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My Lord Marquess,

It has been difficult to think of what to say in this letter, so I hope you will forgive me for my directness in this, my best attempt. I have no wish to injure you, but things have altered so much in the intervening time between our picnic in Hyde Park that I thought it only fair to inform you that I wish to end our engagement.

You have been nothing but a gentleman, and I have nothing to reproach you for. I have made this decision because I’ve realized that I need to be in love in order to marry, and though I feel affection for you, it is not love. It is friendship.

I hope that our friendship will continue but quite understand that the breaking of our engagement may end our acquaintance.

I will speak to my father and mother about this the moment I receive confirmation from you that you have read this letter.

Thank you for your kindness and your respect throughout our courting. I wish you every happiness.

Yours, very faithfully,

Gwendoline Chance

There. That had to be good enough; she had given him more of an explanation than was required, and though Gwen flushed to read it back, she had to admit it was a relatively good letter. At the very least, Lord Ravenshurst could be under no illusion as to the fact that their engagement had ended. That was what mattered.

Stuffing the letter into an envelope and directing it most properly to The Most Honble. The Marquess of Ravenshurst, Gwen stared at it.

She had done it. Though no one else in the world had read it, she knew what she had written.

She was breaking her engagement to the Marquess of Ravenshurst, the thing she had longed for from the moment they had been introduced.

And she felt…wonderful.

Now there was nothing to do but ensure that it was delivered.

Stepping out into the corridor nervously, Gwen almost ran straight into—

“Dear me!” spluttered Mrs. Kinley, patting herself down with the linens she held in one hand. “Miss Gwen, now, whatever is the hurry?”

“Mrs. Kinley!” Perfect. “I wonder, would you please do me a favor?”

“‘A favor’?” The family’s housekeeper blinked up at her, as though dazed by the sudden sight of a person cluttering up the place. Then her attention sharpened. “What sort of favor?”

“Nothing too arduous, I assure you,” Gwen said quickly, thrusting out the letter in her hand. “I… I would like you, please, to post this.”

“A letter?” Mrs. Kinley looked down at it as though it might suddenly grow fangs and lunge. “Why can’t you ask your father to do so?”

It was a very good question, and not one she immediately had an answer to. “Because… Because…”

Because then, Gwen wanted to say, I would have to explain that I am breaking my engagement with Lord Ravenshurst, which is a beacon for gossip at the best of times. To do so with one of Society’s greatest and most eligible bachelors…

But I have to do it.

That was the one thing Gwen was certain of. Now that she understood her feelings—at least, she understood that she did not understand them, but they certainly did not belong to the Marquess of Ravenshurst—there was nothing to do but break it off.

It was just that… Well. Lord Ravenshurst should probably be the first one to know about that. Not her father.

She wanted to do this properly, as a mature woman would. Far be it for her to make her parents think she had gotten engaged too quickly.

Even if she was beginning to feel that she had.

“Please, Mrs. Kinley,” Gwen said instead, returning to the refuge of the child she had once been. Not too long ago, according to everyone around her. “I’m depending on you.”

The housekeeper smiled ruefully. “The things I do for you lot.”

“I know, and I am grateful, I promise,” replied Gwen with a smile even as her heart thudded painfully. “There’s—There’s no rush,” she added, as nonchalantly as she could manage. “Just… Just whenever you get the opportunity.”