Callie met her sister’s eager gaze. “If half past twelve ever comes, I am going gambling.”

Mari gasped. “No!”

Callie grinned. “Yes!”

“Are you going to a hell?”

“No…I thought it might be too easy to be caught there. I’m going to Brooks’s.”

Mariana froze. “Brooks’s…as in, the men’s club?”

Callie nodded, color flooding her cheeks.

“You think it will be more difficult to get caught at Brooks’s than at a gaming hell?” Mariana shook her head in amazement. “You’re mad.”

“I’m not!”

“How are you ever going to…My God! Callie! Women aren’t allowed at Brooks’s! If you were caught…”

“I shan’t be.”

“How do you know?”

Callie paused, unsure of what to say. Mariana pressed on. “Callie.”

“Ralston is taking me.”

Mariana blinked twice. Callie waited for her sister to wrap her head around the announcement.

“The Marquess of Ralston?”

“The very same.”

“You’re going with Ralston?” If the words hadn’t been so nerve-racking, Callie would have laughed at Mariana’s squeaking voice. Instead, she worried the stitching on the blanket and nodded. “I knew it!” Mari crowed, triumphantly. “I knew it from the first time you waltzed! At my betrothal ball!”

“Mari! Hush! The whole house will hear you!” Callie whispered frantically.

“You’ll be ruined if you’re caught,” Mariana announced, as though the idea had never crossed Callie’s mind.

Callie nodded again in the silence that fell.

“Well, then. We shall have to be very careful to ensure that you are not caught.” Callie took heart in Mariana’s use of the word “we” as she pressed on. “It appears that you are excellently prepared for sneaking out of the house…but how are you planning to sneak back in?”

“I had thought to come back the same way—through the back door and up the servants’ stairs.”

Mariana shook her head. “It won’t do. The upper doorway of those stairs squeaks horribly, and Mother will hear.”

Callie considered her options. “I shall have to oil the hinges.”

Mari nodded. “And watch the third step from the top. It creaks.”

Callie narrowed her gaze on her sister. “How do you know that?”

“Let’s simply say that Rivington and I have had need of those stairs once or twice.”

Callie gave her sister a wide-eyed look. “Mariana!”

“It’s a little late for you to be outraged. At least I’m engaged to Rivington!” Mariana teased. “You’re meeting Ralston for a late-night rendezvous! My God! Promise me you’ll tell me everything!”

“It’s not a rendezvous,” Callie protested. “He’s merely helping me. We are…friends.”

“Friends do not risk friends’ reputations, Calpurnia.” Mariana lowered her voice. “Have you and he…” She waved one hand as the question trailed off.

“Have we?” Callie pretended to misunderstand.

Mariana narrowed her gaze on her elder sister. “Callie. You know very well what I am asking.”

Callie looked away. “I assure you I do not.”

Mariana squealed with delight. “Yes! You do! And you have!” She clapped her hands. “How delicious!”

“It’s not delicious.”

Mariana’s face fell. “Oh. What a pity. He looks as though he would be—”

“Mari!” Callie cut her off. “That’s not what I meant.”

“So it is delicious!”

Callie sighed. “It rather is.”

Mari’s grin was wide and wicked. “I would like to hear all about that.”

“Well, you shan’t. And this conversation is entirely inappropriate.”

Mari waved one hand to dismiss Callie’s prim statement. “You know that if you’re caught together, you shall have to marry. Imagine the scandal!”

Callie closed her eyes tightly—it was only too easy to imagine the scandal. “I shan’t be getting caught.”

“MARIANA!!!!” Callie was saved from the embarrassing conversation by the Dowager Countess of Allendale’s shrill call from belowstairs. Mariana rolled her eyes, and said, “My word that woman can screech. You should see what she’s wearing, Callie. It’s velvet. Canary yellow velvet. Turban to match. She looks like a furry banana.”

Callie winced at the vivid image. “It’s part of her charm.”

“It’s a miracle Rivington offered for me.”

Callie smiled broadly at the dry comment. “Have fun.”

Mari reached forward to give Callie a quick hug. “You are the one who will have fun! I shall be thinking of you all night long! Tomorrow, I want to hear everything! Promise me!”

“I promise.”

Mariana stood, smoothed out her wrinkled skirts, and gave a little hop of excitement in Callie’s direction before she took her leave. Callie followed her to the door, pressing her ear against the wood to listen for the sound of the family exiting the house before rushing to the window to listen for the clatter of hooves and wheels indicating their official departure for the ball. When she could no longer hear the carriage, she spun away from the window and called for Anne.

She had much to do before Ralston arrived.

Ten minutes before she was to meet her escort, Callie stole across the darkened Allendale gardens to the gate in the far wall. Opening the latch, she pulled the gate open, noting its screaming hinges. “Damn,” she said, irritation in her voice. Was every hinge on the property in need of oiling?