The fire in the grate dwindled, and the only people left in the drawing room were herself, Tilly, and George.
Scarlett was feigning interest in a volume and had moved over by the fire to better read it.
Tilly and George spoke in soft voices on the other side of the room.
Scarlett knew that, as chaperone, she had to both protect her sister and give her as much privacy as possible, a balance that was difficult to strike.
Either way, across the empty space, their voices still carried.
“I know I am a beast to make you wait,” George said, in a low, ardent voice.“But Mother has gone to the trouble of having this party.And so I must see it through.”
“Of course,” her sister said.“I understand completely.”
“But I don’t want you to think,” George said, “that it means I haven’t made up my mind.”
“Oh, I don’t presume—”
“Please, Tilly,” he said, and Scarlett was sure the young man had her hand grasped in his own.“I have made up my mind.I know we have something like an understanding.And so I want to be clear that, even though I haven’t yet, I will—I will ask for your hand.Upon my honor.Before the month is out.I only need to be… diplomatic.”
Scarlett heard her sister gasp.
“You needn’t promise such a thing, George.I am perfectly content to wait.But I’m happy to hear of your intentions, of course, all the same.”
Scarlett suppressed a smile.She knew her sister was totally sincere.But she also couldn’t imagine a response a young man would like more.
“I only don’t want you to think—that I presume too much.That I take your affirmative for granted.I know I haven’t asked—and so I want you to know that I intend to.”
“But you already know the answer.You don’t presume.”
Scarlett frowned.She didn’t think her sister too forward, but she wasn’t sure young George had earned such honesty.The young man was right.Hehadn’tasked.
“That’s what I told Severn,” George said with a laugh.“But he scolded me all the same.”
“Your brother?”Tilly said in a strange voice, quite unlike the glowing golden one she had just been using.
“Yes, my brother,” George said, a smile in his voice.“He scolded me for being too sure where you were concerned.It was because of something foolish I had said.About a honeymoon.”
“What about it?”
“I said I wasn’t sure if you would want one.That you aren’t the type to make a fuss.And Severn said that sometimes I speak as if I’d already gotten your answer.”
Scarlett’s eyebrows rose to her hairline.She knew her sister—and she very muchwouldwant a honeymoon.What young girl wouldn’t?
But, to her surprise, Tilly said nothing of the sort.She spoke in a different direction entirely.
“Your brother has no right to speak of my preferences.Or to act as if it ishisplace to defend my honor.”
“Ah, Severn meant no harm,” George said.“I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.He’s very chivalric where ladies are concerned, that is all.”
“That’s not what they say in London, is it?For half of last season, all anyone could speak of were his affairs.”
“Tilly!”George said, and Scarlett registered his real alarm.
She was alarmed as well.The conversation she was overhearing was not a quarrel yet.But it had the promise of becoming one.
“I—you—well—you—my brother—I didn’t realize you knew—”
“Oh, George, you goose,” Tilly said.“Everyone knows your brother is a rake.You can’t expect me to be ignorant of that.”
