He stepped back. “Now, if you’ll both excuse me. I have no wish for my sister to remain in the company of someone I can only think of as…” Sir Lucius seemed to recollect himself, as he glanced at Rebecca and finished on a murmur. “Excuse me, Miss Lockhart.”

Selena watched him walk over to his sister, gently take her hand from Lord Harrowden’s arm and put it on his. It seemed he was rescuing one person after another this evening. What a tiresome ball it must be for him. She turned to Rebecca, expecting to see another calculating look—or to see her disappear altogether, having run off after some gentleman she had not yet had the benefit of flirting with. Instead, Rebecca’s face was very red and her lip trembled.

Selena’s gaze softened. She had to remember that Rebecca was still a girl. “Come. Let us walk over to the window and get some air.” She put her arm through Rebecca’s, and as they made their way across the room, Selena darted her eyes among the crowd, fearing to see the one face that would overset her more than any other. The crowd blended together, and she could not discern any distinguishable feature over another.

She led Rebecca to the alcove where she knew they would be revived from the fresh air pouring in over the sill—and where she could not be discovered by Mr. Downing. It seemed incredible that he was here, and she could only hope that she had misunderstood. Behind the curtain, Selena had a chance to calm her turbulent reflections and hide her emotions more neatly.

“Is what he said true?” Rebecca asked, her voice penetrating the near darkness. “Could I lose my place in Society and not be received by anyone?”

Selena opened her fan and applied it to Rebecca. It was not just Selena’s emotions that had been thrown into disorder. However, Rebecca’s words brought hope. Perhaps the girl really did possess an ability to think through consequences.

“In a second,” Selena warned her. “A reputation is a fragile thing in Society, and once lost in the eyes of the ton, it cannot be recovered. This is why I’ve been urging you toward being more circumspect in your dealings with gentlemen. There is a protocol a young lady must follow, and I know somewhere deep inside you must know it.”

“I don’t know it,” protested Rebecca. “Margaret Shirly at the Paisely Seminary told me that without birth, only my fortune would succeed in winning me a husband, and what a shame it was that I could never tell whether a man truly liked me or whether it was my fortune he wanted. She advised me that the only way I could know for sure was to choose what man I wished to pursue and make him fall for me, which is what I set out to do.”

“She is wrong,” Selena said gently, wondering whether Margaret Shirly was equally as ignorant as Selena, or if it was a vicious plot to ruin a weak character. “The best path is to let yourself be guided by those who have more experience and let us chase off the fortune hunters. But first we have some work to do on training you in decorum and in a lady’s accomplishments. Perhaps we can start work on that tomorrow.”