“Then I won’t have to worry about her while I am trying to navigate the rest of the evening,” she huffed, shaking her head in irritation. “Lord only knows what kind of a hash we could expect if she danced any other. And she’ll bite the head off any man who tries to dance with her except you.”

He could only nod in resignation. “And that is very you to think so little of her. I see we are not improving much.”

“I thought she was marginally improved this evening.” Adelaide glanced over her shoulder toward Emblyn and Gage. “She looks better, and her speech was less coarse. There may yet be hope.”

“Never mind,” Harrison muttered, looking away.

Someday, he would make her see Emblyn clearly. But it was not going to happen in one night. Or perhaps in one year.

Someday was not this day, that was for certain.

Adelaide twisted her lips, her eyes narrowing slightly. “I think I might be able to press your sister into joining us for dinner once a week if I do promise to not constantly invite her to our events. The sight of her coming and going at frequent intervals will send a message to those around us and emphasize her place in this family, even if she chooses not to attend all that we host. Though she really does look lovely in the gown I selected for her, and she could be quite the beauty for anyone to see, not just to us, if she would try a little, as I suggested.”

“Your fortitude is astounding,” he grumbled, standing beside her as they waited for their guests.

“I know,” came the rather satisfied reply.

Harrison sighed heavily. “Please, I beg you, do not push my sister away in your attempts to make her something she is not.”

“You are the one who wants her to be something, Basset,” Adelaide insisted, turning a suddenly severe look upon him. “You want her to be your sister in truth, and then get ruffled to the extreme when others do not see her the way you do. But she is common-born, illegitimate, and rather ill-mannered. That does not mean she cannot also be charming in her own way, it is simply the fact.”

He’d had this argument in his mind so often, he knew every rebuttal, but there was something about hearing it in the voice of another that irked him. Yet he knew it was true, and he could not very well pretend otherwise.

“I just want her to…” he trailed off, unsure what he was going to admit, unsure quite what he wanted.

“To like you,” Adelaide finished simply, no hint of recrimination, superiority, or condescension in her tone. “To claim you as her brother, as you have claimed her your sister. To come to love you, perhaps.”