“She had yet to begin her ablutions.”
“Ablutions?”
“She meanttoilettebut the common vernacular was lacking.”
Dav sighed as the butler announced Celine’s arrival. She swept into the room in a flurry of elegant mauve silk, delicatebeading, and metallic threads catching the firelight. She was, of course, the picture of elegance.
After a quick greeting, she joined Davina on the settee. The ladies chatted amiably about something or other. It was impossible to maintain my seat as the minutes ticked by. Nervous energy stretched into my extremities, refusing to yield, and I strode to the fire again, repeating the previous exercise.
Dav snapped at me for my pacing before, as always, wandering down the most infuriating path. “Do you suppose they’ll play hazard tonight? I find myself in need of funds.”
Dread spread through my chest and I rounded on her. “Davina, you cannot—you must behave with decorum tonight. These people will be playing for real coin. And what could you possibly need funds for? Your pin money is more than generous.”
I willed her to understand me, to recognize for once that she could not do precisely as she wished the second that she wished it.
“What on earth else would they play for? And it is hardly your business,” she snapped as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her feathers rumpled with the effort.
“Davina—” My voice had reached an unholy pitch.
I cleared my throat as Cee jumped in to salvage the night. “Davina, darling, perhaps you might go see if your mother is in need of assistance?”
Dav sighed but rose and wandered off to find mother. Or trouble. There was no way of knowing.
I collapsed into the chair across from Cee, my head hinged back in exhaustion.
“What has a bee in your bonnet?” she asked.
My head lolled to the side to shoot her a glare. “We’re taking my mother and my sister to a gaming hell. To a masquerade, no less. Mother will certainly expose herself to ridicule and Davinato ruin—and I shall be left with nothing but the scattered pieces of my dignity.
“Surely it will not be so bad as all that.”
I sat up properly. “You have, in fact, met my mother and sister, yes? Gabriel always made it a point to arrive far later than fashionable, merely so he would miss Mother’s grand entrances. And that wasbeforeDavina was in society.”
She tutted, unimpressed with my explanation. “It’s a masquerade; a certain amount of pageantry is to be expected.”
“Remember that sentiment when you see her,” I cautioned.
But Celine, ever skilled with reading between the lines, tilted her head, parsing my expression. When she settled back a little on the settee, I could see that she knew that my worries about the ladies upstairs were not the entire source of my agitation.
“I ran into Parker and Beaumont—at the club,” I explained, my hands dancing in front of me, tight and sharp in their movements. “There were some… insinuations bandied about.”
“What did they say?”
“Nothing fit for a lady’s ears.”
“I was married to your brother. I’ve heard a great many things not meant for a lady’s ears,” she insisted.
I nudged the rug with my toe. A strand had come loose and would need to be seen to. “There was an implication that I would be… better able to secure a wife if I feasted on a lady’s… flower the way that I feast on a man’s… well, you know. Then there was the generous offer to demonstrate the proper technique on Davina.”
Returning their vile words to the air brought the disgust and rage burning back up to the surface.
When Celine demanded to know which of the men said it, I waved the answer away. She was bold enough to give the cut, which would only lead to Beaumont knowing he’d managed to needle me enough to mention it to her.
“Does it matter? They may be the only ones brave enough to voice it, but they all think it.”
Celine made a joke about spreading a rumor involving pustules on the speaker’s member, and I was forced to give up the name in hopes of seeing that dream come to fruition.
Several minutes spent in the dispersal of the most intriguing gossip was enough to distract me until Davina returned, pressing herself against the wall to make room for Mother to enter through the double doors of the drawing room—which still were not wide enough, and she had to turn sideways to make her way into the room.
