However, she was rather consumed with the need to see Dicky’s bare bottom, not to mention a bit distressed that the room would not stop swinging about her. It seemed to her that her room had never moved before and shouldn’t be now. She’d heard that rooms on ships moved though, so perhaps they’d brought her to a ship rather than home, she reasoned as she sat on the edge of her bed. “I don’t feel good. Can you make the boat stop pitching about?”

“Oh dear, are you going to be sick?” Lisa asked and Christiana noticed that she took a step or two back. Lisa never had been good with illness.

“She probably will,” Suzette said dryly. “Just the thought of seeing Dicky naked makes me nauseous.”

“Not all of Dicky, just his bottom,” Christiana assured her earnestly. “I have to find the strawberry.”

“I think you’d have more luck finding strawberries in the kitchen, Chrissy dear,” Suzette said, laughing openly now.

“All right, now that’s enough of this nonsense,” Grace snapped with exasperation. Moving to stand before Christiana, she eyed her briefly with worry before glancing to her sisters to ask, “What on earth is the matter with her? Has she been drinking?”

“No,” Lisa said at once, and then frowned and added, “Well, yes, but not on purpose. I’m afraid Langley gave her his whiskey by accident and she downed it without realizing what it was until it was too late, and then she had a glass of the Regent’s punch as well, and apparently she’d already had another whiskey earlier so the combination . . .”

“I see,” Grace said with a sigh, and then a smile tugged at her lips and she shook her head. “Well, a good night’s rest will right what’s wrong with her then. Come along, dear, let’s get you out of this dress and ready for bed.”

“But I have to find Dicky’s strawberry,” Christiana protested, trying ineffectually to stop Grace as she began to undo her lacings.

“Darling child, don’t you worry about Dicky anymore. He’s dead remember?”

“Actually, he’s not,” Lisa said unhappily and the words stopped Grace’s cold where Christiana’s efforts had failed.

“Of course he is. He’s—”

“Alive and well and showed up at the ball,” Suzette interrupted.

“No,” Grace said with certainty and immediately strode across the room to the connecting door to the master chamber. She opened it, peered inside, and then slammed it quickly closed and whirled to them with horror on her face, “How?”

“A deal with the devil,” Christiana answered morosely. “Now I have to get him naked. He should of stayed dead don’t you think? The King should make a law, if you’re dead, you stay dead. It’s entirely too upsetting for dead husbands to show up at ball s and spoil them like that . . . and then I wouldn’t have to shee his bare bottom.”

Grace stared at her blankly for a moment, and then shook her head and moved back to her side. “All right, you girls get yourselves to bed. I’ll see my lady into bed.”