“Lord Sinclair and the Duchess of Raven!” the duchess yelled.
“Saved by the slightly unusual Sinclair siblings,” Michael whispered.
Cam stepped down and helped his sister into the carriage. His brother then joined her.
“Together like that, you can see they are related,” Michael said.
“Your mouth is open, Miss Knight.” Forrest bent to whisper the words into her ear. He inhaled, and quickly straightened. Her scent was soft and subtle; in fact, he wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t just her alone, and no bottle was contributing to it. It seemed ingrained in his senses.
“Forgive me, I have never seen anything like this before.”
“I was not criticizing you.”
She looked at him, and their eyes connected. The soft gray-blue depths were worried.
“I did not mean—”
“Sssh,” Zach hissed at him.
Forrest fell silent after a final glance down at the disturbing woman at his side. He could see her breasts from here, the shape of them beneath that ugly gown. Why did he find that disturbing? He was presented with so many women now. Evenings were spent surrounded by well-dressed beauties. Women of wit and courage, and yet none made him feel like Ruby Knight did.
“You go first, brother, and when all is lost, as you have bored them to tears, I shall step in.”
“You are kindness itself, sister,” Lord Sinclair drawled.
“Gallic roosters in a pack are fierce,” Dev said.
“Don’t roosters form a flock?” someone said.
“‘Run, Captain Broadbent,’ Lady Nauticus cried. ‘Save yourself.’”
“If you tell me that he’s running again and leaving her to face the music—” Freya started.
“Or Gallic roosters, as the case may be,” Michael added.
“I shall be quite displeased with that man.”
“But I cannot leave you, my one true love,” Dev said theatrically, now standing on Plunge’s seats.
“Have a care, Sinclair, those are newly upholstered. If you’ll glance down, you can see the rose color I favor,” Lord Plunge said, looking put out.
“‘Egads, Lady Nauticus, is that Miss Pollycock coming our way,’ Captain Broadbent said.”
“I think I liked him better with a lisp,” Captain Sinclair said.
“But yessh, it is!” Dev said.
Forrest laughed. In fact, the Sinclair siblings were hilarious. Dev was usually a serious man, but clearly his sister had egged him on. Even Miss Knight had unbent enough to giggle a few times. It was a ridiculously sweet sound.
Walter, not wanting to miss out, climbed into the carriage and onto the seat. The Sinclairs started fanning their hands before their faces.
“Walter has digestive issues if fed the wrong food,” Forrest whispered to Ruby. She pressed a hand to her mouth to stop the laughter.
“Next will be Mr. Blimley!” the duchess declared.
The crowd fell silent. Even the children could not be heard.
“Come along, Blimley, about time you understood there are other things to read. You have a carrying voice, so you should excel at this,” the duchess said imperiously.
