Cordelia set aside the newspaper she’d been clutching and gave her friend’s hand a sympathetic pat. “I never in a million years imagined you were stupid, Plum. You’re the smartest, most giving woman I know, and you’ve done a marvelous job with Thomasine, although she wasn’t really a child when she came to you. How old was she when her uncle died?”

“Fifteen,” Plum admitted.

“You’ve done wonderfully raising her these past five years, and you know you’ll always be welcome here. The children adore you…”

The unvoiced objection pierced Plum’s heart with an arrow’s quickness. She looked up at her friend, the black eyebrows that refused all her attempts to make them arch settled into a thick slash across her brow. “But?”

Cordelia squeezed her hand. “But it’s time you had a family of your own.”

Plum raised her eyes heavenward for a moment. “Do you think I haven’t been trying to find a man who would take me? Good heavens, Del, you yourself have introduced me to every eligible bachelor in the county, and I’ve examined all of the ineligible ones. There’s not a man in all of Dorset who hasn’t heard of the scandal, and thus won’t sully his reputation by marrying me. The rest of them are either drunkards or wife-beaters or too poor to support Thom and me. And before you tell me I’m being too finicky, I assure you I’m not looking for a man of fortune — just one who has the means to support a wife and one small niece.”

Cordelia laughed. “I would never call you finicky, Plum. Some of the men you even thought about marrying…” She gave a little shudder. “But that’s neither here nor there. Look, see what old Mrs. Tavernosh heard was posted in yesterday’s paper.” She held out the newspaper for Plum to examine the small advertisement that had been circled by a blue pencil.

Plum read the paragraph, her eyebrows lifting as she looked up to meet her friend’s bright, dancing eyes. “You cannot be serious!”

“Why not? This man needs a wife, wants someone who likes children, and says he has comfortable means.”

Plum allowed her mouth to gape open, just a little, just enough for her friend to see how shocked she was. “Why not? Why not? Cordelia Bapwhistle, have you or have you not been lecturing me these last two years I’ve been husband hunting about the folly of accepting just any man?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“And are you not the very person who weekly lectures me about how women can be perfectly happy and productive without bearing a child or being a wife?”

“Yes, and I stand behind that statement. Children are not for everyone, Plum. Some women—”

“And yet you, you who regularly tells me that I should be grateful to be unencumbered and free to live my life the way I want — although I’d like to point out that poor as a church mouse and unloved by anyone but a niece who prefers the company of animals to people is not the life I wish to live—you are suggesting that I answer this ridiculous advertisement inserted by a man I know nothing about?”

“Well, of course you’d have to find out something about him, I’m not suggesting you take him sight unseen. He might not be suitable at all. The advert says you should send particulars, and you will be contacted if the man wishes to interview you.”

“Interview me!” Plum said, indignation rising at just the thought of being interviewed. She gave a ladylike snort. “As if I were a servant? I think not!”

Cordelia watched her with an eye lit from within by warmth, affection, and a good deal of humor. “There’s nothing to stop you from interviewing him, as well, you know. And really, what is an interview but time to get to know someone? You’ve done as much with the men you’ve pursued.”

A faint blush the color of a nearby rose colored Plum’s cheek as she looked away from her friend. “You make it sound as if I was desperate, hunting men the way a fox hunts its prey.”

“Plum, you know I want you to be happy. If your experience with Charles has not put you off men for life and you are sure that you want to be married and have a family, then I will do everything I can to help you.”

“My marriage with Charles did nothing to put me off all men, Del. I assume that he was the exception to the norm, and that most men would hesitate to marry a woman when they already have a wife living. And as for the family, I fear it’s too late for that. I’m forty years old. Surely most women my age have finished having children by now.”

“Ah, but you’re not most women,” Cordelia said, her smile warming Plum’s heart. “You’re Frederica Pelham, daughter of Sir Frederick Pelham, the woman of breeding if not fortune, who just so happens to also be the author of the most popular, most scandalous book of the century.”

