"Did too. You couldn't stop crying when you found out he was getting married. I heard you say he had been caught by an upstart tart and I'm not sure what you meant by that, but I don't think you were talking about a pastry."
"Bel!"
"How did you catch him anyway?"
"Bel!" Henrietta repeated, this time with less anger and more resigned mortification.
"You want to know just as much as I do!"
"I already know. Obviously she compromised him."
"Can a gentleman be compromised?" challenged Belinda.
"Obviously a gentleman can be, seeing as Will was."
"Perhapshecompromisedher."
"Please, Belinda, do be serious."
"Well, if she compromised him, how did she do it?"
"With her wiles, of course."
"What are wiles?"
Henrietta hesitated.
"You don't know, do you?"
"I do."
"You don't know. You are pretending to know again. You always do that."
"Our marriage was brought about by a disastrous misunderstanding. Quite accidental. No wiles involved. I'm not even certain I have wiles."
Henrietta looked me over appraisingly. "Probably not," was her final verdict.
There must have been some appearance of insult on my part for Belinda said,"Don't listen to her, she's just jealous. I'm sure you have lots of wiles. You seem very . . . wily."
"What are you doing?" asked Henrietta.
"I am trying to endear myself to her so she does not throw me out," Belinda replied in a cautious whisper. They were back to talking about me like I was a wild animal, too stupid to comprehend their meaning, but perhaps capable of taking offense at their tone.
"Only a moment ago you said you didn't care if she threw us out."
"Yes, but I've just thought of pudding. We have all the best things for pudding here. Pudding at home was rubbish. Sometimes we didn't even have anything. You won't take away dessert will you? You aren't one of those awful people who think children shouldn't have sweets?"
"Indeed, I am not. I could never abide such people. The dessert course shall stay just as it is."
"Good." With that declaration Belinda dropped to the floor and sat near my feet. She looked up at me with her big, dark eyes—eyes, which I noted were the exact color of Mrs.Vane's, the exact color or Mr. Darcy's—and cast the full weight of her adorableness my way.
"You will go to parties, I hope," she said. "Mother used to go to parties and tell us all about them. Georgie is still too young to go to parties. She might have come out this season—some ladies do at sixteen,Imost certainly will—but I think Will wants her to wait another year. I don't understand why, but I think she did something naughty.
"But you can go to parties and tell us about them. You might even have a party here and we could watch from the hall. It is too bad this isn't a castle with a laird's lug, then I could hide there and hear all the gossip. It would be so exciting."
"Bel, you really are too ridiculous."
"Henri, you really are too insufferable."
