Page 4 (1/2)

The firsther as Miss Saxby, would be treated to her slightly weary yet amused smile "Call me Theo," she would say, and all the matrons would be so scandalized they would squeak about nothing else the whole night long

Theo was key: the name played to all those infatuations men formed on each other, the way their closest relationships ith their friends rather than with their wives She’d seen it with James When he was thirteen he had positively worshipped the captain of the cricket team at Eton It stood to reason that if she wore her hair sleeked back, along with a gown that faintly resembled a cricket uniform, all those men who had once adored their captains would be at her feet

She was so caught up in a vision of herself in a severely tailored jacket rese coat that at first she didn’t even hear the pounding on her door But an insistent "Daisy!" finally broke through her trance, and she pushed herself up from the settee and opened the bedchamber door

"Oh hello, Jaht of hi one wants to see when in a melancholic fit is a friend who refuses to attend balls even when he knows perfectly well that all three weeks of her first season had been horrific He had no idea what it was like How could he? He was devastatingly handso a beast, and a future duke, to boot This embarrassment of riches really wasn’t fair "I didn’t realize it was you"

"How could you not realize it washer backward, now that he knew she was decent "I’m the only person in the world who calls you Daisy Let me in, will you?"

Theo sighed and moved back "Do you suppose you could try harder to call me Theo? I must have asked you a hundred times already I don’t want to be Theodora, or Dora, or Daisy, either"

Jah his hair Fro, because half his hair was standing straight up It was lovely hair, heavy and thick Soht it there were deep any strands, too More reasons to resent Ja subtle about it It was thick, too, but an unfashionable yellowy-brown mixture

"No," he said flatly "You’re Daisy to me, and Daisy suits you"

"It doesn’t suit me," she retorted "Daisies are pretty and fresh, and I’m neither"

"You are pretty," he said lance at her

She rolled her eyes, but really, there was no reason to press the point Jah to notice whether she’d turned out prettywhy should he? Being only two years apart, they’d shared the nursery practically fro about in a diaper, being sht?" he asked abruptly

"Terrible"

"Trevelyan didn’t make an appearance?"

"Geoffrey was indeed there," Theo said gloomily "He just never looked at me He danced twice--twice--with the cow-eyed Claribel I can’t stand her, and I can’t believe he can either, whichfor a fortune But if he is, then why doesn’t he dance with e as hers Do you think he doesn’t know? And if so," she said without stopping for breath, "can you think of so it up that wouldn’t be terribly obvious?"

"Absolutely," James said "I can hear that conversation now ‘So, Trevelyan, you flat-footed looby, did you know that Theodora’s inheritance comes to thousands of pounds a year? And by the hat about those ht?’ "

"You could think of a h she couldn’t iraceful as a leaf You should have seen hi with cretinous Claribel"

Jaht up in India?"

"Yes I can’t understand why soobble her up All those plump curvesshe would have li into his eyes for the first ti ladies in search of husbands should be docile and sweet You keep coly malicious little remarks If you don’t behave, all those matrons will declare you unfit, and then you’ll be in a pickle"

"I suppose that’s part of my problem"

"What’s the other part?"