“I'm not sure what it means."Grace frowned. "I don't think I do either.""It sounds bad, though.""Sodding bad." Grace said with a smile, and she patted Amelia's hand.Amelia sighed. "A dammed shame."We are repeating ourselves." Grace pointed out."I know." Amelia said, but with a fair bit of feeling. "But whose fault is ut? Not ours. We've been far too sheltered.""Now that," Grace announced with a flair, "really is a dammed shame!""A bloody inconvenience, if you ask me.”

“It's still horrible. The whole thing.""Dreadful," Grace agreed.Amelia turned and looked at her directly. "Sodding bad."Grace gasped, "Amelia!"Amelia's face wrinkled in thought. "Did I use that correctly?""I wouldn't know.""Oh, come now, don't tell me you haven't thought something just as unladylike.""I wouldn't say it."The look Amelia gave her was clear as a dare. "But you thought it."Grace felt her lips twitch. "It's a dammed shame.""A bloody inconvenience, if you ask me.”

“Grace-" He scowled, then laughed. "What the devil is your middle name?""Catriona." she whispered."Grace Catriona Eversleigh," he said, loud and sure, "I love you.”

“Very well,” he said with a small sigh. “Ladies today are so very capable. It breaks my hea rt,really.” He leaned in, almost as if sharing a secret. “No one likes to feel superfluous.”Grace just stared at him.“Rendered mute by my grace and charm,” he said, stepping back to allow them to exit. “Ithappens all the time. Really, I shouldn‟t be allowed near the ladies. I have such a vexing effecton you.”

“Francesca actually felt her chin drop. “Mother,” she said, shaking her head, “you really should have stopped at seven.”“Children, you mean?” Violet asked, sipping at her tea. “Sometimes I do wonder.”“Mother!” Hyacinth exclaimed.Violet just smiled at her. “Salt?”“It took her eight tries to get it right,” Hyacinth announced, thrusting the salt cellar at her mother with a decided lack of grace.“And does that mean that you, too, hope to have eight children?” Violet inquired sweetly.“God no,” Hyacinth said. With great feeling. And neither she nor Francesca could quite resist a chuckle after that.”

“You should do that more often,” he said. “Laugh, I mean.”“I know.” But that sounded sad, and she didn’t want to be sad, so she added, “I don’t often get to torture grown men, though.”“Really?” he murmured. “I would think you do it all the time.”She looked at him.“When you walk into a room,” he said softly, “the air changes.”

“We are going to pick up our instruments and play Mozart,”Honoria announced. “And we are going to do it with smiles on ourfaces.”“I have no idea what any of you are talking about,” Daisy said.“I will play,” Sarah said, “but I make no promises about asmile.” She looked at the piano and blinked. “And I am not pickingup my instrument.”Iris actually giggled. Then her eyes lit up. “I could help you.”“Pick it up?”Iris’s grin grew positively devilish. “The window is not far . . .”“I knew I loved you,” Sarah said with a wide smile.”