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“Well, he’s perfectly nice,” Lady Danburyto deny it, “and more than handsome”

Hyacinth caught her lower lip between her teeth, trying not to ree she’d felt at the Smythe-Smith musicale with Mr St Clair at

her side That was the problem with him, she realized She didn’t feel like herself when he was near And it was the

“I see you don’t disagree,” Lady D said

“About your grandson’s handsoe? Of course not,” Hyacinth replied, since there was little point in debating it There were soood looks were a fact, not an opinion

“And,” Lady Danbury continued in grand fashion, “I’m happy to say that he inherited his brain froretfully add, isn’t the case with all of eny”

Hyacinth glanced up at the ceiling in an atteotten his head stuck between the bars of the front gate of Windsor Castle

“Oh, go ahead and say it,” Lady D grumbled “At least two of my children are half-wits, and heaven knows about their children I flee in the opposite direction when they come to town”

“I would never—”

“Well, you were thinking it, and rightly you should ServesLord Danbury when I knew he hadn’t two thoughts to bang together in his head But Gareth is a prize, and you’re a fool if you don’t—”

“Your grandson,” Hyacinth cut in, “isn’t the least bit interested in eable female, for that matter”

“Well, that is a problereed, “and for the life of me, I don’t knohy the boy shuns your sort”

“My sort?” Hyacinth echoed

“Young, female, and someone he would actually have to marry if he dallied with”

Hyacinth felt her cheeks burn Normally this would be exactly the sort of conversation she relished—it was far more fun to be improper than otherwise, within reason, of course—but this time it was all she could do to say, “I hardly think you should be discussing such things with me”