“Dara—”
“Wemust. I will be ready, and I’ll smell better. Lake water is not a perfume I wish to continue to wear.”
“You don’t believe it would be wiser to send our regrets?”
“We can’t miss an opportunity, Gwendolyn. We only have thisoneSeason to succeed—”
“You are too single-minded. Please, Dara, think of what is good for you.”
“I do.” Wearing the dressing gown, her feet bare, she started for the door and stopped. “Someday, I won’t ever have to bathe in the kitchen again. I’ll have servants to carry my bath up to me.”
“Yes, and they will be carrying buckets of warm milk.”
Dara smiled. “That would be nice.” And then she had to ask, “Do you regret leaving Wicklow?”
“No,” Gwendolyn answered. “Not for a moment.”
At least Dara hadn’t gotten that wrong. She went down to the kitchen, where Molly had set up a privacy screen for her bath.
Dara made quick work of her bath. She wrapped her wet hair in a linen towel, returned to her bedroom, and then lay down. She didn’t sleep easy. Her thoughts drifted to Moira, and she mourned that she had forgotten those memories.
She had finally started to drift into a deep sleepwhen the door to the bedroom was thrown open with such fury, it crashed into the wall. Elise was there, the very picture of rage.
“How could you?”
Dara sat upright groggily. “Could I what?”
“I’m so ashamed. Everyone is talking about you and Mr. Brogan. It’s humiliating.”
Giving a small shake of her head, Dara tried to make sense of Elise’s anger. “Humiliating? What?”
“You knew I admired him.You knew.You have done everything you could to discourage me. Now I know the truth. You wanted him foryourself.”
Her words sent Dara’s mind scrambling—Elise must have learned of the kiss.
Dara started to climb out of the bed, but her younger sister gave her a shove that sent her back to the mattress. “Rules you created out of your imagination, I’ve come to learn.”
Gwendolyn came running to the door. “What is going on? Why is there all this shouting? And when did you return home, Elise?”
“Dara has betrayed me.” Elise spit the words out. “Everyone is talking about seeing her in Mr. Brogan’s arms—”
She knew.God help Dara, she knew.
“—riding on his horse, no less. How long has this gone on, Dara? How long have you been behaving this way?”
“What?No,” Gwendolyn said stoutly. “Dara has done nothing wrong.”
But she had. She’d kissed Mr. Brogan... and now, Elise knew. Dara dropped her head in her hands. Elise would never forgive her.
“Then why are they saying it?” Elise demanded. “Three people came to Lady Whitby’s salon and said they saw them with their own eyes. Mr. Brogan was riding down Willow Street.”
“Because he was bringing her home,” Gwendolyn said. “And also, because those three people have small minds and nothing else to do with them but think of nonsense.” Gwendolyn then shared with Elise what had transpired that day.
Elise acted stunned. She sat on the bed as if mortified by her own behavior. “This is outrageous. How could people make something so wicked out of Dara saving a child?”
Gwendolyn shook her head in exasperation. “To stir up trouble. Isn’t that why any rumors about us have been going around?”
Turning to Dara, Elise said, “I’m sorry I pushed you. I was just so—” She paused as if searching for the right words. “I mean, when they said you were with Mr. Brogan after he’d been expected at Lady Whitby’s... I may have jumped to a conclusion?”
