“He is,” Aunt Julie agreed. “Kiss him some more, dear, and see if you can’t get him to join the family.”

There was no explaining or excusing her aunts, and she shook her head at them. But she had also learned some of her best moments of wit from them, and it was time to give it back to them.

“I shall do my best, aunt,” Elinor replied as she pushed away from the wall and curtseyed. “But I make no promises. He may prefer a kiss from Letitia.”

Her aunts immediately crossed themselves, and Aunt Julie took out a hidden flask and drank a swig. “Away with you, girl,” Aunt Beatrice croaked with a laugh. “Save the man from that hag.”

Elinor walked away, giggling to herself despite her embarrassment.

Charlotte would like her aunts. In fifty years, Charlotte might actually be just like them, and the idea was amusing as well as terrifying.

Elinor wandered the house a bit aimlessly, avoiding being dragged into any of the decorating that was already underway, for fear of somehow missing an opportunity to see and speak with Hugh.

Provided he ever actually returned to the house.

She was about to give up and return to the sister parlor or her bedchamber to mope in frustration when she heard the sound of male voices coming up from the kitchens.

They must have entered through that door rather than traipsing around from the stables! It made the most sense, certainly, and they were not so formal at Deilingh as to have a preferred door of entry.

What a silly thing that would have been!

Oh, Lord, she was rambling, even in her mind.

Calm. She must be calm.

She forced herself to inhale and exhale slowly, her hands going to her abdomen as she did so, the steady rise and fall of her body giving her something with which she could ground herself. She had to be grounded. Hugh would be appearing with members of her family, and if she appeared in the least bit overwrought, for whatever reason, they would call her out in front of him.

And that, she absolutely would not risk.

Could not.

The voices grew closer and closer, and Elinor tucked herself into the study nearest the door to the kitchens, remaining just inside so she might hear what the men might be discussing after their ride, and where they might go afterwards. She had to be strategic, after all.

“To break them up? What a feat that would have been!” her brother’s voice said with a laugh. “A revolution, no?”

“Precisely,” Hugh replied, his voice firm. “Something to give the men of London a chance. You wouldn’t believe the influence the Spinsters have.”

“Interfering busybodies the lot of them,” an unfamiliar voice said in a tone she did not care for.

Elinor felt her hands become fists at her sides. How dare they!