“That’s right—cake pans and now a horse,” the duke said. “What do young men get up to these days?”
“Took her to where?” Percy asked. “Took Lady Felicity where?”
“Now this is even better, wait until he hears where she’s gone,” the duke said.
“Our Felicity has gone to our aunt’s house for dinner,” Lady Serenity said. “She is to meet eligible gentlemen there.”
“Gentlemen who don’t need to be chained up and thrown in a lake,” Lady Valor said, ominously slipping back into her original opinion.
“Eligible gentlemen?” Percy asked. “Who? What eligible gentlemen?”
“Who knows?” the duke said. “My sister picked them out so all I know is that they will be humorless and grim. She’d get Rustmont if she could, but I heard he left Town.”
“I do not like the sound of this,” Percy muttered.
“I am afraid it is your own fault, Mr. Stratton,” Lady Winsome pointed out.
Percy thought Lady Winsome was not being very winsome at the moment.
“Nobody to blame but himself,” Lady Verity said, shaking her head. “It is an all-too-common tale.”
“Is it?” Lady Winsome asked Lady Verity.
“What will you do now, Mr. Stratton?” Lady Grace asked.
“What will he do?” the duke asked. “He’ll go straight over there, taking that horse with him. I don’t suppose anybody else will have arrived to Lady Misery’s house with an extra horse in tow—it’s bound to give him a leg up on things.”
“Lady Marchfield will not like it at all,” Lady Grace pointed out.
“Yes, I know,” the duke said. “That’s the other half of the fun.”
“Oh I see,” Lady Valor said, “Papa, thatisvery funny. Our aunt makes me laugh when she’s mad. Now that I’m used to it. Because you’ve made her mad so many times that I got used to it.”
“It’s one of the primary purposes of my life, my girl. Well, I suppose we all ought to go,” the duke said. “Mrs. Right, call the carriages if you will.”
Mrs. Right nodded and hurried from the room.
Things were moving a bit too fast for Percy to keep up. First it was proposed that he ought to go charging over to Lady Marchfield’s house to interrupt her dinner party. Which really, he was not opposed to. What was the lady thinking, inviting eligible gentlemen to a dinner for her niece?
But now they were all going with him? This family was an absolute circus. He was not so certain bringing a circus with him would be at all helpful.
“Charlie, fetch the girls’ coats, we are going out on a nighttime adventure!” the duke said jovially.
The six sisters were all too willing to join in on the idea and leapt up from their seats.
Lady Grace inexplicably seemed to get her feet in a tangle, fell to the ground, rolled, and then hopped upright without anyone taking the smallest notice of it.
Lady Valor clutched Mrs. Wendover and exclaimed that she’d never gone anywhere so late in the nighttime, and it was all very exciting and scary.
The ladies Winsome and Verity took that moment to have a dispute. Lady Verity claimed horses traveled faster at night because of the cool air, Lady Winsome said they probably went slower because they were tired.
Lady Patience pushed past them and grabbed the pile of cloaks and pelisses from the footman’s arms and began throwing them to their owners.
Lady Serenity brushed a tear away on account of, she said, this touching display of family unity.
Percy girded his loins—they were all going. Even Mrs. Wendover.
*
