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wife, then we should get on very well together!’
    Again came the genial grin, and Georgiana couldn’t help but smile back.
    ‘She also told me,’ he went on, ‘that you were convinced that you could make your way alone in this country, but that perhaps you might accept a little help if that assistance was offered without conditions or demands.’
    ‘But why would you want to assist me, Mr Dreumel? You don’t know me or anything about me. I might be a foolish woman here on a whim. I might be looking for riches. Why would you help a stranger?’
    He shrugged. ‘When my grandfather came to this country from the Netherlands, he had nothing. He brought his wife and son – my father – and always spoke of the help he had received from total strangers. He was lucky, I suppose, he could just as easily have come across others who would have turned their backs on him. But because of that, he brought up my father to do what he could for others, and my father did the same for me.
    ‘Times have changed, of course.’ He gazed around the room at the opulent surroundings. ‘My grandfather and father never made much money though they worked hard, but they were happy men, content with what their endeavours had brought them.’
    ‘Yes.’ Georgiana leaned towards him. ‘That is what I want! And I don’t see why, just because I am a woman, I shouldn’t be able to do that too. I want to be considered a proper person in my own right.’
    ‘I can see why you got on so well with Mrs Burrows.’ He smiled. ‘She too is a very independent woman. Or she was,’ he reflected. ‘Regrettably her age is now catching up with her, though I’m quite sure that she will always be very vocal in her beliefs.’
    ‘Then there is hope for me!’ Georgiana felt buoyed up by their conversation. Wilhelm Dreumel was a very engaging, candid man, obviously not given to handing out flattery or compliments as some men were, but he spoke to her in a frank and easy manner as if he was talking to another man.
    ‘There is plenty of hope, Miss Gregory. But you will not find it easy: there will be many who will look down upon you for not having a husband in tow, and you will be regarded with suspicion by some ladies if you so much as smile or pass the time of day with their menfolk.’
    ‘So what of you, Mr Dreumel?’ She remembered that he had said he was not looking for a wife. ‘Do you have an understanding wife or are you a confirmed bachelor?’
    A shadow fell across his affable face. ‘I did have a beautiful and understanding wife, but sadly she died in childbirth and the child did not survive. We had been married only one year and we were both very young. She was eighteen and I twenty-one. I have not wanted another wife, for she was irreplaceable.’
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ Georgiana murmured. ‘It must be very hard to lose someone you love.’
    He nodded sombrely. ‘It is, it is very hard indeed. I shall never recover from it. So,’ he perked up and spoke cheerfully, ‘after all these years, twelve in September, no-one tries to find me another wife as they did to begin with. Poor Bill, my friends used to say. We must find him someone to marry. They now know that I am a lost cause, and the women that I know are my friends and not my lovers.’
    She gazed at him. He would be a good friend, she mused. Honest and plain-speaking. If I get to know him perhaps he would also be a friend to me. It might be helpful, sometimes, to hear a man’s point of view.
    ‘Mr Dreumel,’ she said boldly. ‘Could I invite you to supper?’

CHAPTER THREE
    Wilhelm Dreumel said that although he would be happy to be her guest, if she would permit it he would like to choose the venue. Georgiana was glad of that offer for she did not want to be seen dining in the Portland with a gentleman, in case Mrs Charlesworth might also be taking supper and think the worst. How foolish I am, she thought irritably, as she dressed for the evening. I’m trying to be an