Page 75

“We shall have to come back earlier next time, before the crowd is too large,” Susan said. “It shall be the easiest thing in the world to arrange dinner an hour in advance.”

“Next time it will not be any easier for us to gain entry,” Caroline said, trying to gentle her tone. “It is not the crowd that deterred Mr. Singh from letting us in. It is reputation. How many times have I told you to behave like ladies in public?”

“This isn’t Almacks!” Betsy contested. “We arequitegood enough for a small-town assembly, I am sure of it!”

“You have the proof of it before you, Betsy. We are indeed considered not good enough.”

“Well, who wants to dance in a stuffy room filled with bores!” she cried.

Susan glared at her and jostled her arm. “I do,” she said. “What about whatIwish?”

Betsy stopped in the middle of the street, hands on her hips. “Are you both blaming me?” she asked, her voice shrill.

Caroline sighed. “Betsy, you have been sneaking around with any man you can find.”

“Susan is as bad! And you may not engage yourself with men, but you are even worse, Caroline! You have no emotion at all—you are a spinster with no heart!” She picked up her skirts and ran down the street, leaving Susan and Caroline to follow.

“I haven’t engaged in any undue intimacies, Caro,” Susan muttered, scowling. “I swear it.”

They walked the rest of the way home in silence.

Caroline took her worries to bed with her and fretted all night. It wasn’t just the problem of what to do with her sisters that weighed on her, but the accusations that Betsy had lobbed at her.

Passionless.

No emotion.

Noheart.

It wasn’t true. She yearned to snap back that although she had known passion, she also knew discretion.

That wasn’t exactly the message she wished to give to her sisters.

Yet—why was it that she felt guilt-free when she had indulged in her own affairs, but she was as censorious as the master of ceremonies toward Betsy’s?

And where did her confused kiss with Arabella fit into it?

The night brought her no answers, but the next morning she sent a note round to Mr. Taylor’s hotel.

Mr. Taylor was as easy in his manner as ever as he sat down in her parlor and agreed to a cup of coffee and a fresh biscuit.

She hated to rely on anyone, especially someone outside the family—and yet, hewasfamily. He was their cousin, and he had dropped them into this mess. The least he could do would be to help guide them through it.

“Do we have any female relatives who might be up to the task of readying us for Society?” she asked without preamble.

“Ah, changing your mind that you can do it all by yourself?”

It stuck in her throat to admit it, but she forced out the word. “Yes.” She sighed, then recounted the story of the previous night. “If we cannot even gain entry to the Inverley assembly rooms, how will I ever get the girls to London to secure the future that I dream for them?”

“There are always gentlemen agreeable to a fortune,” he said gently. “They are not always found at dancing halls or evening balls.”

“Yes, I have seen them—with their slick smiles and sly words. I want better than a fortune hunter for my sisters.” Caroline hesitated. “I wish them to have a love match, if possible. But I would settle for them not ruining all their chances at matrimony before they have been heiresses for a scant week.”

“And you can’t give them that opportunity without shaping them up into young paragons. I see how it is.”

“Turning them intoparagonsis more ambitious than I would dare dream. I would be happy if they learned even the smallest degree of decorum.”

“I am sad to say that there is no such female Reeve up to the task. I have not yet married so I have no wife to help out. My mother is indisposed, and my aunts have their hands full of their own unwedded children. I wish I had better news for you.”