“My dear girl … you can’t let that woman upset you.” He reached her side and turned her around. He was both shocked and pleased to discover she was not crying but rather laughing like a maniac.
“This is ridiculous,” she breathed. “I keep wanting to laugh because she cannot bear to be bested.”
Julian chuckled as he gathered her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “She’s even shut up my mother. Inviting Lady Harriet was a masterstroke my brother doesn’t even realize he created. I must remember to congratulate him.” He slid his fingers under Carenza’s chin so that she had to look up at him. “Are you really all right?”
“I am. There is nothing Lady Harriet could say that could hurt me more than Hector already has.” Her gaze was clear.
He kissed her, and she kissed him back. The clock on the mantelpiece chimed the quarter hour, and he reluctantly drew back. “Will you meet me tomorrow at the usual place at twelve?” he asked.
“I thought we were done with all that.”
He frowned. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Youdid.”
“I merely suggested we needed to be careful. Mrs. Mountjoy’s house is the epitome of discretion.”
“You also suggested I expected too much of you.”
“Everyone does.” He smiled. “You should hear my mother on the subject.”
She studied him for a long moment and then looked toward the door. “I should get back.”
He took her hand. “How much will you wager me that Allegra and Lady Harriet are still at it?”
“I’m hoping your mother will regain control of the conversation and shut them both up,” Carenza said.
“I’m not sure if that’s possible. But I suspect she’ll try.”
They reentered the dining room separately as Julian needed to find the butler and resumed their seats. It quickly became obvious that his mother was pointedly ignoring her guests and speaking solely to Aragon, while Lady Harriet and Allegra glared at each other over their plates of lamb shanks in parsley sauce.
“Did I miss anything?” Julian whispered to Allegra as one of the footmen replenished all the wineglasses.
“Not particularly.”
“It’s a shame Mrs. Sheraton isn’t here,” Julian said.
“Only if you wanted to see pure carnage over the dinner table. Olivia would never allow Carenza to be insulted like that.”
“You’re doing a good job of defending her yourself, my lady.”
“Thank you.” Allegra frowned. “Carenza has a tendency to be too nice, but luckily I don’t have the same restraint.”
The lamb was removed and replaced by the fish course along with a change of wine. Aragon began loudly quizzing the new earl about his stables, which meant Lady Harriet had a chance to regroup and attack again. Carenza wasn’t sure how she felt about the whole ridiculous evening. Instinct told her to leave and that to engage in further conversation with Lady Harriet would only make matters worse. But she couldn’t abandon her sister, in case she destroyed her own social reputation along with Carenza’s.
One part of her, the quiescent wife, the woman who had always looked the other way and smoothed things over, was desperate to make things right, while the new Carenza relished a fight where nothing was left unsaid and her enemies were destroyed in front of her eyes.
“Did you ever find the jewelry that was missing from the Smythe-Harding vault?” Lady Harriet asked Carenza.
“I can’t say that I considered it my concern,” Carenza replied, her desire to leave deserting her. “You’ve already been through my jewelry collection.”
“I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Lady Harriet said. “My husband said I should not have called you out in public for your thievery, but I won’t apologize.”
Carenza looked at Lady Harriet, aware that anything she said wouldn’t satisfy her inquisitor. The new countess had taken against her before they had even met.
“I suspect you are the kind of woman who rarely apologizes for anything, ma’am.”
“That is because I am invariably proved right,” Lady Harriet said.
