“Sure you are.” Sophia gave her hand a little tug. “Where are we drinking?”

“I don’t know if—”

“We should do this. I know.” Sophia cut her off. “Can we go ahead and enter into the record of the evening that you protested valiantly while I used my well-documented charm and evil influences to overcome your better angels? That way we can skip the hemming and hawing and get down to the good parts.”

Vic smiled. No one had ever spoken to her that way. As far as she was concerned, this already was the good part, but she didn’t want to explain that to Sophia. She didn’t want to explain anything to anyone right now. “Okay, we’ve got the library, and the, well, you’ve seen the dining room, or . . . do you want to go upstairs to the residence?”

Sophia raised an eyebrow, and the deal was done.

Vic didn’t even know how they got into her personal suite of rooms. She must have moved on autopilot or in some sort of dream state, because the next time she was aware of even breathing, she was seated on a settee in her dressing room while Sophia poured an inordinate amount of gin-to-tonic ratio into a highball glass.

She accepted the drink without the slightest bit of apprehension. The gin might be the only thing in the room she felt certain she could handle, so it might be as good a place as any to try to regain her footing. “You know I’ve been drinking these things since I was fourteen.”

“Are you trying to establish your credibility as a rebel?” Sophia asked, pouring herself a decidedly lighter dose.

“No. I’m merely sharing my honest hope that you didn’t come here with the intent of getting me inebriated,” she explained. “I’d hate to disappoint you again.”

Sophia turned to face her, then glancing around the room, seemed to forgo the chair set at a more appropriate distance in favour of the much closer and smaller open end of the settee. “What do you mean, again? When did you disappoint me the first time?”

“When things ended in our first, well, our last evening together.”

“First date?”

Her heart gave a little kick to her stomach. “If you will. I merely meant to say I know you weren’t pleased with my abrupt withdrawal, and I apologise for not being in a position to offer you more. I apologise for not being the person you hoped I could be.”

Sophia shifted her weight, settling herself into the space between them so the distance felt even smaller. “Apologies, apologies. Please tell me, Your Ladyship, what’s with you and apologies?”

Her face warmed. “I don’t have a thing with apologies. It’s just habit for me to make them.”