Then he shut the door and was gone.
“Come.” Susan curled her gloved fingers around Evangeline’s wrist. “We oughtn’t to stay by the door.”
Susan tugged Evangeline forward by the wrist. They headed away from the door, made their way down the shadowed corridor and around a corner. A small maid raced to meet them.
“Underbutler sent me,” she said by way of greeting. She paused, bobbed, motioned hurriedly. “This way.”
They followed her to an oblong room with a lit fireplace and a dozen or so mismatched chairs. A lone candelabrum flickered atop a short bookcase, casting its glow on the worn cushions and dark paintings.
“This is the servants’ relaxing room,” the maid explained. “Not much to do in here, ’less you know how to read, which those of us as don’t are trying to learn, seeing as how the master makes sure we have time for ourselves, but there’s a fire to keep you warm and seats as cozy as any, and if you don’t mind my company overmuch, I’ll be back frequent-like to relate as what’s going on out-of-doors.”
“Back?” Susan repeated when the maid paused for breath. “Where are you going?”
“To watch, of course. I’ve been here six years this December, and this is the first week we’ve had guests of any sort, much less those that dance and fly kites, and now here comes a man with a card and a cane looking smart as you please, and the master has him tossed outside like so much filth? I’d wager there isn’t a servant in the house without an eye to a window or an ear to a door.” She paused for breath. “You want me to come back regular, and tell you what’s what?”
“Yes, please.” Evangeline sank onto the closest chair and dropped her head into her hands.
The maid bobbed and fled.
“That,” Susan said slowly, “was the oddest maid ever.”
“That was Bess,” Evangeline said without taking her head from her hands. “Younger sister to the enceinte parlor maid. She means well.”
“Do you talk to all the servants?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Evangeline groaned into her hands. “I don’t know, Susan. Do we have to discuss this?”
“What do you prefer to discuss? What you were doing alone with Lioncroft after I told you today was the day for my compromise? Or perhaps when he became such an intimate friend as to first-name you within my hearing? How intimate is intimate, Evangeline?”
This time, Evangeline lifted her head. “You say that as if you have some claim on him.”
“My mother—”
“Your mother has no more claim on him than you do. When will the two of you realize that he’s his own man and immune to your stratagems? He doesn’t wish to marry you.” Her voice rose. “He will not marry you.”
“And why is that?” Susan flounced into a chair across the room. “Because he’s pledged to you?”
Evangeline shook her head. “He’s not pledged to anybody. Leave him be.”
“If he’s not pledged to anybody, then you have no more claim to him than I do. Yetyouare not leaving him be.” Susan’s chin lifted. “If he doesn’t marry me, it will be because you got in the way.”
“So?” Evangeline snapped. “You don’t even want him.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything!”
“Marriage isn’t about wanting the other person, Evangeline.” Susan’s voice took on a lecturing quality, as though repeating a lesson she’d learned by rote. “Marriage is about bettering your position, making alliances, moving upward. Lioncroft is my chance to escape Mother and reenter Society. It’s alsohischance to reenter Society. He has no title. My parents do. With a match as infamous as ours, every hostess will shower us with invitations, in the hopes of having the crush of the Season. We’ll both have a second chance.”
Evangeline glanced away and pretended she didn’t care that Susan was right, was born superior, was raised to be exactly the sort of woman a gentleman of Quality would want. “Tonmatches may be about bettering positions and bartering for upward mobility, but love matches are about caring for another person as much as you care for yourself and putting their needs and desires on a par with your own.”
Susan snorted. “Balderdash. You’ve been reading too many novels.”
“And you’ve been listening to your mother too much,” Evangeline returned.