Plum glanced around the small garden worriedly. The last thing she needed was for anyone in Ram’s Bottom to find out she was the notorious Vyvyan La Blue, author of the famed Guide to Connubial Calisthenics, a book so shocking it was banned as obscene by the government — and subsequently went into three separate printings to fulfill the demands by members of the ton.

“I did have Old Mab Shayne examine me,” Plum named the local midwife hesitantly, unwilling to get her hopes up about something that meant so much to her. “She said there was nothing wrong with my womanly parts, and she knew of several women who had children well into their mid-forties.”

“There, you see? If you really want to have a family despite me telling you just how appallingly horrible childbirth can be, then you owe it to yourself to investigate this advertisement.”

Plum nibbled on her lower lip, her gaze slipping to the paper. Although the method the man had used to state his desire for a wife off-put her almost as much as the word interview rankled, Cordelia did have a point. There was nothing to stop her from examining the man to see if he would make a suitable partner for her. She’d more or less done as much with the other men of the area she had considered. “There is the problem of my past,” she said slowly. “I have lost more than one potential suitor upon his finding out that I was Charles’s mistress.”

“You weren’t his mistress — you married him in good faith. He is the one who wronged you, he is the one who used you and threw you away without any regard or concern for your future.”

“We both know that, but gentlemen, alas, do not care that Charles lied to me when he wed me. They only see a woman who gave herself to a man who was not lawfully her husband, one who caused a scandal so great that it resulted in Charles being sent abroad, Papa disowning me, and poor Susanna ostracized and reviled by society for the mere fact that she was my sister. She went into a decline because of the scandal, Del. It’s my fault she died and left baby Thom to be brought up by her uncle Beauclerc.”

“It’s not your fault in the least, so stop martyring yourself. Besides, there is a simple solution to the problem: Don’t tell this man who you are. Were.”

Plum stared in surprise at her friend. “You want me to lie?”

“No, of course not, that would be sinful and wrong. I simply suggest that you not tell the man everything — until you’re wed. Then, after such time has passed as is needed for him to fall in love with you, you tell him the truth. By then it will be too late for him to do anything about it.”

“That’s rather callous,” Plum said, her fingers fretting the material of her gown. “After the experience with Charles, honesty is at the top of the list of qualities I seek in a husband. I will not again marry a man who has secrets from me.”

“Mmm, well I’m afraid that lets out every man in the British Isles who can still draw breath.” Cordelia paused for a moment, then asked, “You have a list of qualities you desire in a husband?”

“Yes, of course I do. Lists are excellent ways to become organized. I keep them for many things. Husbandly attributes are just one of the many lists I maintain—”

“What is on it?”

“On the husband list?” Cordelia nodded. Plum thought for a moment, then ticked items off on her fingers. “Honesty is the most important, as I mentioned. And a good nature is also necessary.”

“I should think so.”

“A sense of humor is a definite plus.”

“I agree completely.”

“Of course, he must want children.”

“Of course,” Cordelia said somberly. Plum slid a glance toward her to see whether or not she was being mocked. Cordelia’s face was all seriousness, although there was a glint in her dark gray eyes that made Plum suspect otherwise.

“Financial security is also necessary, although I will not be demanding regarding the amount, so long as he is able to provide a secure home for me, and for Thom as long as she is with us.”

“Mmm. More is better when it comes to items of a fiduciary nature.”

“And last of all, the man I wed must be very, very limber. Double-jointedness is preferred, although I would settle for a normally jointed man so long as he was fit and limber.”

Cordelia blinked. “Limber? Why ever should he be limb…oh! You mean for…in…when he and you…”

“Yes, exactly. I may not have much experience being a wife, but even I know that one must indulge in connubial calisthenics in order to get with child. And you must admit that when it comes to such things, it’s much easier to have a limber husband than one who is unable to perform even the simplest of calisthenics like Bull Elephant at Hadrian’s Wall.”

Cordelia opened her mouth as if she was going to speak, then evidently thought better of it, and shook her head instead.