“I did not notice until the fifth,” Letitia said, with the expression of someone taking a brief personal inventory. “I am usually more observant. The rules were distracting me.”
“You were distracted by your own rules,” William snorted. “That is?—”
“Not the point,” Letitia cut in. “The point is…” She pointed at James and Isadora with one card, which was rude and also entirely characteristic. “You two are cheating.”
“We are not cheating,” James said.
“You are communicating without speaking.”
“We consulted,” James corrected. “You introduced the consulting rule.”
“I introduced two minutes of consulting. I did not introduce”—she gestured again—“whatever this is. The understanding. The—” She turned to Cecily. “Help me.”
“I am not helping you,” Cecily said pleasantly. “I am not your partner; besides, I am already losing.”
“You are losing because William keeps?—”
“I have done nothing,” William protested.
“You keep looking at my cards.”
“I am looking at the table.”
“The table where my cards are.”
“Letitia,” he chuckled nervously.
“The point is,” Letitia said, “they are suspiciously in tune for two people who are supposed to be in a practical arrangement.” She set her cards face down on the table.
“I totally agree.” Cecily nodded.
“You cannot agree. You’re not even on our team,” James scoffed.
“I do not need to be on a team to recognize a conspiracy when I see one.”
William, who had lost the last four hands and had grown steadily quieter throughout, was looking between James and Isadora with an expression that had shifted from mild irritation at losing into something far more thoughtful.
“How long have you two been doing that?” he asked.
“Doing what?” James said, in the carefully even tone of a man who knew precisely what and had decided to make William say it regardless.
“That. Just now. The—” William gestured in the same vague, encompassing way Letitia had. “Whatever that was.”
“We were playing cards.”
Heat climbed up Isadora’s neck before she could do anything to stop it. She gathered the discarded cards into a pile, fully awarethat not a single person at the table was fooled by the activity, least of all Cecily, who was watching her with a smile.
“It’s only cards,” she said.
“Mm,” Letitia murmured.
“It is genuinely only cards,” James concurred.
Isadora noticed, because apparently she noticed everything about him now, that he did not quite meet William’s eyes when he said it.
William looked at his sister.
“New rules,” Letitia announced. “Everyone, pay attention.”
