Michael glared at her. “I hope you have no aspirations to the stage, sister. You are quite horrid at pretending.”
Robert leaned closer to Beth. “So tell me more about our brother’s scandalous behavior.”
Beth matched him, lean for lean, her voice a stage whisper that bounced about the room. “An extremely boorish young man named Richard Hadleyton—”
“I know the cad,” Robert interrupted. “He owes Campion’s several thousand pounds. A rolling debt that’s been going on for at least three years.”
“Which I informed Lady Clara of last season,” Rose said. “She rejected him, and he took great umbrage.”
“I bet he did.” Robert glanced at Michael but urged Beth to go on. “So?”
“So Lady Clara and I were coming down the steps to the ballroom floor, and this boor absolutely doused her with lemonade.”
“It was a cup,” Michael grumbled. While he appreciated his sister’s change in mood, he did not like the way this was going.
“The rotter. And?”
“And Michael rushed to her side and picked the man up by his cravat. Lifted him clean off the floor. Absolute madness!”
“Scandal! What happened next?”
Michael turned his scowl on his brother. “Will you stop?”
“I am far too eager to know more. You seemed to have emerged from hiding with a rather abundant flare.”
“I was not—”
Beth went on. “Lady Clara was so mortified, I took her to the ladies’ retiring room to regain her breath.”
“It’s a wonder she did not develop the vapors.” Robert appeared breathless and put a hand on his chest.
“I was wrong. The two of you should really take to the boards with this act.”
Rose giggled, hiding her mouth behind her hand.
Beth leaned back in her chair, and sadness seemed to settle over her again. “Truthfully, Michael was quite the hero last night. For Lady Claraandme.” Her eyes glistened again, and she grabbed a serviette and wiped them with quick swabs.
Rose reached for her hand. “Beth—”
Beth sighed. “I do not know why I’m tearing up so. It was not a great love match, but I thought we were well suited and everything was settled. I just wanted everything settled.”
“Beth, I am truly sorry—”
Beth flopped her serviette at Robert. “Stop. I would choose you over an old marquess any day of the week and twice on Sunday.” She looked at Michael. “And thank you. You made the evening much more bearable. I know you did not want to go”—she gave a wry smile—“but you seemed to find the evening a little more to your liking once you got to destroy Hadleyton in defense of your lady.”
Michael shook his head. “She is hardly my lady.”
“And she may soon be betrothed.” Rose’s calm voice rendered another silence to the room.
Michael felt as if a cricket bat had landed across his middle. “Whatever do you mean?”
“The prominence of Lady Clara’s family and the size of her dowry has brought many prospective suitors to her door. Many have made it clear they find her rather odd and dowdy—”
“What?” The heat returned to Michael’s face.
“—and that their interest is primarily in her money and position. And her father’s vote in Parliament.”
“Speaking of boorish,” Robert muttered.
