“ ’S what I said,” Christiana pointed out, stopping to wave her finger at Suzette. Unfortunately, Suzette’s grip on her arm prevented it.

Lisa sighed pitiably. “What are we going to do, Suzie? We can’t let her stay married to him.”

“Oh don’ worry. I’ll fix it,” Christiana assured her, wondering why they were still standing there in the entry.

“How?” Lisa asked dubiously.

“I’ll get to the bottom of it,” Christiana answered blithely, and then burst out laughing at what to her seemed a very clever play on words. Her sisters were less impressed and merely watched her cackle, and then exchanged a worried glance.

“Perhaps we’d best get her to bed,” Lisa murmured. “She appears to be getting worse.”

“Aye,” Suzette said dryly and they urged her to and up the stairs.

“Never fear, Chrissy,” Lisa patted the arm she held as they reached the upper hall. “We will see you tucked safely in your bed so you can sleep off the effects.”

“I can’t sleep,” Christiana protested, tugging on her arms. “I need to see Dicky. Where’s Dicky?”

“Now I know I shall never drink,” Suzette said dryly. “If it affects the mind to the point that she would actually want to see that blasted man, then I shall never touch a drop.”

Christiana blinked in surprise. “I don’t want to see Dicky.”

“But you just said you did,” Lisa protested as they reached the door to her bed chamber.

“Did I?” Christiana asked a bit befuddled as they urged her into the room. She then shook her head and explained, “Well, I don’t want to see him.”

“That’s good,” Suzette muttered as she closed the door.

“I just want to see his bottom,” Christiana explained and frowned as see came out “shee.”

“What?”

Christiana scowled at the screeched word, noting that the loudest screech of all came not from her sisters, but from Grace, who was pushing herself out of the chair by the fire where she’d apparently been awaiting her return.

“What what?” Christiana asked, perplexed by their upset as the maid rushed across the room to join them. It all made perfect sense to her. “I half to get Nicky naked,” she explained and then frowned and corrected herself. “Dicky daked. No, that’s not right either.” She heaved a sigh and pulled free of her sisters to weave her way across the room, waving one hand expansively as she added, “Well, you know what I mean.”

“Not really,” Suzette said dryly. “Why do you not explain it to us?”

Christiana turned back to her sisters, most distressed to find her earlier good cheer suddenly replaced with a deep depression, and then blurted mournfully, “Do you know I’ve never seen Dicky daked? A wife should see a naked Nicky.”

“Or even a naked Dick,” Suzette put in dryly.

“Suzie!” Lisa gasped, blushing furiously.

“What? It’s his name,” Suzette pointed out.

The words were innocent enough, but mirth was curving the corners of her sister’s lips and Christiana was sure there was a joke there she was missing.