Elizabeth coughed delicately. “Probably.”

Letitia began to sing, her eyes pointedly skirting to every unmarried man in the room, including Walter and Rupert, and somehow, impossibly, each of them avoided looking as though their ears were being tortured.

Rupert actually seemed to be enjoying it, which only proved he must have been deaf as well as dull.

Poor Fredericka looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment, which did not seem very festive at all.

“Whenever you make your escape,” Elinor murmured to her younger sister, “see if you can take Fredericka with you. Maybe say one of her girls is asking for her.”

“Lovely,” Elizabeth said with a nod. “But who will play instead?”

Letitia finished her attempt at a song, and their cousin Mary was idiotic enough to actually shout a word of praise.

“That answers that question,” Elizabeth stated rather simply, not bothering to applaud.

“Certainly does.”

“Right, this is my cue,” her sister murmured, moving gracefully towards Mary’s husband.

Elinor watched as Elizabeth spoke softly with the particular cousin husband in question, who nodded repeatedly, patted Elizabeth’s hand, then cleared his throat.

“Mary, would you not accompany Letitia for the next? You both sound so accomplished when blended, and Fredericka’s fingers must be fatigued after so masterful a performance.”

Mary blushed at the comment, and Fredericka was off the bench in less than two seconds, smiling as warmly as humanly possible at her cousin. Elizabeth intercepted her, linked arms, and strolled with her out of the room without a single additional comment being necessary.

“Nicely done, ladies,” Elinor said under her breath, shaking her head at the beauty of such an escape.

Now to try for her own.

There was no easy way to do this, she considered as she looked around. Her mother was already glaring at her, having seen what the others had done, so short of fainting dead away…

That was a thought.

But no, if she were to faint, then the music would be disrupted and everyone would fuss, and it would all lead to Elinor being cooped up in her room and subjected to the treatments of the great-aunts, who somehow considered themselves as capable healers at their age.

Letitia’s warbling might have been safer.

A startlingly high and off-key note began the next number and Elinor’s skin tingled and crawled in distress.

Never mind. Letitia was far and away worse. But that did not mean Elinor would let herself be treated into an actual sickness by her currently punch-guzzling great-aunts.

The trouble with standing near the fringe of the room was that any possible allies were elsewhere, and with her sister already escaping with a cousin, it would be painfully obvious for Elinor to do the same.

Well, experience had taught her that Letitia had at least five songs in her, only one of which would include another person, and she could not endure that much.

She flinched as her deluded cousin attempted another note beyond her range, then craned her neck to try to restore her body to its usual state.