The viscount took several gasping, gulping breaths while Lord Stafford moved the chair around and helped the man lower himself onto it. Lord Neville slumped there, the color returning to his face while he breathed deeply, as though the simple act of drawing air was the most satisfying thing he'd ever done.
Juliana released a long sigh of relief, in concert with several other people who had become riveted by the emergency.
"You saved his life," she told Lord Stafford, impressed. After all, she was a woman intent on helping others, and Lord Stafford clearly did the same. But rather than acknowledge her compliment, he only shrugged and crouched down by Lord Neville, asking to have a look in his throat.
Supposing now was not the time to press Lord Neville about his daughter's snake, Juliana turned to see how Amanda was faring on the dance floor. But apparently the waltz had ended sometime during the excitement. A quadrille was playing instead, and Amanda was nowhere to be seen.
"I told you Lord Stafford was a good man," Griffin said beside her.
She glanced at the man, who was now examining the back of Lord Neville's throat through a silver quizzing glass attached to a chain around his neck. His dark, tousled curls flopped over his forehead.
"He saved the viscount's life," Griffin added.
"That's his job," she snapped. Lord Stafford's quick, skillful actions didn't mitigate his shortcomings. He was not what she was looking for in a husband. "Where in heaven's name is Amanda?"
"Right there," Griffin said, gesturing toward a cluster of men across the room.
If Amanda hadn't been tall enough that Juliana could glimpse the blond curls piled on her head, she'd never have believed it. And to think she'd fretted earlier concerning Amanda's ability to attract suitors. Her worries had proved to be groundless.
The trifle was clearly working.
By all appearances, Amanda hadn't needed Aunt Frances to make any introductions. She was completely surrounded by men. Old men, young men, and men in between. Even Lord Malmsey was there. He stood at the edge of the clutch of admirers, looking somewhat disconcerted to find his betrothed suddenly commanding so much attention.
Juliana went over and wormed her way into the crowd. She touched Amanda on the arm, and when Amanda glanced down, she whispered, "The look." Evidently flustered by her new popularity, Amanda appeared nonplussed for a moment, but quickly smiled one of the smiles Juliana had made her practice over and over, then chose a man and flirted through her newly darkened lashes.
"Would you honor me with a dance?" he asked immediately.
"With pleasure, my lord," Amanda said, just as Juliana had taught her. As she went off on the man's arm, she glanced back to meet Juliana's gaze, her own eyes filled with wonder. "They're falling at my feet," she mouthed silently.
Of course they were. Hadn't Juliana told her that would happen?
It certainly looked as though they'd be able to find a man willing to compromise Amanda. Now all Juliana had to do was find the right man—a man who would make her friend happy.
More than a dozen men were showing keen interest in Amanda. The fact that Juliana herself had rejected each and every one of them had no bearing whatsoever. She and Amanda were very different women, with very different requirements in a husband. And half of the men met Amanda's foremost requirement—that is, they were young men, or significantly younger than Lord Malmsey, at least.
One of them ought to do just fine.
Without Amanda at the center of it, the group slowly dispersed. But Lord Malmsey still stood there, gazing toward the dance floor dejectedly. Although Juliana didn't know him well, he'd always seemed a kindly man. If he wasn't precisely handsome, at least he was pleasant-looking, even now, with his mouth set in a straight line. But his pale green eyes seemed haunted.
Quite suddenly, Juliana realized there was a flaw in her perfect plan. In seeing to Amanda's happiness, she was making Lord Malmsey unhappy. And that would never do.
"What are you plotting now, Juliana?"
She looked over to see Corinna and Alexandra. "Nothing," she told them both.
"I recognize that look on your face," Alexandra said.
Juliana never had been able to fool her older sister. "Oh, very well," she admitted. "I'm trying to find a match for Lord Malmsey."
Looking startled, Corinna glanced to the melancholy man and back. "Holy Hannah, what put that thought into your head?"
Juliana had no answer for that—at least no answer that wouldn't reveal her friend's predicament.
"Something is going on." Corinna narrowed her eyes. "Something to do with Amanda."
Juliana sighed. She should have known Corinna would weasel the truth out of her one way or another. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course we can," Alexandra said, looking a little hurt. "Have we broken a confidence ever?"
Well, no, neither of them had. Not to Juliana's knowledge, anyway. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Amanda's father has betrothed her to Lord Malmsey."
"I knew it!" Corinna exclaimed at the same time Alexandra said, "That's dreadful."
"Quite. Amanda is understandably upset, but Lord Wolverston will hear nothing of it. He's told her that if she refuses to go through with the wedding, he'll disinherit her."
Corinna gasped. "Then no one else will ever offer for her."
Of the three of them, she always had been the most blunt.
"Precisely," Juliana said. "Which is why I'm engaged in helping Amanda entice a younger man, in the hopes that he'll offer for her before it's too late." While that wasn't the complete plan, it was close enough. She wasn't about to admit that they'd also have to persuade the man to publicly compromise her friend in order to force Lord Wolverston's hand. "But I cannot find love for Amanda at Lord Malmsey's expense. That would be terribly unfair."
"Juliana always wants to see everyone happy," Alexandra reminded their sister.
"In all his many years," Corinna pointed out, "Lord Malmsey has never proposed to anyone before Amanda. He's too shy to approach another woman."
"Then a shy
