“It was rose-flavored,” Vix snapped, unable to help herself. “And it wasmine already. I bought it in advance from a shop girl who claimed I hadn’t. It wasmine.”
“That was always her story,” Teddy said conspiratorially to Dinah, who nodded as though she understood.
Vix scoffed. “I had a full shilling from the scrap posies Mama let me make myself,” she insisted, not even bothered that she’d gone a little shrill. “I bought the thing on the way home and they said I could pick it up in the morning.”
“Oh, Lady Aster,” said Rosalind a little mournfully. “We ought to have ordered rose flavor for your wedding cake.”
It got another wave of laughter, with Rosalind blinking in confused, wary happiness at the effect she’d caused as she blushed in the wake of the attention.
Vix watched her thoughtfully, wondering if she was truly so innocent to some of the things she said. Vix wondered how she might deploy that particular flavor of wide-eyed, guileless charm, if ever she’d had access to it. There certainly was a power there, whether Rosalind realized it or not.
“Roses and burnt toast,” Ambrose said to her, low and curious. “You’ve an exotic palate.”
“Indeed,” she agreed, turning to watch him, her face still propped in her hand. “Look who I married, after all.”
It made him smile, those inky eyes glittering. “You have always been a troublemaker, I think.”
“Perhaps,” she answered, watching him taste a bite of the cake, following the progress of his lips over the edge of the spoon with an odd simmering feeling in her stomach. “And you?”
“Me?” he asked, sliding the spoon back onto the plate. “I was ever the talented one. Ambrose, play the pianoforte. Ambrose, come recite the Greek you just learned. Ambrose, show Lady Harrigan your new charcoal sketch. Come stand in the foyer in your new waistcoat, Ambrose, so we may all stare at you. Very boring.”
“Yes, intolerable,” she snarked, wrinkling her nose at the way he chuckled. “Charcoal?”
“Hm? Oh, yes, but not in many years,” he said, taking another bite of cake and considering her before biting into it. “Why? Do you want me to draw something for you?”
“Your walls are very bare,” she said, trailing off at the end as he ate this second bite of cake in slow, careful movements.
She had never before been so disarmed by the stroke of a spoon and the simple act of chewing and swallowing.
She glanced down at the fruit juice next to her own empty plate and wondered if there was something in it other than apples and oranges.
At some point, Matthew must have exited the breakfast room, because just then he came back looking even more harried and ruffled than usual, his eyes locking on Teddy with an impatient lift of his chin.
“Ah,” said her brother, chuckling. “Our wedding gift?”
“One of my chairs is ruined,” Matthew replied softly, as though he’d just lost a dear friend.
“Not one of his chairs,” Ambrose whispered to her, giving her side a nudge. “The other four hundred will never stand the loss.”
She bit her lip rather than laughing.
“Ah, perhaps we ought to present it to the happy couple now?” Hannah said with a wince, standing and moving toward Matthew like she wished to hug him in apology.
Teddy put his hand on her arm. “It is just a chair,” he said, raising his brows. “Matthew has others.”
“So many others,” Ambrose muttered, this time making Vix lift her drink to hide the snort that threatened to emerge.
“Well, I, for one, would like to know what this gift is,” Mae Casper announced from her own corner of the breakfast. “Perhaps a public presentation is in order?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Hannah replied, frowning. “I … Matthew?”
He was frowning at Teddy directly now, as though he hadn’t even heard Mae’s suggestion. But he did answer, a quick nod of his mop of curls. “Yes, bring it out, then,” he decided. “Perhaps it will go for the cake next.”
“The devil did they get us?” Ambrose asked, marveling as the trio left together toward the vicarage office. “Does it take all three of them to transport it?”
Vix shrugged, just as baffled. “I honestly haven’t a clue.”
It was the sharp, high-pitched whine that came soon after that started to give the game away. For a moment, Vix did not quitebelieve it, blinking in bafflement at the sound and the little burrowing rumble that followed.
