"Do you attend these engagements often?" Henry enquired. He brought Elizabeth to the balcony. She slipped her hand from his arm and took out her fan. He immediately felt the loss of her warmth and he did not like it.

"Unfortunately yes." Elizabeth replied. "I want nothing more than to be left alone in my library of an evening. However, my mother with concern for my advancing age insists at every opportunity to throw me in the wake of any available male. It is as though she wants to rid me of my home."

Henry laughed. He was not sure until tonight if Elizabeth was aware of Lady Apsley's plan now he was sure that she did not. She was spirited and amusing. He was sure under different circumstances he would become enamoured with her.

Henry deposited Elizabeth to her mother. He approached the group to join their conversation.

"....Then Lady Apsley, she brings to Harewood a group of East End girls to be trained at kitchen maids. I thought that cook was going to leave." Lady Buckingham sighed for dramatic effect giving a sly smile to her daughter.

Lady Apsley smiled at Elizabeth. Her twinkling brown eyes set off her angular face. "I know that my William was very fond of Elizabeth's interests in her causes. I think she should continue to pursue them."

Before Elizabeth could respond her brother Adam appeared at her shoulder reddened in the face from dancing and looking very pleased with himself.

"Adam can we introduce Lord Brockett to you?" Lady Buckingham extended her fan in Henry's direction.

"Most certainly." Adam extended his hand to Henry. "Adam Buckingham at your service. I must admit the Ballroom is ablaze with talk of your arrival in England."

"Adam! Please do not be so impolite." Lady Buckingham scolded her son with a light rap of her fan on his back.

"Please Lady Buckingham. I am so unused to society of this order that I would be unable to judge impolite or other. I am Henry Carlyle I am pleased to make your acquaintance." Henry smiled and offered his hand which Adam shook with gusto.

"I hear rumour that you are a doctor the same as I. What area of medicine do you practice in?"

"I am in general medicine. Though I perform surgery and attend births. What about you?"

"Ah. I am interested in surgery. You must come to my practice at The London in Whitechapel."

"I will!" Henry grinned. He was desperate to be useful. It would also put a stop to the endless teas and fitting for clothes that were uncomfortable.

"Come with me old chap and I will introduce you to the chopper uppers of people." Adam led Henry back into the Ballroom.

"It would appear that I have lost my escort for the night. I am happy he has found someone to talk to. I fear I have been rather dull company for a man so fiercely intelligent."

Elizabeth interest in Henry piqued at the knowledge of his intelligence. Her hand still bore the imprint of his kiss. She watched as her brother guided him to a group of young men. Henry turned around and caught her glance. He smiled at her which she found herself involuntarily returning and a strange stirring running through her body.

____________________________________________________________________________

"This is Henry Carlyle." Adam introduced Henry to the medical men of London.

Henry found himself intellectually challenged in conversation for the first time in months. He lapped up the chat and found himself invited to most of the medical practices in London.

"My, your sister is looking fine tonight." Lord Ashcroft noted to Adam with a nudge as they observed Elizabeth walk from the balcony to the punch bowl to gain further refreshments for her mother and Lady Apsley. Elizabeth looked over Adam and rolled her eyes.

"James don't make me laugh. She reduced you to mincemeat at the last Botanical Royal Society talk. She is too smart and too headstrong for you."

"She is fine." James Ashcroft mumbled to himself. He had been trying to capture Elizabeth's attention since William's passing. She had always managed to politely dodge him. He was beginning to lose patience.

"Why don't you make you intentions known to her?" Henry asked more out of devilment than real concern. From the little he knew about Lord Ashcroft and Miss Buckingham it was very clear that Elizabeth would be too much of a challenge.

"She has decided to not become a wife. She was never going to be one anyway with Will Brockett..." James decided to put this Henry Carlyle in his place.

"James!" Adam scolded." Henry has just been acquainted with us. Do you want him to run to the hills because you are gossiping like a scullery maid?"

"Apologies, it is suffice to say that Elizabeth and William had made an intellectual decision to marry. Once the heir and the spare were produced they could live mutually agreeable separate lives." He gave Henry a nudge and a wink to imply that there was more to what he was saying.

So there it was. The elephant in all the rooms at Brockett Hall. William preferred the company of men. He had his suspicions and now Henry had them confirmed.

"That would have been a difficult arrangement for your sister to bear would it not?" Henry asked Adam out of the earshot of others. His lack of propriety in London Society was clear. He did not want any scandal to reflect on Elizabeth.

"This arrangement was made when they were children. If my father knew of William's proclivities then I am sure that he would have made alternative arrangements. Unfortunately if rumour is to be believed Williams's father 'discovered' William's preference and rushed the engagement. My sister was only seventeen at the time. Then the old Lord Brockett kicked the bucket when William was in the Crimea. His body was never found. However there were a few scandalous stories that reached the ears of my father. After 12 months of no body and confirmations of his death my sister and his mother accepted that it was over. We had a mock burial at Brockett Hall"

"She didn't know about the 'proclivities?" Henry asked out of curiosity and wanting to understand Elizabeth

"No, my sister for all of her book learning is very naive of the ways of the world. I think she would channel herself into her good works and live as my maiden aunt does."

"That is his Aunt Tilly the Baroness of Highgate who is indeed a tuppence licker." James added.

"James, please do us all a favour and cease drinking copious amounts of gin. It really does not bring the best out in your conversation."

Henry was astonished by the London Society lack of morals in their conversations. As a man of medicine he was aware that there has always been men and women who lived and loved with someone of their own sex. His mother had said that the bible was not clear on the issue and that love was love. However he was a man enough of the world to know the scandal such openness can cause families. He decided to withdraw from the group and seek out his Aunt.

Henry noticed that Lady Apsley was crossing the ballroom with Lady Buckingham a woman he took to be Adam's maiden Aunt and Elizabeth.

Henry and Adam both bowed as the ladies approached. James Ashcroft extended a bow and left the group.

"Henry, I am so sorry to be a bore. Would you mind if I returned to the house now? You can stay here with Adam and fetch a Hackney Cab back."

"We are too Adam. Your sister has a clinic to run tomorrow and I am exhausted listening to her wining."

"If it is your wish my Lady." Henry bowed to his Aunt trying to stop the smile forming on his face. "I bid you all a good evening."

"Adam. Do not wake the servants when you get back please."

Adam bowed and failed at hiding his smile. "Absolutely mother. I will be as a mouse."

Henry saw the blush on Elizabeth's face. "I hope your clinic runs satisfactorily."

"As do I Sir." His voice, his eyes. The dimple in his chin. She was positively giddy in his presence. She did not like this feeling at all. Not one bit.