Iris felt herself smiling in return. “She does, doesn’t she? I favor my father’s side of the family. I’m told I have my great-grandmother’s coloring. Funny how many generations it managed to skip before finding me.”

Richard nodded, then said, “I still want to know who provokes your temper, if not Daisy.”

“Oh, I didn’t say that she doesn’t provoke my temper. She does. All the time. But it’s rarely something worth getting riled up about in the end. Arguments with Daisy are generally petty things, all snappish and snide.”

“Who makes you angry, then?” he asked softly. “Who can make you so furious that you’d jump out of your skin if you were able?”

You, she almost said.

Except that he hadn’t done. Not really. He’d vexed her, and he’d hurt her feelings, but he’d never reduced her to the sort of rage he was describing.

And yet, somehow she knew he could.

He would.

“Sarah,” Iris said firmly, putting a halt to her dangerous thoughts.

“Your cousin?”

She nodded. “I once had a row with her . . .”

His eyes lit with delight, and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. “I must have every detail.”

Iris laughed. “No, you don’t.”

“Oh, I’m quite sure I do.”

“I can’t believe that women are said to be the bigger gossips.”

“This isn’t gossip,” he protested. “This is my wishing to better understand my bride.”

“Oh, if that’s the case . . .” She chuckled again. “Very well, it was about the musicale. Honestly, I don’t think you would understand. I don’t think anyone outside my family would.”

“Try me.”

Iris sighed, wondering how she could possibly explain. Richard was always so confident, so sure of himself. He couldn’t possibly know how it felt to get up on a stage and make an utter fool of himself, all the while knowing that there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.

“Tell me, Iris,” he urged. “I really want to know.”

“Oh, all right. It was last year.”

“When she was sick,” Richard cut in.

Iris looked at him with surprise.

“You mentioned it to me,” he reminded her.

“Ah. Well, she wasn’t sick.”

“I had a feeling.”

“She faked the whole thing. She said she was trying to get the entire performance canceled, but honestly, she was just thinking of herself.”

“You told her how you felt?”

“Oh yes,” Iris replied. “I went to her house the next day. She tried to deny it, but it was clear she wasn’t sick. Even so, she insisted that she had been until six months later at Honoria’s wedding.”

“Honoria?”

Oh, right. He didn’t know Honoria. “Another cousin,” she told him. “She’s married to the Earl of Chatteris.”

“Another musician?”