“Vi!”

“Sorry.” I hurried to loosen her stays, which required a rather ungenteel position with Elizabeth bending over a settee with the back of her skirts up over her head as I struggled to find my way through layers of lace and petticoats. I would have shed my own corset, if I’d dared.

“Stop squirming,” I muttered, spitting a silk ribbon out of my mouth.

“Well, hurry up.” Her voice was muffled. “Have you got it?”

“Almost.” I pushed aside more fabric. “Your petticoats weigh a blasted stone!”

“I know!” She wiggled again.

“Ahem.”

We both froze at the amused cough.

CHAPTER 3

Violet?” Elizabeth’s bottom still tilted up like a sunflower seeking sunlight. “Vi, was that you?”

I swallowed, trying not to release the giggle welling up in my throat.

“Whatever are you two doing?” Frederic drawled.

Elizabeth jumped as if she’d suffered an electric jolt. There was a flurry of panicked movement and my hair became caught in one of the grommets of her corset. Suddenly, my face was pressed up against her backside. She squealed. Then she tugged. My hair pulled at my scalp. She tugged harder. I squeaked, and we both tumbled to the ground in a tangle of lace and ribbons.

“Bollocks!” Elizabeth hollered.

“Such language for a debutante,” Frederic murmured.

Elizabeth’s face was red when I finally freed myself and we pushed ourselves up from where we were sprawled across the rug. “I’m not a debutante yet,” she muttered at him.

“I can see why.”

She bit her lip. She had been nursing a tendre for Frederic for over two years, picturing him kissing her hand and declaring his love, while in reality he still thought of her as a child. His father had gone to school with Lord Jasper. Frederic was down from the same school for the week and thought himself quite above us. He was only back for his quarterly allowance. I hated that Elizabeth might suffer a single moment over him.

“If you must know, we were fixing a tear in her gown.” I’d learned that a brisk tone and no trace whatsoever of a Cockney accent made most people pay attention. I’d practiced elocution and diction for hours every day, along with how to pick a pocket and wash tea so it could be boiled a second time. “Furthermore, a gentleman doesn’t laugh at a lady. And you might help her up, actually.”

He bowed toward us. “I beg your pardon.” He offered his hand to Elizabeth to help her up. Her eyelashes fluttered. Then he ruined it by speaking. “Up you go, Beth old girl,” he said amiably as he pulled her up. “Oof.”

She blushed, looking down at her plump self. She nearly missed his wink before he turned and walked away, chuckling to himself. I scrambled to my feet, not waiting for assistance. I counted under my breath, waiting for the expected reaction: one … two … three—

“Oh, Violet.” She sighed dreamily and right on cue.

“Oh, Lizzie,” I mimicked, smiling to let her know I was only teasing.

“Isn’t he utterly divine? Beautiful?”

“Somehow, I think he’d disagree with that last one.” And not enough with the first.

“All right,” she waved her hand dismissively. “Handsome then. Do you think he noticed me?”

“We were sprawled in a heap of twitching limbs and lace at his feet. He would have had to have been unconscious not to notice us.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I meant, do you think he noticed I’m nearly on the Marriage Mart now?”

I didn’t know how to reply. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I wasn’t sure Frederic noticed anything other than cards and port. He was twenty years old, after all, and quite wealthy. He was acting exactly as he was expected to.

Her cheeks were red. “We should return before Mother wonders where we’ve gone off to. Heaven forbid we might be somewhere enjoying ourselves!”

I pretended not to see her pick up the handkerchief that had fallen out of Frederic’s coat and hide it in one of the pockets in her skirt.

A knock woke me in the middle of the night.

I stumbled across the room, nearly tripping on the hem of my nightdress. When I opened my door, Colin stood on the other side. He cocked one eyebrow impatiently.

“Aren’t you ready?”

I mumbled something unintelligible through a wide yawn and turned away to find my dressing gown. I knew he was smirking at me without looking. He always smirked at me, ever since we’d moved to a better address and I’d been given proper lady’s dresses to wear.

I found my slippers and he handed me a covered basket of supplies. We made our way down the hallway as quietly as possible. The standing clock ticked loudly, like a giant insect in the summer woods. It was so late that even the moonlight coming in through the windows was tired and pale. Everyone else was asleep, especially my mother, who claimed she needed to look her best for tomorrow’s entertainments. It didn’t matter as much if I was haggard with fatigue, and it mattered not at all for Colin.

“Stay on the edge,” Colin advised as we descended the staircase. “The stairs won’t creak that way.”

I didn’t ask him how he came to know that. I just wanted to get this over and done with and get back to my warm bed. If we were caught, there’d be no redeeming the situation. This part made me so nervous I felt a little ill. Not to mention that Rosefield was such a large manor house, we might wander about the rest of the night and never find the right parlor.