“I agree with you, Mama,” Elmina said, “and thank you very much for this gown. I like it!”
“It is certainly unusual,” the Countess said. “At the same time I think you should have worn white. Mirabel looks far more like a future bride than you do!”
“I am a future bride, Mama!” Mirabel corrected her.
She slipped her arm through Deirdre’s and they moved to a corner of the room where they could talk privately to each other.
Elmina knew that they were discussing the Marquis and, because she had sharp ears, she heard Mirabel say,
“Having seen him at close quarters, I only know that I love Robert a million times more than I did before!”
She heard her sisters laughing and, thinking that what they were saying might upset her mother, she sat down on the sofa beside her.
“The Marquis is certai
