The room erupted in laughter. Hazel raised her brows. Cordelia nearly toppled from her seat in delight.
“Food?” Matilda’s voice cut through the laughter. “That is your great question?”
Evelyn shook her head, feigning despair. “I married a duke, and yet he questions me like a farmer’s boy begging for supper.”
Robert, entirely unmoved, simply smiled at her. “You need not answer if it displeases you.”
“Oh, I shall answer,” she declared, her eyes softening as she looked at him. “I would choose bread. Because it is the simplest thing in the world, yet never fails to satisfy.”
The laughter turned to knowing smiles. Even Jasper, who claimed no taste for romance, could not help noticing the tenderness in her tone. Robert leaned to press her hand, and though he said nothing, the look they shared was far louder than words.
Hazel fanned herself dramatically. “Good heavens, Evelyn, must you always make matrimony look so appealing? It is indecent.”
That earned fresh laughter. Evelyn only laughed as well, unashamed, and turned her sights upon her friend. “Very well, Hazel dear, your turn. Tell me this: if you were to wake tomorrow and find yourself a man, what would you do first?”
Hazel’s mouth dropped open, her cheeks blooming red as roses. “Evelyn!” she cried, half in scandal and half in glee. “You will ruin me with such a question.”
“Answer,” Evelyn sang sweetly, “or else you must pay a forfeit.”
“Oh, I refuse! Never shall I speak such a thought aloud.” Hazel clapped her hands over her face and shook her head so violently her curls tumbled from their pins.
Jasper leaned forward, his grin spreading. He had always thought Lady Hazel the most ungovernable of the ladies, yet now she hid her face like a schoolgirl caught whispering.
“Then a forfeit it must be,” he drawled. “Something humiliating, naturally.”
Evelyn tapped her chin. “She must compose a verse… and it must be a compliment to… Jasper!”
Hazel groaned. “I cannot rhyme. I shall sound absurd.”
“Even better!” Cordelia teased, and it drew a roar of friendly laughter.
Jasper was enjoying himself more than he cared to admit. His gaze flickered briefly to Lady Matilda, who sat composed, with her pale eyes cool and unreadable as ever. Yet her lips betrayed her with the slightest upward curve. He found, most inconveniently, that he wanted to see that smile again.
“I need a moment to compose myself,” Hazel said, clearing her throat, as she stood up before everyone.
“Of course,” Jasper arched an amused brow. “But do not imagine it will earn you mercy from us. The rhymemuststand.”
Hazel thought about it for a few moments, then she began:
“There once was a duke named Harrow,
Whose stare was both sharp and narrow,
He smiles with his dimples,
Confounds with his simples,
And struts like a proud little sparrow.”
The room erupted before she could even finish, Cordelia shrieking with delight, Evelyn doubled over in laughter, and Robert actually clapping the arm of his chair. Jasper himself leaned back, with his hand pressed to his jaw to conceal the grin tugging at his mouth. He had heard many flatteries in his life, most of them insincere, but never had he been compared to a sparrow. The sheer absurdity of it pleased him beyond reason.
The applause had scarcely died down when Hazel, ever composed, turned her sharp gaze on Jasper. “Since I havefulfilled my forfeit, it is my right to pose the next question. Your Grace, what is it you most admire in a lady?”
A hum of approval circled the group. Evelyn leaned forward with bright expectation, Cordelia clasped her hands, and Robert gave a resigned little groan as if bracing himself for impropriety.
Jasper steepled his fingers, letting the silence linger longer than necessary. He could have said kindness, grace, beauty, all the things expected of him. But his eyes, without willing it, found Lady Matilda across the circle. She was straight-backed, her expression carefully impassive, yet her pale-grey gaze betrayed the smallest flicker of unease under the weight of his attention.
He smiled, slow and deliberate. “I admire a lady who has the courage to speak plainly, even when she would rather retreat. A lady who does not let shyness or circumstance blind her judgment. A lady who can tell the truth, even when it is most uncomfortable.”
