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“What is it? You are blushing.”
Her eyes darted to James and back to me. Good heavens, she needn’t be fearful of speaking before him.
“Would you like to show them to the parlor?” James asked me softly. He must have sensed her hesitancy as well. “I will send someone for refreshments.”
I agreed and slipped my arm around Jane’s, pulling her from the room, Ewan just behind us. “What is it?” I asked when we left.
“We walked into a private conversation when looking for the drawing room again, and I fear I have caused great offense.”
“In what way?”
She glanced over her shoulder at her husband, then continued. “I knew the woman—Mrs. Moulton, you’ll recall? I attended her school in York for a few years—and I was happy to see her so unexpectedly. I rudely interrupted, and the man who was speaking to her looked exceedingly vexed.”
That was why the name had always sounded familiar to me. Jane had written to me during her time at school and must have mentioned her headmistress by name. Glad to finally have that mystery solved, I returned my attention to Jane’s mild distress. “A man was speaking to her? Did you learn his name?”
“No, but he looks similar to your James, only possessed of curly hair.”
“Benedict, the youngest of the brothers.” She’d already met Henry last summer, so it was easy to puzzle out.
She bared her teeth in distress. “Do you think I’ve caused great offense? I fear Scotland’s casualness has begun to change me a little.” She added an arch look toward Ewan, who merely ignored the comment. I couldn’t help but assume it was a playful jest between them.
“I would be shocked beyond all things if you have. Benedict is possessed of the easiest of characters and not at all to be taken seriously.”
“He appeared in the depths of a serious conversation with Mrs. Moulton, and quite frustrated, besides.”
“I can attest to it,” Ewan added.
Odd, that. “I would not think on it another moment. But I will speak to him and be certain he understands that your interruption was the product of a great surprise at finding your old headmistress here.”
We reached the door of the parlor, the sounds of ball preparations reaching us from down the corridor.
“Thank you, Lissy.” Jane squeezed my hand, and looked into my eyes. Her own narrowed slightly. “Something about you has altered, but I cannot place exactly what it is.”
“Perhaps it is that I am married now, away from my parents, and living in an enormous museum?”
She laughed. “Yes, all those things. But there is something more. I will ruminate on it until I determine exactly what it is.”
I shook my head indulgently and pulled her into the parlor. It was so very good to have my friend here.
