“Ssh!” Lenore smacked his arm with her fan again, bursting into giggles, her heart fluttering and her face heating. “You’ll be sorry if anyone hears you say that.” When Freddy sent her a sardonic look in reply, she tilted her head up and said, “Besides, he’s not my lover. Yet.”
Freddy laughed, raising a hand to his mouth and clearing his throat when a pair of young debutantes glanced to him with a start. The two had their heads together and were whispering over several sheets of pink-tinted newsprint, but they smiled and simpered at the pair Freddy and Lenore made as Freddy escorted Lenore past, heading toward the corner where Phineas stood.
“Good Lord,” Lenore whispered as they proceeded around the room. “Those two had a copy of Nocturne, and it looked to be new.”
Freddy rolled his eyes. “And once again, the minds and morals of London’s elite will waste away as all and sundry rush to read the salacious content of that publication.”
Lenore snorted. “You’re just put out because it never contains any content that you and Reese might find educational.”
Freddy flushed such a deep shade of red at her comment that it was all Lenore could do not to giggle. “For your information,” Freddy went on in a voice so low Lenore almost couldn’t hear it, “we need no lessons in those subjects. We do quite well on our own.”
“Everyone needs edification,” Lenore argued, though she couldn’t sustain her argument without laughing. The very thought of Freddy and Reese was as titillating as it was mystifying, and seeing as they were two of her dearest friends at the moment, like brothers to her, she didn’t want to know.
“Ah, Mr. Mercer. Fancy seeing you here this evening,” Freddy greeted Phineas as he and Lenore grew near. Freddy’s tone suggested he was in no way whatsoever surprised to see Phineas.
“Lord Herrington,” Phineas greeted him with a respectful bow, adjusting his glasses as he straightened. He wore an impeccably tailored suit and was groomed to perfection—so much so that he blended in with every other gentleman in the room. “The pleasure is all mine.”
“It will be if you agree to take my miscreant fiancée off my arm so that I can have a moment’s peace,” Freddy said with a teasing look for Lenore.
“You always say such charming things, my love,” Lenore told him in return, batting her eyelashes up at him.
“I would be more than happy to relieve you of the burden, my lord,” Phineas said with exaggerated solemnity. Lenore thanked her lucky stars that the savvy light in Phineas’s eyes told her he was in on the game and knew the lay of the land exactly.
Freddy let go of Lenore’s arm, and she stepped gracefully from his side to Phineas’s. “Ah. I feel ten pounds lighter,” Freddy joked. “And I think I see my sister and brother-in-law over by the piano. I have a familial duty to say hello to them. If you will excuse me.” He bowed, then marched away, toward where Fergus and Henrietta O’Shea were, indeed, chatting with a few members of their circle of friends nearer to the piano.
“That was rather curt,” Phineas said with a grin that said he didn’t mind the situation at all.
“Yes, well, Freddy and I have a deep understanding of each other and our preferred methods of entertainment,” Lenore said, pretending to scan the room as though something else besides Phineas might catch her attention. Which was never going to be the case.
Phineas laughed gently. “You have no idea how cheering it is to know that there are other progressive souls in this world,” he said. “There are times when I feel like I alone can see the way the world should work, and then there are times when it becomes clear just how quickly the young generation is changing their minds and mores to accommodate a new way of thinking and being.”
Lenore couldn’t help but laugh. “That might be the most flowery and philosophical way I’ve ever heard someone admit to embracing modern immorality yet. You should be a writer.”
Phineas shrugged and adjusted his glasses again, a splash of color making his already handsome face even handsomer. “I may have taken pen to paper once or twice before,” he said, his smile cagey.
A twist of excitement hit Lenore’s gut as she sensed a secret just waiting to be uncovered. “Really? What have you written?”
“This and that,” Phineas said with a shrug.
“Have you ever been published?”
He hummed and tilted his head to the side.
Lenore’s eyes widened. “Have you written anything I might have read?”
Before he could answer, Lady Beatrice and Lady Diana broke away from the main crush of the guests and joined them in the corner with the palm. They were both breathless and their color was high. Lady Beatrice was attempting to conceal a pink-tinted issue of Nocturne between her and Lady Diana.
“Have you read the latest?” Lady Beatrice asked, her cheeks a far brighter pink than the paper Nocturne was printed on. “It’s positively delicious.”
“I haven’t yet,” Lenore said, instantly caught up in Lady Beatrice and Lady Diana’s excitement.
“It’s scandalous,” Lady Diana said, her eyes wide and bright.
“Then by all means, let me see.” Lenore inched closer to Lady Beatrice, sending Phineas a saucy grin over her shoulder before leaning in to read the journal.
“If Papa knew I had this, he would confine me to my room from now until Christmas,” Lady Beatrice whispered as Lenore scanned through the salacious story on the paper’s front page. “Heavens, if Harrison found out I was reading this, he’d…why, I don’t know what he’d do.” Lady Beatrice shoved the paper into Lenore’s hands and leapt away, circling around Lady Diana, as though her friend could block her from whatever sin Nocturne might impart on her.
Lenore was
