Tansy smiled. “Come out, Jack, and meet me friend, the future Mrs. McKenna.”

The bushes rustled and then Jack appeared. He was a brawny young man, good-looking in a rough sort of way, and he rubbed one hand down his pants leg, offered it to Maggie, and then withdrew it again before she could reach out.

Tansy laughed at Jack’s nervousness and linked her arm through his. “I’m gettin’ married too, Maggie. Durin’ the jubilee in June.”

Jack shivered. “It’s cold in June,” he complained. “At ’ome,” Tansy sniffed, lifting her nose, “ladies gets married in June. Don’t they, Maggie?”

Maggie nodded. It was clear that Tansy was in love, and Maggie couldn’t have been happier. She hugged Tansy again and they said their farewells and Maggie scampered off to the room on the second floor.

She undressed quickly, yawning as she put on her ragged old nightgown, then went into the bathroom. There, she cleaned her teeth and washed her face and marveled at the size of the bathtub. The thing was big enough for half a dozen people.

That night Maggie tossed and turned, uncomfortable in the massive bed, missing Reeve. In the morning she left for the theater, where another round of rehearsals would be held.

Mercifully, the sister seamstresses had made her a new dress, a lovely cambric creation with sprigs of English holly embroidered on its full skirts, and Maggie was spared wearing her trusty gray woolen.

She worked hard all that morning, and Philip didn’t holler at her so much as he had the day before, though he did reduce the young woman playing Bianca to tears on several different occasions. Samuel looked as though he wanted to punch Philip Briggs in the nose, but he kept his composure on that score and poured all his passion into the part of Kate’s determined suitor.

At midday, when the cast was set free to have their noon meal, Maggie couldn’t resist showing Philip her engagement ring. Now let him imply that Reeve had no intention of marrying her!

Philip sighed. “Lovely. But things like that aren’t hard for a man to come by, Maggie—not if he’s got the kind of money Reeve McKenna has.”

Thwarted again, Maggie stomped off to her dressing room and slammed the door shut. Her lunch was brought to her, but she ignored it, feeling slightly sick to her stomach.

The afternoon was as difficult as the morning had been, but Maggie survived it somehow. When the workday was over, she got into the waiting carriage without speaking to either Samuel or Philip, and went home.

That night there was no card game in the servants’ quarters to distract her. But there was another package on the bed.