She made a sound that was half laugh and half something else. Then she straightened.
"Now," she said, smoothing her skirts back into place, "I believe Hannah mentioned something about foals. And I have not yet met Miss Beckett or her sisters. So, if you are quite finished hiding in your study, perhaps we might go and find the rest of your guests."
James looked at his sister.
"I was not hiding," he said.
"You were reading the same letter three times," Laura said. "I could see the margin notes from the door."
He looked down at the Greaves letter. Four margin notes, all in his hand. He had not remembered making the last two.
"Give me a moment," he said.
"Of course," she replied, and waited by the door, because she knew when to press and when not to.
James straightened the papers on his desk. He returned the quill to the standish. Then he stood, adjusted his coat, and looked out the study window at the grey August afternoon pressing against the glass.
Then he went to meet the rest of his house party.
Cori stood near the mantel, her arm linked with Cara’s as she took in the drawing room. It was cozy and inviting, almost like the room itself was a warm blanket that had enveloped the group as a whole. Every chair was occupied. The fire was crackling. Half a dozen conversations were all moving at once, crossing over each other and separating again like currents in the same water.
Not too far away, Lucien Gates described the moors to no one in particular and everyone in general, which Cori had discovered was something Lucien did when he was being deliberately atmospheric.
"The thing about the moors," he was saying, "is that they give the impression of going on forever. Which they do not, obviously. But the impression they give is very convincing."
"Profound," Mr. Atherton said wryly, from across the room, without looking up from his conversation with Reese.
"I am full of profundity," Lucien said with an exaggerated bow.
"You are full of something," Mr. Atherton agreed pleasantly.
"Arch," Emma Atherton muttered under her breath.
"Mm," said Mr. Atherton, still not looking up.
Hythe, from his chair by the window and with his gazette folded in his lap, seemed to stifle an amused snort.
The drawing room door opened and Linthorpe entered with a statuesque blonde at his side. There was something in the way the pair moved together, easy and unhurried, that spoke of long familiarity. Linthorpe said something to the woman and she laughed quietly, and then Daniel appeared from across the room, already making his way toward them with barely contained enthusiasm.
Cori watched as he embraced the woman briefly, said something that made her shake her head, and then steered her in Cori and Cara’s direction.
"Lady Darling, Miss Corinna," Daniel began, sporting a wide smile. "My sister, Mrs. Laura Fairleigh."
Mrs. Fairleigh was their sister? That explained the familiarity. The lady was not at all what Cori had been expecting, which was foolish because she wasn’t quite sure what she had been expecting. The woman had blue eyes, lighter than her brothers', and the kind of stillness that came from having learned, somewhere along the way, how to hold things quietly. She was also, Cori realized in the moment their eyes met, paying very close attention to everything in the drawing room.
"Lady Darling.” Mrs. Fairleigh grasped Cara’s hands with a smile. “I have heard so much about you.”
“Lord Daniel hasn’t been discussing that wager again, has he?” Cara cast the woman a smile of her own.
“Now, now,” Daniel protested. “If it wasn’t for my wager, you’d never have met Darling. At some point you will thank me for that.”
“As long as you make Cait happy,” Cara began, “I will forgive you anything.”
“That’s more like it.” Then Daniel had the audacity to wink in Cara’s direction.
Mrs. Fairleigh shook her head in mild amusement before turning her full attention on Cori.” And Miss Corinna. “She took both of Cori’s hands and held them for a moment longer than a first introduction required. "I am so pleased to meet you."
"And I you," Cori said. "Daniel has spoken so warmly of you."
