“Brides with rich husbands like new frocks. I cannot blame them. But this one works. I like it, and it still fits well enough. I seemed to have lost some weight.” She tugged at the shoulder, which kept slipping downward.Hm... that could become awkward.
“You do look good in that color. Of course, it does bring out the red that is usually drowned by that sea of dead wheat gold. Does Sarah not know any hairstyle other than a chignon?”
“I love you, too.”
“We can afford new gowns, Rose. We are not destitute. Mother should never have given Madame Adrienne that silly direction about you. We all know gowns get damaged.”
“Silly?” Rose’s voice pitched in a precise mimicry of their mother’s posh tone. “Why should Madame Adrienne worry about a mere spinster and retiring wallflower? Everyone knows Lady Rose is biding her time until she doesnothave to do this anymore. She doesnotneed new clothes. The focus needs to be on you, my dear.Youwill be this year’s Incomparable. This is your year.” Rose threw her arms wide in a gesture suitable for the stage. “You will launch into thetonwith the brilliance of a thousand ships headed into the midnight ocean.”
Silence. Cecily stared at Rose who stared at Cecily. Then they both burst into a fit of riotous giggles.
Cecily finally caught her breath. “Anyone who thinks you are a ‘retiring wallflower’ is in for his own kind of shock.” Cecily paused to spritz a bit of scent on her neck, then exchanged a glance with her maid, who nodded then backed away. Cecily thanked her and stood, stepping away from the dressing table. “Speaking of shock...”
Rose left the chair and gathered her pelisse, which she had laid across the foot of Cecily’s bed. “Yes?”
“Did you hear the Ashton brothers are going to be at the ball tonight?”
Rose stilled, staring down at the pelisse in her hands. “Indeed? I had not heard that.”
“Liar. Isabella told me, so I know you have heard it.”
Cecily’s best friend was a notorious gossip and was, in fact, the source of a lot of Rose’s information. “She’s in a position to know.” Rose began to pluck at the fur lining of the pelisse.
“Didn’t you used to be friends with them? Back when you were children?”
Rose nodded, still refusing to meet Cecily’s eyes. The last person she wanted to think about was a childhood infatuation. Or the disreputable scoundrel he had become.Thomas, what happened to you?“They used to live next door, at Newbury Hall.” She waved her hand in the general direction of the grand house standing next to theirs. “Then after the previous duke died, they moved into Ashton House. Newbury Hall has been leased since, generally during the season to some country family that doesn’t have a Town home. Thomas and Robert went off to school about that same time. I haven’t really seen them since.”
Liar.This time the word echoed in her own head. Rose pushed away the thought, along with remembrances of the moments she’d observed Thomas from a distance over the years. The times she had seen him when she was in a spot she never should have been as a lady of theton.Obviously, Cecily could not know about those. “I thought maybe my first season, they would be there, but they’d already... drifted.”
Cecily accepted her own pelisse from her maid and pulled it close about her shoulders. “Thomas. He’d be the Marquess of Newbury.”
Rose nodded.
“Maybe I should—”
Rose flared, spinning toward her sister, dread spearing her chest. “No! Absolutely not.”
Cecily’s eyes widened. “Rose—”
“No. He’s a rake now, title or no. Complete scoundrel. If what I’ve heard is true, then he’s ruined more than a few women. Even if it is not, his disastrous reputation would drown you. He has a mistress now. And you heard what he did to that man who made foul insinuations about Lady Elizabeth?”
Cecily still looked stunned. “No, I—”
“He almost killed the man! Beat him with that cane he carries everywhere. I don’t even know why they are bothering to try coming back into Society. All three of them are the worst sort of nefarious rogues.” Rose paused, realizing that her voice had grown louder than she’d intended. Heat flushed her face, and she swallowed hard.
Cecily and the maid were staring at her, mouths open. After a moment, Cecily sniffed and adjusted her pelisse even though it did not need adjusting. “Apparently, they are doing so to support their sister in her debut season.”
Rose looked away. “Of course. I’d forgotten. You and Beth are the same age.”
Cecily hesitated a moment. “Rose. I am not Patience. I won’t be lured down some dark hall—”
Rose looked back at Cecily, her words curt. “She was not ‘lured.’ She was tricked. Seduced.”
“—Way. I will not be tricked.”
“I trustyou, but you are an innocent and rightfully so. Some of these men are quite charming and appear harmless, even though they are neither. Just never, ever leave the dance floor alone with one. If some man pushes you into an alcove and gropes you, you will not be strong enough to fight him off. And you will still be ruined.”
“Then I’ll go live with Aunt Sophie and wander with the sheep over the hillsides of Yorkshire the rest of my days.” Cecily crossed to Rose and put a hand on her arm. “I will not marry just to save myself and be miserable like Patience is.”
