It was difficult to explain because she couldn’t quite identify it herself. “You’re the first man who saw me for me. Men have always looked twice—or more—at me. Because I’m beautiful. I used that to my advantage when I had to. Now, I somewhat resent it. Sometimes I think about wearing nothing but drab brown and covering my hair in a sad mobcap. Perhaps I’ll add a veil.”

He stared at her a moment before breaking into laughter. “I’m sorry, I am trying to imagine this, and I have to say that you’d still be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Evie rolled her eyes. “You aren’t helping.”

Sobering, he took a breath. “My apologies. Truly. I didn’t mean to make light of your feelings.”

“It is absurd, which is why I haven’t done it. It pains me to admit that I am also a trifle vain. I’m afraid I love clothing. That was actually one of the reasons I took the job in the brothel. That, and I wanted a comfortable place to live and regular food to eat.” Evie thought back on her decision to follow Heloise into trade. “It was a very nice brothel. Heloise and I were pretty enough—and we spoke French—so we were lucky.”

“What happened to your parents?” Gregory asked softly. “You said your father was a chevalier.”

“So Nadine told us. My mother died when I was four. I don’t really remember her, and I don’t remember my father at all. We left France when I was a babe to flee the Terror. My father stayed behind to help others. He was supposed to join us in a few months, but he never came. A couple of years later, my mother saw his name on a list of people who had died in France. It broke my mother’s heart. Heloise remembers that. And that our mother used to sing lullabies to us in French.”

Gregory caressed her arm. “I’m sorry you don’t remember her. Nadine was your mother’s maid?”

“Yes. She was the only person who accompanied us across the channel. She’d taken care of our mother since before she married our father. After my mother died, she raised Heloise and me as if we were her own daughters. And she worked herself to death sewing for a demanding modiste who passed Nadine’s designs off as her own.” Evie scowled. “It wasn’t fair, especially because of how hard Nadine worked.” She paused as long-buried love flooded her chest. She hadn’t allowed that emotion to resurface in some time.