I bent my head down to study the ornate beading on my fan. “Oh, no more attentive than usual, Louisa.”

“Hmm.”

I felt compelled to keep arguing my point, no doubt some residual frustration from my confrontation with Lord Windham.

“We have a lot in common. We – we can talk together very easily. So he’s become sort of like a friend.”

“If you say so, dear, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I’m no fool, you know.”

I looked up at her and saw the wisdom mingled with humor in her warm gray eyes. I realized then I could hide my feelings from everyone else here, maybe even from Lord Windham himself, but not my guardian. She knew me too well.

Just then Lord Windham returned with two glasses of punch, one of which he offered to Louisa. “Lady Huxtable, you look like a diamond of the first water this evening” he said with a smile tugging the corner of his mouth.

Louisa rapped his wrist with her closed fan. “Save your flirting for the younger generation.”

“Alas, I am not worthy of Miss Delacourt’s attention.”