Rose gave her another quick hug. “Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He’s going to marry a beautiful Scottish woman. No pale-haired, weepy-eyed English girls for him.”
Dillie stepped forward. “Might I point out that you are neither pale haired nor weepy eyed. I ought to know. I look like you. And that’s another thing. He never mistakes me for you. Don’t you find that interesting?”
“No,” Lily said. “The Duke of Edgeware never mistakes me for you either. Not ever. And he doesn’t like me in that way... he... oh, crumpets! Dillie, it’s you he’s after!”
Dillie’s face turned the brightest shade of red she’d ever seen on a person. “He isn’t. Don’t be ridiculous, Lily. We’re speaking of you, anyway. Oh, look what you’ve done. Now you’ve got everyone looking at me. Stop it. Concentrate on Lily. She raised the topic. She’s the young innocent who was kissed by the big, bad wolf.”
“He isn’t bad. Well, perhaps bad in a good way,” Lily admitted. “No man has kissed me like that before. Not ever. I think I ought to run some more tests, make certain my response was unique to him.”
Dillie looked at her askance. “More tests? Do you mean that you’re going to kiss other men?”
“Why not? He practically challenged me to it. He said that no one else can kiss me into raptures as he did. Awfully smug of him, I thought. What if he’s wrong?”
Rose, Laurel, and Daisy groaned. “He isn’t wrong,” Rose said. “However, I’m not opposed to your plan. But I’d like to suggest some minor modifications.”
“Such as?”
“Make certain that Ewan is close by when you decide to let another man kiss you.”
“Why?” Lily was trying her best to follow Rose’s logic, but it was difficult. It was also a little humbling to see that her other sisters seemed to grasp the advice so easily.
Rose eyed her with infuriating patience and indulgence. “Because it’s Ewan’s response that matters most, not your response to the clunch you intend to kiss, or that clunch’s response to you. For the record, if you and your hapless clunch happen to consummate that kiss, you’ll hate it. At best you’ll feel indifferent. But it’ll never get to that point because Ewan won’t let it.”
“Are you sure? What if he doesn’t step in to stop us?”
Daisy shook her head. “I will admit, that’s bad. But he will step in. How could he not? You’re wonderful, Lily.”
“You’re perfect,” Rose added.
“You’re kind and caring,” Laurel chimed in.
Dillie cast her a wicked grin. “You’re beautiful. The most beautiful young woman in all of England.”
Lily would take that comment— spoken by her identical twin—with a grain of salt.
But that’s why she loved her sisters so much. They were blind to her faults, always caring and supportive. They were the best sisters in the world.
“Here now,” the midwife said, stepping back into the room and noticing their smiles. “What’s this? A party?” She nudged Daisy back into proper birthing position. “You concentrate on getting that little tyke out of you. Stop dawdling and start pushing. Your body’s telling me the babe is ready to slip out.”
“How can you tell?” Lily asked, and listened with fascination as the knowledgeable midwife explained it to her in gory, intimate detail. Which was why Lily was closest at hand when not a half hour later, Daisy gave birth to a little girl.
Lily was still marveling about the miracle of life as they all left the room to relate the good news to Daisy’s husband. Gabriel let out a rafter-shaking whoop and took the stairs three at a time to be with his wife and new daughter. Lily, her sisters, parents, and brother-in-law all remained downstairs and toasted the newborn. While their small group laughed and cried and hugged each other, their father opened a bottle of remarkably good champagne and poured everyone a glass. The champagne bubbles tickled Lily’s nose, but it was otherwise delicious and quite easy to drink.
She had three glasses of it.
Which was why she was a little off her stride when Rose’s husband, Julian Emory, burst through the door and announced, “Ewan’s been arrested.”
CHAPTER 11
LILY WAS SO ANGRY she could spit!
“You promised me you wouldn’t do anything foolish!” she exclaimed, finally admitted into the duke’s library well past ten o’clock the following morning and finding Ewan seated at his grandfather’s desk, engrossed in the Carnach ledgers he’d brought down from Scotland as though nothing untoward had happened at White’s last night.