Lord Hugh looked at her quizzically. “Really?”

Something about his expression did not sit well with her. “What does that mean?”

He gave a little shrug. “Just that you’re very dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” She did not like the way that sounded.

“Oh, come now,” he said, with far more condescension than was healthy in a closed carriage, “surely you don’t see yourself as quiet and meek.”

“No, but I don’t know that I’d go so far as dramatic.”

He looked at her for a moment, then said, “You do enjoy making pronouncements.”

“It’s true, Sarah,” Harriet put in. “You do.”

Sarah whipped her head around and fixed such a look onto her sister’s face that it was a wonder she didn’t wither on the spot.

“I’m not reading this,” she said, clamping her mouth shut.

“It’s just a kiss,” Harriet exclaimed.

Just a kiss?

Frances’s eyes opened nearly as wide as her mouth. “You want Sarah to kiss Lord Hugh?”

Just a kiss. It could never be just a kiss. Not with him.

“They wouldn’t actually do the kiss,” Harriet said.

“Does one do a kiss?” Elizabeth asked.

“No,” Sarah bit off. “One does not.”

“We wouldn’t tell anyone,” Harriet tried.

“This is highly inappropriate,” Sarah said in a tight voice. She turned to Lord Hugh, who had not uttered a word for some time. “Surely you agree with me.”

“I surely do,” he said, his words strangely clipped.

“There. You see, we are not reading this.” Sarah thrust the pages back at Harriet, who retrieved them with great reluctance.

“Would you do it if Frances read the part of Rudolfo?” Harriet asked in a small voice.

“You just said—”

“I know, but I really want to hear it aloud.”

Sarah crossed her arms. “We are not reading the play, and that is final.”

“But—”

“I said no,” Sarah exploded, feeling the last remnants of her control snapping in two. “I am not kissing Lord Hugh. Not here. Not now. Not ever!”

An appalled silence fell across the carriage.

“I beg your pardon,” Sarah muttered. She could feel a flush rising from the throat to the tip of her head. She waited for Lord Hugh to say something horribly clever and cutting, but he did not utter a word. Neither did Harriet. Or Elizabeth or Frances.

Finally Elizabeth made an awkward noise with her throat and said, “I’ll just read my book, then.”

Harriet reshuffled her papers.

Even Frances turned to the window and looked out without a word about boredom.