Lillian smothered a laugh. “How should I know? By the time my leg stopped hurting, his hand was gone.”

“Drat.” Daisy frowned slightly. “Do you suppose he’ll tell anyone?”

“Somehow I don’t think he will. He seems to be a gentleman, in spite of his claims otherwise.” A scowl settled on Lillian’s forehead as she added, “Far more of a gentleman than Lord Westcliff was today.”

“Hmm. How did he know that you couldn’t ride sidesaddle?”

Lillian regarded her without rancor. “Don’t play the idiot, Daisy—it’s perfectly obvious that Annabelle told her husband, who then told Westcliff.”

“You won’t hold this against Annabelle, I hope. She never intended for the issue to blow up the way it did.”

“She should have kept her mouth shut,” Lillian said grumpily.

“She was afraid that you would take a tumble if you jumped sidesaddle. We all were.”

“Well, I didn’t!”

“You might have, though.”

Lillian hesitated, her scowl fading as honesty compelled her to admit, “There’s no doubt that I would have, eventually.”

“Then you won’t be cross with Annabelle?”

“Of course not,” Lillian said. “It wouldn’t be fair to blame her for Westcliff’s beastly behavior.”

Looking relieved, Daisy tugged her back to the crowded table. “Come, dear, you must try this game. It’s silly but quite fun.” The girls, all of them unmarried, and ranging in age from their early teens to mid-twenties, moved to make room for the pair of them. While Daisy explained the rules, Evie was blindfolded, and the other girls proceeded to change the positions of the four glasses. “As you can see,” Daisy said, “one glass is filled with soap water, one with clear, and one with blue laundry water. The other, of course, is empty. The glasses will predict what kind of man you will marry.”

They watched as Evie felt carefully for one of the glasses. Dipping her finger into the soap water, Evie waited for her blindfold to be drawn off, and viewed the results with chagrin, while the other girls erupted with giggles.

“Choosing the soap water means she will marry a poor man,” Daisy explained.

Wiping off her fingers, Evie exclaimed good-naturedly, “I s-suppose the fact that I’m going to be m-married at all is a good thing.”

The next girl in line waited with an expectant smile as she was blindfolded, and the glasses were repositioned. She felt for the vessels, nearly overturning one, and dipped her fingers into the blue water. Upon viewing her choice, she seemed quite pleased. “The blue water means she’s going to marry a noted author,” Daisy told Lillian. “You try next!”

Lillian gave her a speaking glance. “You don’t really believe in this, do you?”

“Oh, don’t be cynical—have some fun!” Daisy took the blindfold and rose on her toes to tie it firmly around Lillian’s head.

Bereft of sight, Lillian allowed herself to be guided to the table. She grinned at the encouraging cries of the young women around her. There was the sound of the glasses being moved in front of her, and she waited with her hands half raised in the air. “What happens if I pick the empty glass?” she asked.

Evie’s voice came near her ear. “You die a sp-spinster!” she said, and everyone laughed.

“No lifting the glasses to test their weight,” someone warned with a giggle. “You can’t avoid the empty glass, if it’s your fate!”

“At the moment I want the empty glass,” Lillian replied, causing another round of laughter.

Finding the smooth surface of a glass, she slid her fingers up the side and dipped them into the cool liquid. A general round of applause and cheering, and she asked, “Am I marrying an author, too?”

“No, you chose the clear water,” Daisy said. “A rich, handsome husband is coming for you, dear!”

“Oh, what a relief,” Lillian said flippantly, lowering the blindfold to peek over the edge. “Is it your turn now?”

Her younger sister shook her head. “I was the first to try. I knocked over a glass twice in a row, and made a dreadful mess.”

“What does that mean? That you won’t marry at all?”

“It means that I’m clumsy,” Daisy replied cheerfully. “Other than that, who knows? Perhaps my fate has yet to be decided. The good news is that your husband seems to be on the way.”

“If so, the bastard is late,” Lillian retorted, causing Daisy and Evie to laugh.

CHAPTER 9

Unfortunately, the news of the altercation between Lillian and Lord Westcliff spread swiftly through the entire household. By early evening it had reached Mercedes Bowman’s ears, and the result was not a pretty sight. White-eyed and shrill, Mercedes paced in front of her daughter in her room.

“Perhaps it could have been overlooked, had you simply made some inappropriate remark in Lord Westcliff’s presence,” Mercedes stormed, her skinny arms thrashing in wild gesticulations. “But for you to argue with the earl himself, and then to disobey him in front of everyone—do you realize how that makes us appear? You are not only ruining your own chances of marriage, but your sister’s chances as well! Who would wish to marry into a family that must claim a …a philistine as one of their own?”

Feeling a stirring of shame, Lillian cast an apologetic glance at Daisy, who sat in the corner. Daisy shook her head slightly in reassurance.