by the end of the evening a majority of the guests at the willington ball had drawn several conclusions : first , that ian thornton was definitely the natural grandson of the duke of stanhope ( which everyone claimed to have always believed ) ; second , that elizabeth cameron had very probably rebuffed his scandalous advances two years ago ( which everyone claimed to have always believed ) ; third , that since she had rejected his second request for a dance tonight , she might actually prefer her former suitor viscount mondevale ( which hardly anyone could really believe ) .