“Seriously?” Sophia asked. “It never occurred to you that I was smart enough to read the room?”

“No,” Vic squeaked.

The word landed like an ice pick to her chest. “Thanks.”

“No.” Vic shook her head, and then reached out to her for the first time since everything went to hell. Taking Sophia’s hand, she gently intertwined their fingers. “I meant it never occurred to me that someone like you would endure my family to protect me. No one else ever has.”

“Oh.”

Vic’s smile was slow and almost bashful. “I didn’t recognise what was happening because it was a totally foreign experience for me.”

“Yeah, well.” She squeezed Vic’s hand as another new emotion welled up between them. “Maybe I could’ve conveyed it better, I guess. Perhaps it was a new experience for me, too. The urge to protect someone, I mean.”

Vic rested her forehead on Sophia’s shoulder, shrouding them in the intoxicating mix of her expensive perfume and the hints of honey in her shampoo. “I made a pretty big mess of things.”

“You really did.” Sophia kissed her temple. “I’m still a little mad at you.”

“But not a lot mad at me?” Vic asked, her voice soft and hopeful.

Sophia sighed. “Not as mad as I should be.”

“And does that bother you?”

“A little,” she admitted. “It’s annoying, really.”

Vic looked up, not appearing as chagrined as she should have. “But not so annoying that you won’t let me make it up to you tonight?”

Sophia snorted. “I’m not sure your mother and James will allow any more sleepovers.”

Vic grinned. “Lucky for you, I’ve had about twenty years of getting around those two when I know they are coming. Just leave it to me, okay?”

Sophia pursed her lips together. The idea of sneaking around like a pair of guilty teenagers didn’t appeal to her. Then again, the idea of sneaking around with Victoria Penchant . . . she shook her head, then grinned in spite of her better judgement. “Okay, Your Ladyship, you’ve got one more shot. Show me what you’ve got.”

••••

Vic sneaked down the backstairs and through the kitchen, where two young women glanced up from the dinner dishes she and her parents had dirtied. Lifting a finger to her lips, she gave them a little wink. The younger of the two grinned conspiratorially, but both of them immediately resumed their work, and she made a note to praise their diligence to the housekeeper when things died down, if things ever died down.