Jubilant laughter boomed, the gaiety so big it shook the walls, from three doors down.
That was the other problem. The laughter.
So. Much. Laughter.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“It?” Meghan asked.
“Lord Culross.”
There, someone had said his name to Meghan.
“I love him,” Meghan said softly. What else was there to say? "You know that.” All their family knew.
The tiptoeing about her was worse than the laughter—
Her family in the other room roared with hilarity.
—Sometimes.
“I did not know that though,” Linnie said when the noise from the other room quieted. “Do you understand, Meghan? If I had known for a moment that you were in love with him, I would have never encouraged the suit.”
“Yes, well, we both encouraged suits that we oughtn’t.”
Linnie winced.
Yes, the matter of the broken betrothal with Linnie’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Hartwell, was still something of a sore subject for all.
Except Linnie.
“I cannot believe they will not let me join.” The springs of the green velvet sofa bounced as Fleur, with a book in her hands—one she was actually reading—plopped into the seat between Meghan and Linnie. “If I had known making my debut meant there would be no more billiards with the boys, I would have… I would have…”
Meghan and Linnie looked at Fleur.
The younger girl sighed. “I would have played more billiards.”
“Bbbbbil,” Orabelia babbled.
Meghan and Linnie erupted in cheers. “That is right, billiards, you smart girl!”
“I, for one, do not want anything to do with the boys.”
The trio on the sofa tipped their heads backwards.
Andromena dropped a hip in the sloped curve of their crowded seating. “I still haven’t forgiven Arran, Brone, and Campbell for letting Meghan believe Lord Kerr and—”
“Lord Archdale,” Fleur finished her cousin’s sentence.
“Could just pluck us up.”
Andromena pulled a face.
When Meghan arrived home nursing her broken heart, she learned the truth—her sister’s and cousin’s ruination had been thwarted before it began, and by the girls themselves.
Another round of laughter.
Meghan gritted her teeth.
