A practised gallant with a thread of iron somewhere — that was how Juliet defined Ramiro de Velasco y Cuevora at their first meeting. It was obvious that he could only marry someone of his own kind, an aristocratic, purebred Spaniard. Juliet was sure that when she returned from Spain to England, the memory of him would haunt her always; but she could not bring herself to wish that they had never met.