Page 40 of Just a Little Daring

“He bothers me,” Aisling admitted crossly.

Vivien chuckled. “He was right then.”

Aisling sighed. “Yes, though I do not understand why he was so pleased by the idea. I don’t like him, he makes me furious and most of the time I want to hit him. I never want to hit anyone! I don’t have a violent bone in my body, and I can’t abide fights. I did not know what to do when that scene erupted today, but….”

Vivien and Evie both waited silently until Aisling sighed with frustration.

“I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t bear the thought that he might be hurt,” she admitted, her expression disgruntled in the extreme.

“Aisling, love. You know, sometimes when men bother you, as you describe, it’s because you have feelings for them,” Viv said gently.

Aisling threw up her hands. “Of course I have feelings for him!” She counted on her fingers as she listed them one by one. “Antipathy, irritation, indignation….”

Evie and Vivien laughed, and Aisling glared at them.

“That is not what I meant,” Viv protested. “I mean, you find him… attractive.”

Aisling blinked, looking as appalled as if Vivien had suggested she found the idea of standing in a cesspit attractive.

“I do not!”

Vivien sighed. “Have it your own way, but I think your Mr Cootes might be right. He does bother you, and not for reasons you want to consider.”

Aisling flounced off the bed and flung open the wardrobe doors. “Never mind that wretched fellow. I’m sick of thinking about him. This is more important.”

She strode back and deposited a large hatbox on the mattress. “It’s your turn, Viv.”

Viv lifted the lid off the box to see the battered hat full of dares. “But I already took one. I was one of the first, after Lottie and Eliza.”

“And yours was illegible,” Aisling said.

Vivien shrugged. “But that’s the luck of the draw. We agreed, we don’t get to pick and choose, one go each. Otherwise we’d keep taking dares until we found one we liked.”

Aisling shook her head, her expression determined. “No. I have been considering this, Viv. There is an element of magic in this hat, I’m certain of it. Therefore, giving you a blank dare was the hat’s way of telling you it wasn’t your time. You weren’t ready.”

“I’m still not ready,” Evie said, eyeing the hat with misgiving.

“That’s all right, Evie,” Aisling said, patting her hand. “There’s plenty of time for you yet.”

“Oh, I see. I must take one now because I’m four and twenty and still on the shelf!” Vivien said, laughing with outrage.

“Hardly on the shelf, love,” Evie said, snorting. “No one has had more offers than you.”

Vivien snorted, remembering some of the disgusting satyrs who’d thought to try their luck with an offer.

Aisling nodded. “Exactly, but you are on the brink of something. I feel it, Vivien. This is your time, and, if you want to make things come out right with Mr Lane-Fox, perhaps the hat has the answer.”

Vivien frowned at the battered top hat, a peculiar sensation squirming in her belly. Aisling often had odd notions about magic and fate and otherworldly things, and Viv never dismissed such talk. She’d been around Nani Maa and her bosom bow, Pippin, long enough to know better.

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt, but should we not ask the others—”

Aisling sighed and sat on the bed, taking Viv’s hand. “I know it’s scary. I was terrified, and my dare gives me sleepless nights just thinking about it. I dread summer, but it is a rite of passage, and your time has come.”

Viv suppressed a smile, amused that Aisling should think her unduly afraid, when she was only concerned the other Daring Daughters should not think she had cheated.

“Very well then,” she said gravely, sitting up and peering into the battered hat. The neatly folded slips of paper were of varying sizes, some yellow with age, others a pristine white.

“Close your eyes, Viv.”