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"As you see, quite not"

"Oh, how foolish of ainst the sketch she’d been shown, and disled further into the rooh drawn by pure love of

Then Lord Fenchurch, unsure of how to cope with a young lady lodged in sacred man-space, desperately removed a snuff box froet She swanned over to the lord in question, chaled at her own clulasses in front of Lord Fenchurch

"For our gracious host – I do apologise for disturbing your game"

Lord Fenchurch set the snuff box down and picked up one of the glasses of chahtful, Lady Prudence"

Rue leaned in towards him conspiratorially "Now, don’t tell ht take it amiss Never knoho he’d blame"

Lord Fenchurch looked alarmed

Rue lurched forward as if under the influence of too much bubbly herself, and snaked the snuff box off the table and into a hidden pocket of her fluffy pink ball gown All her ball gowns had hidden pockets no matter how fluffy – or how pink, for that matter

As Rue made her way out of the room, she heard Lord Fenchurch say, worried, to his card partner, "Which father do you think she entleman, an elderly sort who knew his way around London politics, answered with, "Bad either way, old man"

With which the door behind her closed and Rue was back in the cheer of the ballroo occupants – snuff box successfully poached She dropped the silly persona as if shedding shape, although with considerably less pain and cost to her apparel Across the roonalled autocratically

Primrose bobbed a curtsey to Uncle Rabiffano and made her way over "Rue dear, your wreath has slipped to a decidedly jaunty angle Trouble must be afoot"

Rue stood patiently while her friend made the necessary adjustetting chummy about?" Rue was casual with Prie her friend It wasn’t that Rue didn’t adore Uncle Rabiffano – she loved all her olf uncles, each in his own special way But she’d never seen Uncle Rabiffano walk out with a lady Prim, Rue felt, wasn’t yet ready for that kind of rejection