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Lenora assumed Millie meant the maze. And she could tell by Millie’s face she didn’t believe nothing had happened during the little Season. “I told you I don’t want to talk about the hedge.”

“Very well.” Millie shrugged.

“These things must be done slowly,” Lenora added. “Carefully.”

Millie made a dismissive noise.

“You just carry on with your plan to test the limits of Society’s outrage,” Lenora said. “But don’t go as far as to ruin my chances—or Nettie’s. Or Emily’s, for that matter.”

“I gave up on you and Nettie a long time ago. Love. Love. Love. That’s all you and she ever want to discuss.”

“To be fair”—she raised her brows and tilted her head—“Nettie talks about pastries quite a bit, too.”

“Well, Lady Emily, at least, is no more interested in finding a husband than I am.”

Lenora frowned. “Did Emily tell you so?”

Millie shrugged. “Why else would she have delayed her debut another year?”

“So she might come out with Nettie, of course.”

“Well, anyone who places their security in something as fickle as love is, in my opinion, mad. I’d rather be notorious than leg-shackled.”

“Notorious?” Lenora chuckled. She glanced at the lavender dress Millie had designed. In addition to the string of tiny buttons that ran down her back—the buttons they’d searched far and wide to find—there were pearls sewn into the sleeves and bodice in a pattern that accentuated Millie’s generous breasts. “Well, that dress of yours is a nice start.”

A broad smile spread across Millie’s face. “Isn’t it just?”

They both fell silent as a lanky gentleman they had not met bowed over Lady Asquith’s hand.

“Lady Asquith,” he said. “You are lovely as always.”

Godmama’s right eyebrow lifted and a knowing glint lit her eye, as if she were silently reprimanding a wayward boy. She then introduced Mr. Daughtry first to Millie, then to Lenora.

“Just as reported,” Daughtry said to Lady Asquith, “the younger Wainwrights are as stunningly beautiful as their elder sisters.” He took in Millie’s attire, and his eyes did not hitch on her bodice.

Which was more than Lenora could say for the younger men present.

“What a... fashionable dress.” His gaze shifted to Lenora. “And Miss Lenora. What is that faint, sweet, enchanting fragrance?”

“Lavender.” Lenora mimicked Lady Asquith’s dry expression. “Quite common, I believe.”

Daughtry smirked. He slanted Lady Asquith a glance. “I can see why Asquith sings his wards’ praises—”

Lenora’s heart jolted.

“—then again, he does have three more to get settled. Five wards! I shudder to think.”

Lenora struggled to keep her face from falling.

“Tut.” Lady Asquith lifted her quizzing glass. “I see your time in the provinces hasn’t improved your manners. Still a trouble-causing rapscallion, are you?” She turned to Millie and Lenora. “Daughtry’s always been a trickster. Why he’s considered a wit, I wouldn’t know.”

Lenora glanced between them, anticipating one would give the other a cut, but Daughtry simply smiled.

“You haven’t changed, either, Mother Asquith,” he winked. “Your quizzing glass is just as terrifying as ever.”

A faint smile played on Lady Asquith’s lips. “Well, there’s no need to flatter me, young man.”

“Ah, but there is, you see. Blackwell bet me you’d turn your back if I mentioned Asquith’s number of wards.”