“Shame?” Lilly Lou was indignant. “Mortimer was arrested in error; it was not his fault!”
“A party at the Ascariot Manor…” Mrs. Longhorn mused, ignoring her daughter. The Ascariots had always fascinated her, in fact—had their families not been in direct competition with each other—Mrs. Longhorn suspected that she and Mrs. Ascariot might have been quite good friends.
“Would you like to go?” Her husband asked with a knowing look.
“Oh dear, it would likely bring us shame, though. Wouldn’t it?” She looked up from the letter, feeling quite torn.
“But mother!”
“Indeed, associating with a family of such unscrupulous behavior could reflect upon us unfavorably.”
“But like you said, our dearest Reginald has quite recovered from his days of malfeasance.”
Lilly Lou looked between her parents
