“Not at all,” Sophie said. She glanced about the room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Reese, but he seemed to have disappeared. “Indeed, my heart is more hopeful than it’s been in a very long time. Mary and I will explain more tomorrow. For now, I suggest you celebrate the engagement as though you’d expected this pairing all along.”

Mama cast an assessing gaze at Mary and Charles as they stood on the dais, graciously accepting congratulations from well-wishers. “I didn’t think our Mary had it in her,” Mama mused, tilting her head. “But now that I see them together, I must admit they make a rather striking couple.”

“They do,” Sophie agreed.

“Ah, Fiona and Lily are coming this way,” Mama said. “They’ll know just how to cheer you up.”

Sophie opened her mouth to say that she wasn’t sad in the least, but thought better of it and simply nodded. “Will you both excuse me?” she asked her parents, heading toward her friends. Lily and Fiona each grabbed one of her elbows and whisked her to a quiet corner of the ballroom.

“Would you like to tell us what is going on?” Lily asked in a stage whisper, her green eyes flashing with curiosity. “How did Mary…?”

“It’s a rather long story, but suffice it to say that Mary’s pleased with the outcome.”

Fiona rubbed Sophie’s arm soothingly. “What about you?”

“I’m delighted that I no longer have to marry Charles,” she admitted. “In fact, I’d turn cartwheels across the room right now if it wouldn’t make me look quite mad.”

Lily chuckled, then bit her lower lip. “What about the journal? Is Charles still threatening to expose the Debutante Underground?”

Sophie shook her head. “When we collided on the dance floor earlier, Reese managed to reach into Charles’s jacket and recover my journal. He destroyed it before Charles realized it was missing from his pocket.”

“Thank heaven,” Fiona said, sweeping an auburn curl behind one ear. “Although I’m sad to hear your journal is gone.”

“It is a shame. But considering the alternative…” Sophie suppressed a shudder.

Lily shot her a saucy smile. “So, after tonight’s events we can conclude that your Reese is devastatingly handsome, terribly heroic, and wickedly good with his hands. I wonder where the mysterious earl is now?”

Sophie wondered the same thing. “To say that he’s not particularly fond of balls would be a gross understatement. Now that disaster has been averted, I suspect he’s on his way back to Warshire Manor,” she said, trying to mask her disappointment.

“Good evening, ladies.”