Gabby watched as the smoking cheroot arced out the door and landed on the white marble steps. This time she couldn’t stop herself, and a little chortle of laughter escaped her.

Lady Sylvia looked at her sharply. “Not as missish as you look, are you, gel? I can’t stand a milk-and-water miss. I haven’t done any of this chaperoning business, since Lionel and I never had progeny. Only said I’d do it as a promise to Kitty. Poor thing’s liable to cry up an ocean over Thurlow’s latest attack.

“You, gel!” Lady Sylvia said suddenly, turning her head just as she began climbing the stairs.

“Yes, Lady Sylvia?” Gabby replied.

“I shall retire to my chamber for a rest. But I will join you for supper, and I do not wish to see that appalling gown at the table. You’re too big for it; any fool could see that. If you want to dress like a light woman, I’m not going to stop you. I fancy a lady should exhibit her assets.” She gave her own magnificent chest a proud glance. “But you might as well get yerself some clothes that fit. Don’t see that my job as a chaperone extends to dressing you.”

Gabby colored and looked down at her front. She’d completely forgotten that she meant to keep a shawl clutched around her shoulders.

Lady Sylvia cackled. “Quill has probably been enjoying it, gel. No harm in that. But I’d hate to see that bodice give out over the first course. Might put me off my feed.” She elbowed Quill. “Expect you don’t share my feelings, eh?”

Quill gave Gabby a long-suffering look. Lady Sylvia had always been a liability to the family, and if she hadn’t had one of the longest lineages in England, likely no one would have anything to do with her.

Gabby curtsied again and Quill accompanied Lady Sylvia up the stairs.

“Nice to see you on your feet, Erskine,” Lady Sylvia said jovially, as they walked down the corridor toward her chamber. “It’s a pity, a real pity, what happened to you on that horse. Mind you, it could have been worse. You’ll have to tell me why your father has the heiress marrying young Peter, though. Yer the eldest. I don’t mind telling you, it’s causing a bit of a stir amongst the gabsters. Wondering if you survived that accident unscathed.”

Quill shuddered inwardly. He had no wish to air his incapacities with the forthright Lady Sylvia.

“I take it your silence means they’re right,” Lady Sylvia said after a moment.

“No,” Quill corrected her. “I could consummate a marriage, but it is unclear whether there would be children.”