“I’m sorry. Susan is rather fixated on the Phoenix Club and Clifford’s exclusion from it.”

“Does she think I’m somehow going to help her?” If so, she’d be sorely disappointed.

Lord Gregory glanced toward her, his eyes glinting with humor. “I think so. I tried to tell her you are not the sole decider when it comes to membership. But of course, I have no idea if that’s true. Perhaps you do have the final say.”

That made Evie laugh. “There is a membership committee. It’s secret, however, so I can’t tell you who’s on it.” Nor could she tell him that the club’s owner, Lord Lucien Westbrook, actually had the final say, even if he tried to pretend that he didn’t.

“You’re a member.” He didn’t ask it as a question. “I mean, you’re a patroness, so you must be.”

Evie was the only patroness on the committee, and that was a secret not even the other patronesses knew. However, Evie typically took their opinions into account when she cast her vote on invitations. Well, two of the three of them. She almost entirely ignored Lady Hargrove’s overzealous and often self-serving input.

“You’re not going to respond to that, are you?” Lord Gregory asked.

“Did you ask a question?” She kept her hand on Ash’s back as he settled into her lap for a nap. “I can’t believe how well behaved this puppy is.”

“I see we’re changing the subject.” He laughed. “He isn’t really. Well, mostly he is, but he’s still a puppy. He ran around the stables about fifty times before I drove to Threadbury Hall. He’s just tired. After a snooze, he’ll be clamoring for another runabout, I expect.”

“To return—briefly—to the subject of your sister-in-law’s interest in the Phoenix Club, it isn’t the right place for someone like her or your brother. It’s for people who aren’t offered every invitation as they are.”

“But they aren’t. They don’t have one to the Phoenix Club.”

“You aren’t advocating for them, are you?” Evie supposed it was a difficult situation. The marquess was his brother after all. Perhaps he wasn’t as pompous as his wife. Except, Lord Gregory had indicated he wasn’t without fault. Then again, who among them was?

“I’m not,” he said firmly. “In truth, it’s nice to have a club where I know I won’t encounter them.”

Then Evie would endeavor to ensure it stayed that way. “I’m sorry you and your brother aren’t close.”

He lifted a shoulder. “That’s just the way it is. We are nearly complete opposites.”

“You have nothing in common?”

There was a moment of quiet as Gregory’s brow furrowed with contemplation. He finally said, “We both like horses.”