“There isn’t much more to say. The other night, after the robbery at Blackmoor House, we found ourselves alone in the library and…he kissed me.”

“Oh! Lady Alexandra!” Eliza exclaimed yet again, causing Alex to wonder if her maid had lost control of her linguistic faculties.

“How very excellent!” exclaimed Vivi.

“Well, I thought so, too…but now…I’m not so certain it was of any import whatsoever.”

“Nonsense. Kissing is most important. I repeat, how very excellent!”

“Your hopeless romanticism isn’t helping this situation, Vivi. I assure you this is nothing to be sighed over. This is real. And if we’d been caught, I’d have been ruined. Technically, I’m ruined anyway.”

“Nonsense,” said Ella, “everyone knows that you’re not truly ruined unless you get caught in the act. I defy you to show me one female who goes to the altar without kissing her betrothed.”

“Ruined! How exciting! How romantic!” Vivi waxed rhapsodic. Ella and Alex looked at her as though she’d grown a second head.

“NOT exciting, Vivi. Decidedly NOT romantic,” Alex protested. “Romantic is being kissed, then wooed. Or wooed, then kissed. I assure you there has been no wooing!”

Vivi continued starry-eyed and lost to the excitement. “He KISSED you! BLACKMOOR KISSED YOU!”

Ella interjected, “And the entire house shall know she’s ruined if you continue at that volume, Vivian. Not that you are, Alex.”

“Thank you,” Alex said.

Vivi lowered her voice. “I am sorry. I simply got carried away.”

“It is all right. I knew before I told you that you were likely to react like we were all caught up in some kind of gothic novel,” Alex offered with a sigh.

She continued, hearing the sadness in her own voice, “While I am certainly in no position to understand what should occur now, I feel certain that being ignored is not it!”

“To be fair, it doesn’t seem that he is ignoring you,” Ella pointed out, ever the pragmatist.

“You’ll understand if that doesn’t enhance my mood,” Alex said shortly, then exhaled in frustration. “This is exactly why I promised myself I would not husband hunt this season. I swore an oath to stay above the fray! The entire male species is unintelligible!”

“Indeed,” said Ella, speculating aloud, “this is an odd turn of events. And I thought he was courting Penelope.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“You did?” Alex looked up in surprise.

“Ella!” Vivi admonished. “That is most certainly not what Alex needs to hear at this particular moment.”

“Well, it is clearly an incorrect conclusion,” said Ella, defensively. “I mean, if he were, he wouldn’t have kissed Alex!”

“Why did you think he was courting Penelope?” Alex cut straight to the point.

“No reason, really, except that at most gatherings we’ve all attended, Penelope has been…in rather close proximity to him.” Seeing the disappointment on Alex’s face, she added quickly, “But it’s probably me imagining things. I do that, remember?”

Vivi jumped in quickly to agree, “Yes. You do. It is far more likely that Penelope has been close to him because she’s like a creeping ivy—lovely, but damaging. Blackmoor kissed you, Alex, which clearly means that you’re the person in whom he is interested. He wouldn’t have done it if he were angling for Penelope Grayson. I’m certain he’s of better stock than that.”

“With the exception of his recent behavior toward you,” Ella added.

“Ella!” Vivi’s tone was amazed. “It would do you well to stop speaking until you have something helpful to say. There are times when your inability to distinguish between what is appropriate and inappropriate astounds me.”

“Well, that would make his ignoring the whole event more understandable,” Alex said with more calm than she felt. “After all, he had a particularly difficult evening and was most certainly on edge. He’s always felt comfortable with me, so perhaps the kiss just…happened.”

“Alex”—Vivi was matter-of-fact—“kisses don’t just happen.”

“We don’t know that. We’ve never been kissed.”

“I think that’s exactly her point, Alex,” Ella offered.

Alex shook her head. “But how could we even speculate on this? We’ve only been out for two months!”

“We can speculate on this because we know that if we were caught kissing, we’d be forced into marriage,” Ella replied, “and, since most people we know have not been forced into marriage, we can assume they don’t go around kissing everyone in the vicinity.” She offered Vivi a smug look. “You see? I can be helpful.”

“Oh, please,” Alex pressed on. “I’ve been kissed once and almost kissed once in the span of three weeks, and I haven’t been caught. It can’t be that out of the ordinary. Maybe he’s kissing Penelope, too.”

“Ugh.” Ella could not hide her disgust at this idea. “I do not want that picture in my head.”

“You’re the one who sent her down this path!” Vivi stood, Eliza having finished arranging her hair in long, gorgeous dark curls. “You deserve to be disgusted. I have no sympathy for you.” Turning to Alex as Ella slid onto the bench in front of the dressing table for her turn, Vivi said earnestly, “I don’t know much about kissing or about courting, Alex, but I do know that Blackmoor has always adored you. Always.”