“No. Of course not. There is nothing wrong.” Mary turned away and started toward the stairs. If she had hoped to leave the others behind, she was disappointed, for all three girls followed on her heels.
“Then why did you avoid him?” Lily asked “You hardly said two words to him the whole time he was here.”
“You didn’t even smile at him,” Rose added. “It was quite obvious.”
“And just now, when he was talking to you, you looked … upset,” Lily finished.
“The man can be annoying.” It would have been a relief to tell her sisters about the conversation she had overheard. But it would serve no purpose other than to upset her sisters and set them against their new relatives. Mary did not want that. It was important, especially for the two younger girls, that they get along with the earl. Besides, the girls liked Sir Royce, and it seemed too cruel to tell them how he really felt.
So she said only, “I cannot remember what nonsense he was talking, but I am sure it was nothing important. You know how he is.”
Rose shot her a doubtful glance, but Mary ignored it.
“Let us talk about something more interesting,” she said as she went up the stairs toward their rooms. “Like our shopping trip with Cousin Charlotte.”
Predictably, this topic quickly diverted her sisters’ minds from Sir Royce.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Lily asked. “Just think—dresses and hats and shoes! Even gloves. I don’t know how I shall contain myself, waiting for tomorrow to pass. Did you look at Cousin Charlotte’s dress?” Lily let out a rapturous sigh.
“Well, I am sure the earl will not wish to buy us anything as beautiful as that,” Rose told her. “It must have been terribly expensive, don’t you think? But it would be wonderful to look not so dowdy.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Clothes are all very well,” Camellia admitted as Mary opened the door to the room she shared with Rose, and they all trooped in after her. “But I don’t see why we have to have someone looking after us. We aren’t children.” She threw herself onto the bed and turned on her side to face them, propping her head with her hand.
“No,” Lily agreed, sitting down on the trunk at the foot of the bed. “But it’s clear that we don’t know a lot of things we need to know in order to live here. Think of all the forks and spoons last night. Did you know what to do with them? I didn’t.”
“No, but it’s silly to have that many. You need only one of everything.” Camellia set her jaw. “You never saw Mama lay out so many eating utensils.”
“Mayhap not, but I’ll warrant she knew which one to use,” Mary put in. “We aren’t at home any longer, Cam. We cannot live the way we did there. If we are going to live here, we must change our ways. Learn how to do things properly.” Mary might have decided not to reveal to her sisters what she had overheard, but she was determined that no one would have an opportunity to talk about the Bascombe girls in that way again.
“I refuse to turn into some dried-up old stick like those aunts!”
“I don’t want you to,” Mary shot back. “But I will not have anyone saying that you are not as good as they are.” She fixed each of the other girls with a firm gaze. “Do you want to have people laugh at you because you don’t know which spoon to use? Do you want to step on your partner’s feet because you don’t know the steps to a dance?”
Camellia grimaced, but she did not argue.
“We are going to go to this Season that Cousin Charlotte was talking about, and we’re going to show them that we are not country bumpkins.”
“I think the Season sounds like fun,” Lily announced. “Cousin Charlotte was telling me that you go to ever so many parties and dance and talk and flirt, very discreetly, of course. And there are plays and opera and—”
“I don’t care about all those things,” Camellia protested.
“Maybe not. But Lily does. And I care about all of you having good and happy lives here.” Mary swept her sisters with a determined gaze. “I want you to marry and have children and all the things that you deserve. You won’t get any of that if you’re immured in some house out in the country—which is, I warrant, where the earl will leave you if you can’t learn to at least masquerade as a lady.”
“Mary’s right,” Rose said. “I don’t want to go to all those parties and have people staring at us and talking about us, either. But it seems to be the way they do things here. I don’t want anyone to say that we couldn’t do it. Do you?”