Her Grace of Winshire was waiting when her husband the duke arrived home. “Tea, James?” she asked, not wanting to fall on him with questions as soon as he walked in the door.

“Yes, my love, if you will,” His Grace replied. “He is alive, Eleanor. Our son-in-law says he will recover.”

Eleanor let out the breath she had not known she was holding. “I am so pleased. I have been quite impressed with that young man. It was, I assume, the false Lord Snowden.”

“It was, but the villain will not trouble the true Lord Snowden again,” her husband assured her, as he accepted the tea she had poured for him. He told her the whole story, from the villain’s disguise to the scene when the man was finally cornered.

“I cannot find it in myself to feel anything for that horrid man,” Eleanor declared. “Well, James, I suppose the wedding will be postponed?”

“Not at all. Snowden is insisting that it goes ahead tomorrow, as planned. We will be there, my dear.”

Eleanor nodded. “We will, of course.”

***

This was a scene that never appeared in Snowy and the Seven Doves