“And if you were a man, I’d have accepted.”
Sophie did her best to hide her amusement. Evie didn’t bother. She laughed and raised her glass to Mirabelle in a salute. Kate managed to stifle her laughter well enough to issue a reprimand. “If you can’t get along, then you’ll just have to leave, Whit.”
“Me?” Whit cried indignantly. “Why me? What about her?”
“She was invited,” Kate answered primly.
“I was invited,” Mirabelle repeated, just to be smug.
Sophie couldn’t blame her.
“What about Alex?” Evie inquired out of nowhere.
Sophie choked. A small spray of biscuit sprayed from her mouth and landed on her lap. “Sorry,” she choked out, wiping desperately at her skirts and glancing up with mortification to find Whit smiling serenely. “Sorry.”
“And that, Kate, is why one does not talk with one’s mouth full,” Mirabelle stated succinctly.
“Sorry,” Sophie said yet again. “But you surprised me. Alex isn’t…that is, he doesn’t meet my requirements.”
“What requirements?” Whit inquired.
He was roundly ignored.
“True, but the way he looks at you…” Kate sighed.
“How does he look at me?”
“What requirements?” Whit repeated.
“As if he’d like nothing better than to drag you off into the nearest linen closet and ravage you,” Kate explained with gleeful enthusiasm.
“For God’s sake, Kate! You shouldn’t even know about such things, let alone talk about them,” Whit admonished. “And what bloody requirements?”
“If you don’t care for the conversation, Whit, you can leave,” Kate answered haughtily.
Whit growled something about “bloody torrid novels” but otherwise kept his peace.
“He does seem fond of your company, Sophie,” Evie offered. “I realize he has something of a rake’s reputation, but it’s talk mostly. He’s a good man.”
“He’s friends with my cousin,” she groused. And at the moment he isn’t speaking to me, she silently added.
Whit shifted in his chair.
Mirabelle took a sip of tea and said, “It’s not uncommon for a gentleman to be friendly with the family of a young lady he’s courting. Even when he doesn’t care for them.”
Sophie wasn’t sure if what she and Alex had been doing could be considered courting, but she couldn’t very well say that with Whit in the room.
“And Kate’s right,” Mirabelle continued. “He does seem fairly eager to be in your company.”
“Eager,” Whit commented, “is too mild a word. He chases her around like some half-crazed lunatic.”
“I think, by definition, a lunatic is fully crazy,” Mirabelle stated.
Whit answered with what could only be described as a snarl.
“That’s it,” Kate announced. “I believe you’re finished with your tea, brother mine.”
“Actually, I’ve still more than half—”
“You’re done.”
Whit sighed and set down his cup. “If you weren’t my only sister, I would strangle you in your sleep and blame it on your clumsy nature,” he said fondly.
“Linen can be tricky,” Evie supplied.
Mirabelle muttered something about murderous earls. Fortunately, it was too soft for the earl to hear.
Whit dropped a kiss on his sister’s forehead and left.
The girls waited until the sound of his footsteps died out.
“Now, Sophie, about Alex…” Kate prompted.
She hesitated only a moment before deciding to share at least part of what was happening between her and Alex. “In complete confidence?”
There was a moment of silence, until Evie cried, “Why is everyone looking at me?”
Another moment of silence followed that.
Evie gave an affronted huff. “I have never betrayed a friend’s secret. It just so happens that I haven’t many friends.”
“That’s true on both accounts,” Kate explained to Sophie. “Evie would take a friend’s secret to the grave.”
“We’re not the best of friends yet, Sophie,” Evie said, choosing her words carefully. “But I’ve every confidence we will be. You strike me as an intelligent woman, and you come with the highest of recommendations,” she continued, indicating Kate and Mirabelle. “I give you the Cole word of honor that I shall keep your secrets safe.”
“You can’t ask for more than that,” Mirabelle stated with confidence. “The Coles always keep their word. It’s a point of pride for them.”
Sophie accepted that. “Thank you, Evie.”
“You may thank me properly by sharing your secret, and mind you make it a good one,” she said good-naturedly. “I’d hate to think I went through all the trouble of clearing my good name just to hear how he sent you tulips and touched your bare hand.”
Sophie grinned. “He has never sent me flowers. And he kissed me, or rather, we kissed.”
There was a three-way intake of breath and then,
“When?”
“Did you like it?”