Phoebe followed his departing figure before shifting her gaze to Alex. “You’re looking well.”
“Because she’s actually been spending a few hours a week outside the office,” Freddie interjected.
Phoebe’s lips curved. “With Lucien?”
“He paid her a rather late visit there the other evening,” Freddie added with a ridiculous eyebrow waggle.
Alex turned sharply to her. “How did you hear about that?”
But Freddie only lifted a shoulder. “I have my sources.”
Ithadto be Potts. Freddie was the only person in the world who could turn that man into a simpering fool. It was damned annoying.
“A pity you don’t use them for something useful,” Alex groused.
Before Freddie could parry back, their mother interrupted. “Girls,” she warned through a tight smile. “We have company. Can you at leasttryto be civil to one another?”
Alex and Freddie exchanged sheepish looks. “Sorry, Mother,” they grumbled in unison.
“I must say, I’m quite enjoying being the golden child for once,” Phoebe said with a highly irritating smirk after their mother moved on to circulate.
Freddie rolled her eyes. “I think you owe them that after the last few years.”
Alex snorted a laugh. At least that was something they could agree on.
Phoebe’s insistence on working as a schoolteacher in a rather rough neighborhood while sharing a derelict flat with a colleague had caused their parents an endless amount of worry until she became engaged to Will—and that had only been a couple of months ago.
“But never fear,” Freddie continued lightly as she looked around the box. “Alex will reclaim her crown as soon as she strikes a deal with the Ericsons in exchange for my hand and earns Father another million.”
Alex pursed her lips at the sarcastic comment while Phoebe cleared her throat, but Freddie simply took a long sip of champagne, seemingly oblivious to the tension she had caused. Or perhaps simply enjoying it. One could never tell with her.
When their father came to join them, Alex let out a sigh ofrelief. “Good evening, Bee,” he said, giving Phoebe a friendly kiss. “Where is that fiancé of yours?”
“He went to fetch us some champagne, but he should be back soon.” Phoebe craned her head as her gaze caught on something else. “Is that Inspector Holland?”
Alex turned around in time to see the man enter their box. “What ishedoing here?”
“I invited him,” their father said.
“How egalitarian of you, Father,” Freddie said with a fiendish smile as her eyes locked on the inspector. “I think I’ll just go say hello.”
“AndI’llcome with you,” Phoebe said as she shot Alex a look and took Freddie’s arm.
Once they were gone, Alex turned to her father with a raised eyebrow. “The inspector got to you, did he?”
He shrugged. “Holland was so certain that you all were in grave danger that I asked him to come along tonight and see for himself.”
“I’m surprised he agreed to that,” Alex said. She was mystified as she watched the man tug on the collar of his evening suit, clearly uncomfortable.
“Yes. It didn’t take much convincing either,” her father replied. “Though now I’m beginning to understand why,” he added with a subtle nod.
As Freddie greeted the inspector, he seemed to have forgotten his discomfort and wassmiling—or at least what passed as a smile for him. Most other people would probably mistake it for a kind of grimace.
Alex groaned. “You’ll need to hire another daughter to fend off Holland.”
Her father chuckled. “I doubt that. The inspector doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to put up with Freddie’s nonsense. Besides, Hank Jr. came to me just yesterday to formally ask for her hand.”
“Did he?” That was a huge step. Hank Jr. was known around New York as the Slippery Bachelor, for no one could catch him. But it seemed he couldn’t resist Freddie.
