment when I won the greatest love a man could ever have.”

Ada laughed, her heart feeling light. Things couldn’t have turned out better if she’d orchestrated it herself.

* * *

Whew! I think we all need a little rest after that comedy of errors! And we’ll get that rest too. Book Three in The Silver Foxes of Westminster, May Mistakes, which will shift the action up north to the Cumbrian town of Brynthwaite and the lives and love of Miss Elaine Bond and the mysterious Basil Wall, comes out July 20^th! But if you’d like a sneak peek and to read a little about the background to that story, be sure to check out , part of the West Meets East series.

Oh, I’d also like to say a special thank you to my friend, editor, and assistant, Julie, for taking me to see all of the silly plays her dad likes to act in. Those kinds of farces are exactly what inspired this story!

Be sure to so that you can be alerted when all of these exciting books are released!