There were, Cait thought instantly, a number of things wrong with her eldest daughter’s statement.

To begin with it was inconceivable that any of her children should follow in the footsteps of their frankly ridiculous cousin and get married without informing the family. After Lorcan’s lapse in judgement they were all quite aware that that level of stupidity would draw the ire of everybody in the house and that was especially true of Cait. She had not spent thirty years curbing the more unsavoury behaviour of some just to see the whole family bypass eccentricity and fall straight into being pariahs.

Then of course there was the fact that it was Maeve. Ten years of suitable gentlemen being paraded in front of her has done nothing; and the last few years Cait had even begun to entertain the notion of those men for whom total respectability was more of a familial achievement rather than a personal one. Still, none of it had stuck.

Cait didn’t look up from her needlepoint as she replied fondly: “Don’t be silly dear.”