"Of a sort." Lucius followed his sister as she turned directly into the drawing room. “I’d like to know what other activities you have planned while your guests are here to while away the winter days.” He sat on the brocade chair across from Maria and tossed one leg over the other, trying to look disinterested.

Maria’s eyes widened. “I knew you would come to your senses and start wishing to join Society. The time is ripe for you to settle down, and this just confirms it.” She gave Lucius a knowing look that would have had him bolting from the room were it not for his purpose in coming.

“And for whose sake are you interested in these gatherings?” Maria tapped her chin with a small smile. “I know you will do nothing unless it serves your own interest. Is it Miss Butler?” She gasped. “Or have you at last taken an interest in Miss Woodsley?”

"I have an interest," Lucius said carefully, "but you must not be surprised if I don’t share it with you. Suffice it to say that I'm keen enough in the guests you have gathered to join in more of your excursions, parties, and the like.”

Maria could not hide the exultant gleam that leapt to her eyes. She could imagine whatever she wanted. "Well! It's nice to see you are finally thinking about settling down. By the way, where did you send George off to? He didn't give me any details, but I don't like to think of him traipsing around London to no purpose.”

Lucius looked up as Philippa walked into the room. He stood and gave her a kiss on the cheek when she presented it, and she sat down to join them. He wondered if Maria had noticed that he hadn’t kissed her in greeting.

“It won’t be to no purpose. I have a matter I wanted George to look into, and it doesn't suit me to leave Woolmer Green at just this moment. He will be fine. I sent him with some letters to give to friends, and I know they will keep an eye on him. In any case, he is no longer the boy we sometimes treat him."

Maria didn't answer but turned her gaze to Philippa. "I see you are none the worse for wear after last night. You handled yourself mostly well at the ball, but there are a few things we ought to speak about if you are to be ready for your Season."

Lucius leapt on the thread of conversation. “And that is precisely why I am not fit to host Philippa in London. She will need a woman to guide her, and I have none in my life.”

Maria sent him a look heavy with irony.

“No suitable woman, I should say,” Lucius added to provoke her. The pleasantry did not sit well with him, however. He could not laugh at Maria’s expense when he had so brutally neglected Selena.

"Why, Mama will be there to do that, of course,” Philippa said, unconscious of Lucius’s troubled—and guilty—train of thought. “You need only open your home.”