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number of guests happy and bring Olivia’s wedding off.” She glanced around. “Now, where are your ponies? We’re going home, and you can explain to Aunt Hermione why your parrot escaped from its cage—”
    “No!” the boys cried out in unison, alarmed.
    “Is Wellie all right?” Alex asked in concern.
    “Yes, of course he’s all right. Nothing could harm that wretched creature,” Kyria said dryly. “But he flew all over the house and created an enormous flap, and then he snatched the wig off your great-aunt’s head and shredded it.”
    The boys gaped at her.
    “Did he really?” Con asked in an awestruck voice, and Alex giggled.
    “Oh, yes, very funny, I’m sure,” Kyria told him, adding, “I doubt it will be quite as amusing when you have to face our great-aunt.”
    “No,” Alex agreed. “But at least she just gives one a tongue-lashing and a few smacks with that cane, and I’d rather have that than a lecture from Papa. He looks at me in that way, and I know I’ve disappointed him.”
    Rafe glanced at Kyria, a half smile playing on his lips, and Kyria could not help but remember the moment when she had fallen into his arms and felt them wrap like iron around her. His body had been hard against hers, his heat surrounding her. She could remember, too, the way her own body had tingled in response. Thinking of the moment, she colored and turned her face away, unable to meet Rafe’s gaze.
    As the twins turned to Rafe, babbling their thanks, he held up a hand, saying, “Well, it was your sister here who risked life and limb to try to capture him, notto mention standing up for you with that tutor and the squire. So I reckon she’s the one you ought to be thanking.”
    “We do!” Con assured him, and caught Kyria in a hug.
    “You are the absolute best!” Alex agreed, wrapping his arms around her from the other side.
    Kyria chuckled, planting a kiss on the head of each of her brothers. “Well, I’m glad you realize that,” she said, “but that doesn’t mean I am going to plead your case with Mother. You two are on your own there.”
    “But she’s the one who told us we have to stand up for what we believe in,” Con declared. “She can’t get too mad, can she?”
    “I don’t think she intended for you to stand up for your beliefs by sneaking away from your studies and lying in wait for the squire. Nor will she like that your tutor quit.”
    “Old Thorny?” Alex exclaimed. “You’re joking! He scarpered?”
    Con jumped up in the air, letting out a cry of joy. “Thank heavens! He was the worst tutor we ever had.”
    “No,” Alex disagreed. “Spindleshanks was the worst.”
    “He was the meanest,” Con conceded. “But he wasn’t as boring as Old Thorny. All Mr. Thorndike has us do is copy Latin grammars and such, and it’s deadly dull.”
    “That may be, but you two run through teachers faster than I do hairpins,” Kyria pointed out, but she could not help but smile down at her two scapegrace brothers.
    She was inordinately fond of them and resented any disparaging remarks anyone made about them. There were times when their tendency to get into trouble wasexasperating, but she knew that whatever fuss was kicked up, Con and Alex had never gone into it with bad intentions. They were simply lively and intelligent boys whose curiosity and intrepidity sometimes led them onto paths that other children would not have taken. In Kyria’s opinion, that fact indicated something lacking in the other children, not in Con and Alex.
    They had reached the trees where the boys had tied their ponies, and after some discussion, they wound up with Kyria riding Alex’s pony and the two boys doubling up on Con’s—though both of them expressed preference for riding on Rafe’s stallion. Rafe cupped his hands to give Kyria a leg up onto the pony’s back. Then he mounted, and they started off.
    Kyria glanced over at Rafe. She remembered the way it had felt riding with him on his horse, and a little