“ How I Would Like to Kill My Brother,Version SixteenBy Olivia Bevelstoke No. really, what was the point? She could hardly top Version Fifteen, which had featured both vivisection and wild boar.”

“You should be thankful that dark colors suit you. Not everyone wears black well.""Why, Lady Olivia, is that a compliment?""Not so much as a compliment to you as an insult to everyone else," she assured him."Thanks heaven for that. I don't think I would know how to conduct myself in a world in which you offered compliments.”

“Phillip looked to Eloise. "Perhaps introductions are in order?""Oh," Eloise said, gulping. "Yes, of course. These are my brothers.""I'd gathered," he said, his voice as dry as dust.She shot him an apologetic look, which, Phillip thought, was really the least she could do after nearlygetting him tortured andkilled, then turned to her brothers and motioned to each in turn, saying, "Anthony, Benedict, Colin,Gregory. These three," she added, motioning to A, B, and C, "are my elders. This one"—she waveddismissively at Gregory—"is an infant.”

“I like my parents," Olivia said.Sebastian shook his head, "A concept so alien I think it must be unpatriotic.”

“What part of his being hunched over a sheaf of papers was sointeresting to her? Because that was all he had been doing all week.Perhaps he ought to liven up the spectacle. Really, it would be the kind thing to do. She had tobe bored silly.He could jump on his desk and sing.Take a bite of food and pretend to choke. What would she do, then?Now that would be an interesting moral dilemma.”

“It was cold. Really cold. And there was an awful scurrying noise that definitely belong to a small, four-legged creature.Or even worse, a large, four-legged creature. Or to be more precise, a large version of a small, four-legged creature.Rats."Oh,God," Sophie moaned. She didn't often take the Lord's name in vain, but now seemed as good a time as any to start. Maybe He would hear, and maybe He would smite the rats. Yes, that would do very nicely.A big jolt of lightning. Huge. Of biblical proportions. It could hit the earth, spread little electrical tentacles around the globe, and sizzle all the rats dead.It was a lovely dream. Right up there with the ones in which she found herself living happily ever after as Mrs. Benedict Bridgerton.Sophie took a quick gasp as a sudden stab of pain pierced her heart. Of the two dreams, she feared that the genocide of the rats might be the more likely to come true.”

“Yes.” She sighed again, with even more drama, not that Gregory would have imagined it possible. “It isall so romantic,” she added. “The bride, the groom…”“Both are considered standard in the ceremony, I understand.”His mother shot him a peevish look. “How could I have raised a son who is so unromantic?”Gregory decided there could not possibly be an answer to that.”