“Do you think so? It’s not proper, not really, for a lady to—”
“Nonsense,” Mirabelle snapped, pulling back. “That’s complete and utter nonsense, and well you know it. You’ve been given an amazing gift, Kate, and it’s only right that you should use it to the best of your ability. The notion that a woman of your skill, your talent, should deny her abilities in the interest of making a few small-minded individuals more comfortable is preposterous, I’d go so far as to say blasphemous. Why would God have given you such a gift, if He hadn’t wished for you to use it? If Evie hears you speaking this way—”
“Well, good Lord, Mira.”
“I…I’m ranting a bit aren’t I?” She let her hands drop from where they’d been gripping Kate’s shoulders.
“A bit,” Kate agreed.
“Sorry.” Mirabelle dragged herself over to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s been something of a long day.”
Kate crossed the room to sit beside her. “As your ranting was in defense of my work, I won’t hold it against you. How did you know I’d been up late? I don’t recall mentioning it.”
“You didn’t,” Mirabelle admitted without hesitation. “Whit mentioned it and—and this is part of my very long day—I agreed to spy on you.”
“Did you?” Kate asked, looking more intrigued than offended. “Did you really? How did he manage to acquire your cooperation?”
“He blackmailed me.”
“Oh, he did not,” Kate laughed with a playful poke to Mirabelle’s shoulders.
“He did, and quite effectively too. He cornered me—metaphorically speaking—in Benton and threatened to upend the contents of my box—the one I’d only just brought from Madame Duvalle’s—in the middle of the street.”
Kate’s eyes grew round with a kind of excited horror. “Did he know what was in it?”
“Only in a general sense.”
An odd and very suspicious sound emerged from Kate’s throat. “He blackmailed you into spying on me by threatening to expose your unmentionables?”
“It’s not funny, Kate.”
“No.” The sound came again, louder this time, and accompanied by a loud puff of air. “No. I’m sorry, you’re right.” A slightly less than delicate snort escaped. “Absolutely right.” Her lips twitched violently. “Not in the least funny.” After a snort, a hiccup, and a noise that put Mirabelle to mind of sheep, Kate erupted into fits of laughter.
Mirabelle crossed her arms and waited for the storm to pass.
It took some time.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kate choked out eventually. “I’m terribly sorry.”
Mirabelle felt a corner of her mouth quirk up involuntarily. “No, you’re not.”
“You’re right, I’m not. At least—not very. It’s just so ridiculous”
“He could have ruined me,” Mirabelle pointed out.
“He wouldn’t have done it. Surely you know he wouldn’t have done it. It’s just the sort of harmless bullying brothers do.”
Thoughtful, Mirabelle picked at the counterpane. “But he’s not my brother, is he?”
Six
Mirabelle left Kate’s room feeling quite a bit better than she had all evening. Nothing could lift the spirits quite so quickly as a middle-of-the-night laugh with a dear friend.
And nothing could send them plummeting with the same speed as the sight of Whit’s lanky frame lounging against the wall in the darkened hallway.
“Just the imp I wanted to see,” he said softly, and straightened.
“Have you been waiting for me?”
“Of course not,” he answered, just fast enough to tell her he’d been doing exactly that. “But since you’re here…”
As quick as you please, he had his hand under her elbow and was leading her away.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she whispered with a frightened glance down both ends of the hallway.
“Escorting you to my study.”
She stopped walking. “We most certainly will not be going—”
“Would you prefer my room?”
“Are you mad?” she gasped, struggling to pull her arm from his grasp. “You’ll ruin me.”
“The study it is,” he decided and led her forward at a leisurely rate. “It occurs to me that you are forever bemoaning the possibility of ruin, and yet your good name remains intact.”
“No thanks to you,” she bit out.
“Nor you,” he retorted without heat. “Wandering the halls at night as you are.”
“I most certainly was not wandering. I was visiting Kate—whose door, I’ll remind you, is only three down from my own.”
“A lot can happen to a young woman in the space of three doors.”
“Like being dragged off by a fiend disguised as a gentleman?” she asked pointedly.
“Why yes, that was the very thing I was thinking. How funny you should mention it.”
“Hilarious.” She gave up trying to free herself. “If you must be an overbearing ass, Whit, couldn’t you at least do it more expediently?”