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“High praise,” Adam said.

“Very.” Her grandmother turned to survey the room with the assessing attention of a woman who had attended this house’s events long enough to have opinions about the wallpaper. “Where is Valerie?”

“Here.” Valerie appeared at her other shoulder with a small, bright feather caught in her dark hair that she had not yet noticed. She looked from Juliet to Adam, her expression going dry. “You are doing that thing.”

“What thing?” Juliet asked.

“Where you stand two feet apart in a ballroom, perfectly composed, and still somehow make it obvious that two feet is a great deal farther than either of you prefers.”

Lady Worthington did not look at Valerie. “You have someone’s plume in your hair.”

Valerie reached up, found the feather, and held it at arm’s length with an expression of mild betrayal. “I have been speaking to people for forty minutes. Not one person mentioned it.”

“We are polite people,” Lady Worthington said.

Daniel Lancaster arrived from the refreshment table with two glasses and the look of a man who had caught only the tail end of an exchange and found it quite sufficient. He offered one glass to Lady Worthington, who accepted without acknowledgment.

“I have eaten twelve of the small pastry things,” he announced, “and I feel no remorse whatsoever.”

Adam looked at him. “Twelve.”

“The cook is a genius. Someone should tell Clarkston.” He surveyed the room pleasantly. “On the subject of Clarkston, any word on the other business?”

Lady Worthington set her glass down. “I got word from my solicitor this morning.” Her eyes moved to Juliet’s. “Penhurst’s sentence has been confirmed. The charge of false imprisonment held, and the magistrate found no grounds for leniency given the rest of it. He will not be leaving Newgate any time soon.”

The room continued around them: laughter rose near the windows, a matron in yellow silk waved across the floor, and the orchestra played brightly at the other end of the hall. But that was certainly good news.

“Good,” Juliet said.

“Oh, it is good, indeed,” Lady Worthington agreed, and that was all.

Honeysett raised his glass. “To natural consequences.”

“To natural consequences,” Valerie echoed, and they drank amidst chuckles and giggles.

Her father came from the direction of the card room near eleven o’clock. He stopped before Juliet and looked her in the face, which was not his usual practice.

“Cobalt suits you,” he said. “Your mother wore that color.”

Juliet held still.

“I am glad you came.” He did not look at Adam as he said it.

“Thank you for the invitation,” she said.

He nodded once. He glanced at Adam, who inclined his head in the way that acknowledged without conceding anything. Her father cleared his throat. “Bring Eloise when you can manage it. I have a pony in the eastern stable that could use the exercise.”

He moved away before she could respond.

“He has a pony,” Juliet said.

Adam’s hand came to the small of her back, warm through the fabric. “He does.”

She watched her father disappear into the crowd. “He never had a pony when I was small. I asked repeatedly.”

“Perhaps,” Adam said, “he is trying to correct that.”

She said nothing more about it, but only because she did not need to say anything, really.