Scandalous Read Free

sisters had come to regard him as coconspirator and friend rather than servant, and were on terms of disgraceful intimacy with one who was in actuality no more than a groom.
    Jem looked even unhappier than before. "That I did, Miss Beth, but…."
    He glanced helplessly at Gabby, who looked down at the letter in her hand and took a deep breath, willing herself to sound composed as she broke the dreadful news.
    At that moment Beth spied the letter, and with a quick movement and a gleeful cry snatched it from her sister's hand.
    "Beth, wait…." Gabby groaned, grabbing for the letter, but speech was more of an effort than she had imagined and her protest was too strangled to deter her sister, who danced out of reach with a tantalizing grin. To learn how close all their hopes had been to being realized could only make the truth harder to bear….
    "Oh, Beth, try for a little decorum, do," Claire put in crossly, throwing herself down in a chair near the fire and trying to pretend that she, too, was not vitally interested in the contents of the sheet that Beth now eagerly perused. "I declare, I've never in my life seen such a hoyden as you're turning into."
    "At least I don't break my neck craning it to look into every mirror I pass." Beth retorted, glancing up for a moment to glare at her sister. Then as she returned her attention to the letter her face broke into a beatific smile and she looked at Claire again. "Oh, Claire, you're to have your season! Our brother says we're to go."
    Claire's eyes widened, and soft color rushed into her cheeks as she sat up straight in the chair. "Beth, truly?" Her gaze flew to her older sister. "Gabby?"
    She sounded almost afraid to believe that so wondrous a fate could be hers.
    As indeed, Gabby thought, looking at Claire with a sudden sharp sensation that she could only conclude was heartbreak, she was right to be. What she would not give to be able to provide this one thing for Claire….
    At that moment the fire popped as loudly as a sharp clapping of hands and flared again, higher and hotter than before, momentarily drawing everyone's startled attention to it. The color of the flames tinted the pale skin of Gabby's hands an eerie shade of red, she saw, glancing down at the letter to the barristers that still rested beneath them. She had no doubt that her face was turned the same, suddenly most appropriate, hellish hue.
    Because the most dreadfully sinful notion had just occurred to her….
    "Read it for yourself." Beth thrust the letter at Claire, then perched on the arm of her sister's chair, watching the older girl's face with an air of jubilant expectancy. When Claire reached the end, she gave a little squeal of excitement. The two younger girls put their heads, one bright red and one raven black, together and began reciting the words aloud with increasing glee.
    As her sisters read, and the fire died back down, Gabby made a decision. She was, she discovered with some surprise, a true Banning after all. Gaming ran strong in their blood, and now it was her turn to wager all on a daring throw of the dice. She stood, a too-thin woman of no more than medium height clad in head-to-toe black bombazine, her untamable chestnut hair dragged into a reasonably neat chignon at her nape, her pale, squarish face with its small, straight nose and decided mouth and chin brought to sudden vivid life by the fierce resolve that glowed from her usually calm gray eyes, and walked with the deliberate care she had learned to take to conceal her limp around the desk until she reached Jem's side.
    "Have you told anyone else of this? Talked to anyone on the ship, perhaps, or since you landed in England?" Gabby asked for his ears alone as they watched her sisters poring over the letter once again. Jem looked wretched as, finishing the missive for what must have been the dozenth time, both girls looked at each other and began to chatter excitedly. Gabby's whisper turned urgent. "What I am asking you is, who else