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“It’s forgotten,” she said “I’e to tolerate each other’s company for one meal”
“I won’t say anything about far We can discuss other subjects I have a vast and complex array of interests”
“Such as?”
Mr Ravenel considered that “Never mind, I don’t have a vast array of interests But I feel like the kind of man who does”
Amused despite herself, Phoebe smiled reluctantly “Aside from my children, I have no interests”
“Thank God I hate stih to float a straw”
Phoebe did enjoy a man with a sense of humor Perhaps this dinner wouldn’t be as dreadful as she’d thought “You’ll be glad to hear, then, that I haven’t read a book in months”
“I haven’t gone to a classical music concert in years,” he said “Too many moments of ‘clap here, not there’ It makes me nervous”
“I’m afraid we can’t discuss art, either I find sy”
“Then I assume you don’t like poetry”
“Nounless it rhymes”
“I happen to write poetry,” Ravenel said gravely
Heaven help o, when she’d first entered society, it had see man she met at a ball or dinner was an a their own poeht and dewdrops and lost love, in the hopes of i her with how sensitive they were Apparently, the fad had not ended yet
“Do you?” she asked without enthusias silently that he wouldn’t offer to recite any of it
“Yes Shall I recite a line or two?”
Repressing a sigh, Phoebe shaped her mouth into a polite curve “By all means”
“It’s froan, “There once was a young man named Brucewhose trousers were always too loose”
Phoebe willed herself not to encourage hih of amusement behind her and deduced that one of the footmen had overheard
“Mr Ravenel,” she asked, “have you forgotten this is a formal dinner?”
His eyes glinted with mischief “Help me with the next line”
“Absolutely not”
“I dare you”
Phoebe ignored hi her napkin over her lap
“I double dare you,” he persisted
“Really, you are the mostoh, very well” Phoebe took a sip of water while lass, she said, “One day he bent over, while picking a clover”
Ravenel absently fingered the steoblet After ahim on the caboose”
Phoebe alnified?” she begged
“But it’s going to be such a long dinner”
She looked up to find hi at her, easy and warh her, the kind that so sleep and stretched until her muscles trembled
“Tell me about your children,” he said
“What would you like to know?”
“Anything How did you decide on their names?”
“Justin was named after my husband’s favorite uncle—a dear old bachelor who always brought hier son, Stephen, was named after a character in an adventure novel Lord Clare and I read ere children”
“What was the title?”
“I can’t tell you; you’ll think it’s silly It is silly But we both loved it We read it dozens of times I had to send Henry my copy, after—”