Chapter 3

Lady Honoria smiled; she believed she had been supported.Across the room, Mabel tried to reach a second roll without standing. She leaned too far and bumped the palm: three leaves fell into a gentleman's soup. The gentleman looked at the leaves. Mabel looked at the gentleman. Mabel pointed at the soup: "Salad."Lucien put down his glass.His aunt, the Marchioness of Rookfell, followed his gaze. She was sixty-eight and sharp-eyed. She had raised Lucien after his parents died; she had spent the last decade trying to marry him to a woman who could manage a household without setting fire to the curtains.The Marchioness narrowed her eyes. "Do not."Lucien turned back. "Do not what?"The Marchioness tapped her fan against the table. "Whatever expression you are making."Lucien picked up his fork. "I am eating."The Marchioness studied him. "You're looking at the girl behind the palm as if she is an unsolved military problem."Lucien glanced toward the palm. "She has just improved the soup."The Marchioness raised an eyebrow. "She has just dropped a plant into it."Lucien kept his expression blank. "Perhaps the soup needed improving."His aunt studied him. "You do not know her name."Lucien set down his fork. "Mabel Quint."The Marchioness leaned forward. "You do know her name."Lucien looked toward the head of the table. "Lady Fenwick announced it when she arrived."The Marchioness tapped her fan again. "You were standing beside the pianoforte."Lucien met her gaze. "The pianoforte carries sound."The Marchioness narrowed her eyes. "Lucien..."Lucien lifted his glass. "I have said nothing."The Marchioness folded her fan. "That is what worries me."Mabel left before dessert; she had discovered that the stable boy had a lame pony. She went to look at its hoof.By the time she returned, the ballroom had filled with music and perfume. The Duke of Caldermir was dancing with Lady Caroline Dalloway. Lady Caroline had spent three days practicing a smile that showed exactly eight teeth. Mabel stepped around them on her way to the terrace. She did not notice that Lucien missed a step; she did not notice that Lady Caroline's eight-toothed smile became seven.Outside, the night air was cool. Mabel sat on the stone steps and examined the pony's hoof. The hoof had been wrapped badly. Mabel was still wearing the borrowed slippers; one slipper had lost a ribbon.Lucien stepped out onto the terrace. "You are avoiding the ballroom."Mabel did not look up. "I'm avoiding the pudding."Lucien sat beside her. He left a polite distance between them. "It was not that terrible."Mabel kept working on the hoof. "It contained three raw eggs and a moral lesson."Lucien looked at the pony. "You have a talent for disappearing."Mabel glanced at him. "You have a talent for appearing beside people who are holding injured animals."Lucien smiled slightly. "I own several injured animals."

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