The door opened and Clarissa came to a sudden breathless halt in the doorway. She’d been running to escape the rain. “Oh!” She looked at them in surprise. “What’s going on?”
As she spoke, Matteo appeared bearing a large covered tray. He was accompanied by a footman holding an umbrella over him and the tray. “Scusi, signorina.” Matteo laid the tray down and whisked off the cover to reveal a bottle of champagne, four glasses and a couple of dishes of tinyexquisite pastries, crispy, golden and glittering with sugar crystals. “To start with, milor’,” he said and hurried away.
“Champagne? For breakfast?” Clarissa said doubtfully.
“Call it a pre-wedding breakfast,” Leo said.
“Wedding?” Clarissa exclaimed.
Izzy couldn’t stop her smile from bursting out. “You’re the first to know, ’Riss.”
“Oh, Izzy, Izzy! I’m so happy for you!” Clarissa hurried across the room and embraced her sister in a fierce hug. “But when did all this—?”
“Last night. After the ball.”
“So that was what he wanted to talk to you about, not—?” Clarissa had been thinking of Lord Pomphret. Izzy hadn’t even given that dreadful man a thought today. All her thoughts were of Leo. And the future, a future she’d been almost too afraid to dream of.
“He surprised me, too,” Izzy said softly.
“Let’s drink to it.” Leo poured the gently fizzing liquid into an elegant crystal flute. He handed it to Izzy, saying, “I seem to remember this stuff has a delightful effect on you.”
She laughed, blushing as she recalled their first kiss in this very place, after the twilight party. “Is that why you arranged for us to meet here this morning? I never realized you were such a romantic.”
He made a gruff kind of sound and frowned over the pouring of a glass for Clarissa and another for him. But he didn’t deny it. So sweet.
Hasty footsteps sounded outside and the door flew open. “The windows are all steamed up—again! What are you up to now, Izzy Studley? Carousing with a man again?”
Izzy raised her glass at Milly in a silent, mocking toast.
Milly looked disgusted. “Drinking at this hour of the day? Is there no end to your brazen behavior?”
Milly then spotted Clarissa snuggling back comfortably in her favorite squashy chair. “Oh. Miss Studley? You’re here, too?”
Clarissa raised her glass. “Good morning, Milly.”
Before Milly could respond, Lord Randall arrived. “Pardon me, miss.” He pushed past Milly, who was still standing in the doorway, and shook his wet head like a dog. Droplets of water scattered everywhere.
Milly jumped back with a squeak and pressed herself against a window, drawing her shawl tightly over her bosom, eyeing Lord Randall with a mix of dread and excitement as if he would pounce on her at any minute.
Lord Randall was oblivious. “Sorry about that, Miss Um. Morning, Miss Studley, Miss Isobel, must say you’re both looking ravishing at this early hour. This wretched weather, Leo, why the dev—er, deuce did you ask me out here instead of staying warm and comfortable at your—” He broke off, spotting the champagne. “Oh, I say, put her to the question, did you? So glad, Miss Isobel. Pour me a glass, will you, Leo? Ah, here’s Matteo with the food. Excellent, I’m famished.”
Matteo and the footman began to set out a delicious-looking array of food. “More to come soon, milor’.”
Milly watched, her eyes round. “What is all this? Youarecarousing.” She glanced suspiciously at Lord Randall. “Is this an orgy?”
“We’re celebrating our betrothal,” Izzy explained.
Milly’s eyes darted back and forth. “What? Abetrothal? Whose?”
Leo lifted Izzy’s hand and kissed it lingeringly. Milly’s eyes almost popped. “You and Lord Salcott? But... but he’s an earl, and you’re a bas—” She broke off as four pairs of eyes narrowed at her. “A nobody. It’s not fair. And you’ve never evenbeento Almack’s!”
“I know.” Izzy was so happy today she could almost feel sorry for the wretched girl.
Milly looked at Leo, aggrieved. “And my mama is second cousin to aduke.”
Leo, missing the significance of this, nodded vaguely atMilly. “Is she? Well, well. How nice for her.” He turned back to Izzy. “More champagne, my love? And have you tasted these marinated strawberries yet? They’re delicious.” He picked up a strawberry and prepared to feed it to Izzy by hand. Milly’s gasp of outrage was audible, even over the drumming of the rain on the roof.
Clarissa, whose manners were better than Izzy’s, said, “Would you care to join us for some breakfast, Milly?”
