Rosalie wiggled her eyebrows. “You do just that.”
Samuel seemed about to talk. His mouth dropped open, at least. Emma snapped it closed and pulled him off into the crowd.
“Why did I never notice how odd she is?” he said.
“Not odd. Lovely is the word you’re looking for. And she is my friend, so you will have to come to like her.”
“I do not dislike her,” he grumbled. “It is merely I seem to know so many women who behave quite outside the normal attitudes of society.”
“Lucky you.” She’d dropped her hold on his wrist as soon as they’d found a path through the crush, and he herded her forward with a stout shoulder, staying close enough to touch, but never doing so. “What is it you’ve retrieved me for? It’s not time yet, is it?”
“No. I… was thinking.”
“As you were pacing?”
“Helps with the thinking. And I came to the conclusion that I want to tell our sisters. Before we announce it. Not Lottie only.”
She stopped, her heart growing larger than the rib cage that held it. “Of course you do.”
A shared smile was not a touch, but this one felt like it, burning like warm chocolate all the way down, pooling in her belly, warm desire with something better. Love.
“Do you mind?” he asked.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
Together, they climbed the staircase leading to the balcony, and together, they approached the six women standing there. Felicity, breathless from her previous dance, Glenna, Briar, Diana, Gertrude, and June. And one young man with sandy brown hair, leaning against the wall as if the wall depended on it.
“And he is?” Emma whispered to Samuel.
“The young Earl of Avelford. My sister Andromeda’s brother-in-law.”
“Shall he know, too, then?”
“He’s family.” As they stopped before the group, the girls leaning against the balustrade and watching the dancers below, Samuel linked his arm through Emma’s and cleared his throat. “You are supposed to be in the nursery.”
A rustle of skirts as heads turned.
June bounced to the front. “I’m watching. I’m allowed to watch.” She raised her chin, but her gaze flicked to the point where Samuel and Emma intertwined.
Diana nudged up beside June, pointing at their locked arms, head tilted. “Explain.”
Emma tilted her head to whisper near Samuel’s ear, “Oh dear. We failed to consider how insufferable they are going to be.”
He groaned. “Retreat, I think, is in order.”
“Absolutely.”
“It’s not cowardice.”
“It’s self-preservation.”
“Samuel!” three young women said at the same time another three said, “Emma!”
“Right.” Samuel cleared his throat. “No escape.”
“It appears not.”
The young earl gave up the wall to fate and sauntered toward them. “What’s all this, then? Annie and King haven’t said anything.”
