“She does?” Thomasina said with a tilt of her head. “I cannot imagine why. The land is beautiful, the air is clean, it’s quiet.”

Juliana chuckled. “Have you met our sister? All those things might suit you very well, but Anne is already lamenting the idea of being stuck out in the country where there will be no fun to be had.”

Thomasina shook her head. She and Anne and Juliana were as close as could be. She adored both her sisters, but they could not have been more disparate in their characters. Anne was the wild one, the one who liked to have fun, sometimes to her own detriment. And Juliana was calm and responsible and even keeled. She fixed situations and smoothed ruffled feathers with ease.

And Thomasina? Well, she was the boring one, she supposed. The good one, Anne had often accused with some small amount of disdain to her tone. As if being good was so very terrible.

“Well, she’ll grow to like it,” Thomasina mused. “I’m sure she will be happy with the earl in the end.”

Juliana let out a long sigh. “I hope so. She has been…odd in the past month since we arrived here to begin the preparations.”

Thomasina pursed her lips. Normally she was very in tune with Anne’s moods, but recently she’d felt disconnected. Since her sister’s engagement, actually, Thomasina had felt a distance beginning between them. The reason why, she didn’t want to explore too fully.

“I can speak to her after the party if you’d like,” Thomasina said, shrugging back into the role of beloved sister. One she had perhaps abandoned too long. “Possibly she’ll be more open with me if she’s struggling, as you believe.”

Juliana replied. Thomasina heard her do so, but she didn’t fully understand the words because at that moment the Earl of Harcourt broke away from her sister and the others they had been standing with and came across the room toward them. God, he moved with such certainty. Such confidence and grace. It was a pleasure to watch him command a room as he did.

She blinked and dropped her gaze as he reached them.

“Good afternoon, Thomasina,” he said. “Juliana.”

“Good afternoon, my lord,” Thomasina managed to whisper at the same time as her sister. “It is a lovely luncheon.”

He smiled and motioned his head at the empty plate she still held foolishly in her hand. “Is it?”

She blushed as she looked at the dish. Gods, she’d all but forgotten, she was so distracted by her sisters and the party and…well, other things she would do best not to lose herself in.

“It smells delicious,” she said, hating how hot her cheeks were. She probably looked like a plum right now. And her hands were shaking, which he had certainly marked because he seemed to notice everything. And everything was not good. Not when she got so tingly whenever he was near her.

“My lord, I wanted to ask you about your library—” Juliana began.