Libba nodded, pulling the ribbon free and craning her neck side to side, glancing at herself in the mirror and finding her skin stubbornly luminous. “I should bathe,” she said absently, tugging the ties free from the front of her dress, much less skillfully than Jasper had. “I should change.”
Ruby nodded, pushing herself off the mattress and pacing to the wardrobe, tossing it open with a thoughtful thrum in her throat. “What do you want to wear today? I suggest red.”
“You always suggest red,” Libba snapped, still fumbling with the ties. “Is that why they named you ‘Ruby’ at the foundling home?”
Ruby chuckled. “I wish. I was one of a series of infant girls in a list of gems. Pearl and Opal were older. Beryl came after me. I am glad I wasn’t Beryl.”
Beryl and Errol, Libba thought to herself but did not say. “Me too.”
Ruby withdrew a dark-red shift and a soft, purple overdress. Libba was grateful, despite herself.
“Does Malcolm know yet?” Ruby asked, laying out her choices on the bed.
Libba blanched. “No.”
Ruby raised her brows, turning to her as she stood, and peeled off her wrinkled clothing, pushing it down her hips. “Are you going to tell him? Is Jasper going to do it?”
“He had better bloody not,” Libba said, frowning. “That’s for me to do.”
“He probably thinks the same,” said Ruby, then she paused, both of them startling a little when the skirt landed on the floor with athunk.
“Oh,” said Libba, kneeling and tossing it over to dig the fossil stone out of the skirt. “I forgot about this.”
“What is it?” Ruby asked, evidently just as interested in rubble as she was in soul-fracturing family drama. “Oh! A fossil. I didn’t know you enjoyed such things.”
“It isn’t mine,” Libba said, tossing it to her for closer inspection. “It’s Rhys’s. Or… I guess Seph’s. He wants me to give it to Persephone Boswell.”
“Why?” asked Ruby, turning it curiously in her hands. “Is it going to explode later?”
“I don’t think so,” said Libba, just as baffled. “He doesn’t want her to know it’s from him.”
“Are you going to tell her, anyway?”
Libba shrugged, letting out a little breath. “I don’t know. I’m confused.”
“So is Rhys, apparently,” said Ruby, blinking. “Or maybe not. He is an impulsive little imp.”
Seph had Rhys in her rival bucket, Libba knew. This fossil would complicate buckets. She wasn’t certain she wanted to do that to another woman so soon after having it done to her. And besides, Rhys should cause his own messes. He had enough experience, didn’t he?
“Did you know he is apparently clench in a fight?” Libba asked, reaching out to take the fossil back. “I think he’s been letting us best him all this time. I wouldn’t have believed it a week ago, but I do now.”
“Well, don’t tell him you know,” said Ruby, blinking several times. “He’ll stop letting us do it.”
“Oh, damn,” said Libba, pausing with her fingers on the new chemise with a jolt and a frown. “Youare going to tell Malcolm if I don’t.”
“What!” Ruby said, gasping theatrically. “I wouldnever.”
“No, not on purpose,” Libba said, moaning and slumping forward, face buried in her mattress. “You will give it away, though, if I don’t do it soon.”
“Well!” huffed Ruby, crossing her arms. “I should take my tincture back for that, but I won’t. BecauseIam not a beast.”
The implication that Libbawas, in fact, a beast, stood starkly in the air.
“I didn’tmeanfor Willa to find out about that boy when we were young,” Ruby rushed out, exploding a few seconds later. “She peeled it out of me like she was seeding a grape!”
It made Libba laugh, an exhausted, shaking laugh, her face still buried in her pillow. “I know,” she said, sighing and dragging herself back to a reasonable position, braced on her hands and facing the clean clothes. “I know you don’t mean to do it. Not everyone is an actress.”
“Not every house is as bloody observant as this one, either,” Ruby snapped back. “Ifshewere still around, it wouldn’t have been me you found in your room this morning and I think you know that.”
