“Agile as a cat.”
“That’s his youngest brother, Warwickshire Sinclair,” Monty added.
“Alexander Hetherington is next!” the duchess called.
“The Hetheringtons are twins and vastly different,” Theo whispered. “Where Alex is elegant, his brother, Ben, is the exact opposite.
“Up you go, Alex,” Michael Deville said, handing him the book.
“‘My dearest Lady Nauticus!’” cried the tall, elegant man now on the barrel. “‘Dear lord!’ Lady Nauticus cried in shock,” Alexander Hetherington continued. “Surely it could not be who she thought standing before her. She’d long since thought him dead, but there he stood, the first man to hold her heart.”
The gasps in the crowd were loud and followed by plenty of “Surely nots.”
“So the author has carried us along on this journey only to produce another player,” Gabe said. “Genius really.”
“No, it’s not genius!” Beth demanded. “We’ve gone on this journey expecting a happily-ever-after between Horatio and Dorothea, and now that’s not going to happen?”
“Are they seriously outraged over a book?” Iris whispered.
“They are invested, as are we all,” Monty said. “I shall send you the entire series, and then you’ll understand.”
“What are lappet-faced vultures?” she asked him.
“A bird with a pink face that looks perpetually grumpy and old,” Theo answered her. “A bit like the Duchess of Yardly, actually.”
“Thank you, Lord Montgomery,” Iris said.
“Most welcome.” He waved his handkerchief in her face.
“I don’t like lavender.”
“I fear that is your loss,” he said.
“Next!” the duchess yelled. “I think we should hear from the newest member among us.”
“She doesn’t mean me, does she?” Iris whispered, backing into Theo. She then stepped to the side and around him to stand at his back, where she could hide.
“Come along, Lady Challoner, the crowd draws restless!” the duchess called.
“I’ll read. As you can see, my dear old friend is shy,” Theo said. Iris heard the crowd groan.
“I said Lady Challoner!” The duchess thumped her cane down hard.
“And yet she has no wish to,” Theo said in a stronger voice but still wearing a silly smile.
“Oh, very well, but she cannot hide forever,” the duchess said.
“How charitable you are.” Theo bowed, and to Iris’s ears, his words sounded mocking.
“I think he should stay on the ground,” someone said.
“Exactly. He’d fall and injure himself on that barrel, and there is the lake close by as well. We know what he’s like near water.”
While the discussion of his inability to balance raged on around him, Iris watched Theo step onto the barrel with the help of Michael and Nathan.
He was up there because of her, and he’d protected her from her former brother-in-law too. She needed to thank him. Iris moved closer and took the book from Alexander Hetherington.
“I will hold the book, so you can balance,” she then said.
