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“So modest! Miss Reeve, you are elegance personified with the humbleness of a saint.”

She wondered if the master of ceremonies would take it amiss if she stepped on a few toes. Accidentally, of course. “I assure you, gentlemen, I am not the one you are looking for—”

One of them grasped her hand and kissed it, tugging her forward enough that she lost her balance. “Such pretty manners! Come, Miss Reeve, the dance floor beckons!” He urged her forward, and, in a daze, she followed him. “Your sisters are stars, Miss Reeve. But stars are but pale imitations of the sun, which I now dare to hold in my arms.”

“That turn of phrase would be most pleasing to my sister Betsy. She adores poetry.”

“I hope such a preference runs in your family.”

“I share it not,” she said firmly.

“There you are, Caroline!” Arabella popped up beside them and grabbed her arm. “I do apologize for interrupting, Lord Hanbury, but I must have Miss Reeve’s opinion on something important. Please do come with me.”

Caroline allowed herself to be pulled away to where Grace and Maeve awaited, giving a sympathetic smile over her shoulder to the man who had tried to dance with her.

Maeve held up her glass. “The true enjoyment of the night is not the dancing, but the fact that they do not serve watered down wine here.”

“I might say the same if I could boast of my own glass,” Caroline said. “Arabella, thank you so much for rescuing me.” She gave in to impulse and swept her into a tight hug, burying her face in her honey brown curls before taking a safe step back. It was too dangerous to stand so close to her, when all she wanted was to give her a kiss to properly thank her.

“You are well deserving of a glass of wine. I shall go fetch one for you.” Arabella disappeared into the crowd.

“Arabella is a good friend to you,” Maeve said, sipping her wine. “Very devoted.”

“Arabella and I have been the best of friends for years. Decades, even.” Did Maeve guess at the intimacies in which they had engaged? What surprised her was that she longed to say something. To be seen, and heard, to give voice to her desires.

Grace sighed. “It must be wonderful. I left my family to go into service early in life, and have been a companion or a chaperone for so many years that I doubt any of my childhood friends would recognize me.”

“I don’t know what I would do without Arabella.”

It was the bone-deep truth.

She paused, not wanting to examine that thought too much.

They were grown women, nearing thirty, and sworn spinsters. They shouldn’t be a danger to anyone—especially not each other.

Except Caroline wasn’t so sure about that.

Arabella felt dangerous indeed these days.

Dangerous. And delicious.

Maybe those kisses meant more than something silly and fun between friends. Maybe Arabella felt the pull between them the same as she did.

Her skin felt like it was sizzling, and she plied her fan.

All she knew was that she was willing to find out more.

* * *

There was a crowd around Arabella as she waited in the refreshment area for a glass of wine to bring back to Caroline. So far, her plan was working better than she could have hoped. She hadperformed her first task as a suitress by rescuing her lady from the perils of an unwanted dance, and now she was well on her way to completing her second task of procuring refreshment.

She had even earned a hug for her efforts. The evening could not be more perfect.

Arabella rose to her toes, annoyed that she was too short to see around the room. She pushed her spectacles up and moved around a tall gentleman to be rewarded with the sight that she was seeking.

Caroline was still standing with Maeve and Grace, and oh—how she sparkled. Somehow Arabella hadn’t expected it, being long accustomed to seeing her in her old evening attire, which had boasted little embellishment. But tonight, Caroline sparkled from the jeweled pins tucked in her hair to the cluster of beads on the swell of her bodice, down to the pearls gleaming from the scalloped hem of her skirt and the crystals embedded in her dancing slippers.

She sparkled from head to toe, but no jewel could compare to the brightness of her eyes.