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“I know, Papa.” She released her hand from the door handle to give her father a kiss on his creased cheek. His bushy white sideburn tickled her chin. “Are you going to the library?” She gestured to the book in his hand.
“Oh yes. Must make some notes. Can you believe there are some beetles that I did not even know about?”
She smiled. There was nary a day her father did not have his head in a book. “I truly cannot believe that.”
“Well, have fun at your tea party.”
“Thank you, Papa.”
Cassie paused, gave her shoulders a little roll and straightened. These were her sisters for goodness sakes. She saw them every day. Nothing of which to be frightened.
But if they knew Luke had discovered her they might boot her from the group before she had even started. Years of begging to join and refining her skills would be for naught.
Chastity near pounced on her when she entered the room, making Cassie expel a squeak of surprise. She pressed a hand to her chest. “What was that for?”
Her eldest sister grinned. “You should be prepared for anything. Lesson two.”
Cassie wrinkled her nose. “But I haven’t even had lesson one.”
“All in good time, Little One, all in good time.” Chastity flung herself down on the sofa next to Demeter and spread her arms wide across the back of the chair. “So how did it go?”
Drawing in a breath, she glanced at her other siblings who were seated in a neat row and then her aunt. Sprawled across the chaise longue was Aunt Sarah, her gray hair rather like a wild bush spread about her. Curled up next to her, Simon the cat blinked nonchalantly into the distance.
Simon had been so named for her aunt’s late-husband who Aunt Sarah insisted had returned as a cat to comfort her after his passing. Though not inclined to believe such fantasies, it was odd how the almost pure white cat had black fur under his nose, mimicking a moustache—rather looking like Uncle Simon and his black moustache and shock of white hair.
“Well…”
“Viscount Whitehurst caught you, did he not?”
Cassie glanced at her half-sister Eleanor, her breath catching in her throat. “How did you know that?” she blurted.
Blast. Now she had given herself away. Ever since she had discovered her mother’s activities as a girl, she’d begged to be part of the group. Then Chastity had taken up the mantle as the leader after her passing and finally her other sisters had joined as previous members married or left. It seemed mightily unfair she would be forced to give it all up because of one frustratingly persistent viscount.
“I saw him follow you,” Eleanor explained. “I should not be surprised. He always looks at you.”
“Nonsense.”
If he looked at her it was only because he had some misguided notion she needed looking after. Nearly everyone she met thought that. Something about her age combined with being the duke’s youngest daughter and unmarried brought it out in people. Her ability to be a little on the accident-prone side did not help either she supposed.
Of course,sheshould not be surprised Eleanor had noticed him follow her. Eleanor noticedeverything.
“Are you going to stand there forever?” demanded Aunt Sarah. “Take a seat next to me.”
Cassie eyed the chaise, uncertain quite how she was meant to perch on the chaise next to her aunt’s sprawled legs and Simon so opted for the armchair by the fireplace. The parlor room had been decorated by her mother when Cassie had been younger and she still recalled marveling over the beautiful silk wallpaper, the shimmering gold curtains with its generous tassels that were so soft to the touch, and the plush furnishings in gold and green. Whenever she set foot in this room, she could not help but feel her mother’s essence. If there was ever a time she needed it, it was now. Once she admitted she had failed to see the will, surely her sisters would banish her from the group.
“So did you find it?” Eleanor asked.
Cassie shouldn’t have been surprised at her sister’s bluntness. Eleanor was not known for being subtle or delicate. Many put that down to her parentage, however, Cassie knew better—Eleanor simply did not care for the delicacies of Society, especially given many members of thetondid not care forher. Only two years separated them, and they had grown up together after her father brought her over from Jamaica and claimed her as his own at the insistence of Cassie’s mother.
“I did not,” Cassie admitted.
“Blast,” murmured Chastity. “I wasted all that time talking with Mr. Harding and now everyone will think I am desperate to marry him for no reason.”
“Everyone thinks we are all desperate to marry anyway,” Demeter pointed out. “Four unmarried daughters? I’d wager every man who even w-went near us was noted.”
Chastity held up a finger. “Speak for yourselves. I was married once and that was enough for me.”
Aunt Sarah gave a lengthy sigh and rubbed Simon’s head vigorously. “We had a wonderful marriage, did we not?” she asked the cat. “I can only hope the same for you girls one day.”
