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"Girls! Girls!"

Iris broke off midcheer as they all turned to the door Sarah’s mother, their aunt Charlotte – known to the rest of the world as Lady Pleinsworth – was hurrying into the roo, dark-haired wo that overness

Honoria had a very bad feeling about this

Not about the woman She looked perfectly pleasant, if perhaps a little uncoed into a faleam in her eye "Sarah has taken ill," she announced

"Oh, no," Daisy cried, sinking dra to kill her," Iris muttered to Honoria

"Naturally, I could not allow the performance to be cancelled," Aunt Charlotte went on "I could never live with edy came to pass"

"Her, too," Iris said under her breath

"My first thought was that we could break with tradition and have one of our forroup, but we have not had a pianist in the quartet since Philippa played in 1816"

Honoria stared at her aunt in awe Did she actually remember such details, or had she written them down?

"Philippa is in confinement," Iris said

"I know," Aunt Charlotte replied "She has less than a ht have ed with a violin, but there is no way she could fit at the piano"

"Who played before Philippa?" Daisy asked

"No one"

"Well, that can’t be true," Honoria said Eighteen years of musicales, and the Smythe-Smiths had produced only two pianists?

"It is," Aunt Charlotte confirh all of our programs, just to be certain Most years we are two violins, a viola, and a cello"

"A string quartet," Daisy said needlessly "The classic set of four instruments"

"Do we cancel, then?" Iris asked, and Honoria had to shoot her a look of warning Iris was sounding a bit too excited at the possibility

"Absolutely not," Aunt Charlotte said, and she motioned to the woman next to her "This is Miss Wynter She will substitute for Sarah"

They all turned to the dark-haired wohtly behind Aunt Charlotte She was, in a word, gorgeous Everything about her was perfection, from her shiny hair to her milky-white skin Her face was heart-shaped, her lips full and pink, and her eyelashes were so long that Honoria thought they must touch her brows if she opened her eyes too wide

"Well," Honoriaat us"

"She is our governess," Aunt Charlotte explained

"And she plays?" Daisy asked