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He set his elbow on the arm of his chair and leaned his chin into his extended fingers. “I am better acquainted with her husband. He is an avid spectator of the thunder races, and he often supports the companies by advertising his shipping business on their thunders. She, however, prefers the luxuries of the city and is well-known among the high social classes for her, shall we say, brusque attitude.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You mean she’s pushy?”
“In a word, yes.”
I dropped my gaze back to the envelope and frowned. “Why would she be writing to me? And how did she even find out about me?”
A smile reappeared on Ben’s lips. “You’re the intimate companion to one of the city’s oldest families. Word would get around eventually.”
I opened the envelope and discovered a single page that contained a handwritten letter. “My dearest Miss Lucas.” I paused and wrinkled my nose. “Her dearest Miss Lucas is very worried about that ‘dearest’ part.”
Ben sported a bemused look as he nodded at the note. “What else does it say?”
I sighed and read on. “We are not intimately acquainted, but seeing as you are a most dear friend of Count Castle, I respectfully extend to you an invitation to join the Lady’s Book Club. Should you see fit to oblige us with your presence, you may answer back with an affirmative crow call and I will introduce you forthwith to the other members on a day most convenient to us all. I look forward to meeting you in person. Yours truly, Lady Josephine Trent.” I set my hand with the letter on the table and my face drooped. “She makes it sound like I’ve already accepted her invite.”
Ben sighed. “For those invited to the Lady’s Book Club, a ‘yes’ is the only acceptable answer.”
A look of horror passed over my face. “You’re not serious, are you?” I waved the letter in front of me. “I don’t even know what this Lady’s Book Club thing is about.”
He sat up in his chair. “It’s a group filled with some of the wealthiest women in the city who gather together to read the latest novels put out by the printers. To be wooed by Lady Trent and her members means certain success, but to be shunned practically guarantees failure.”
My face twisted with disgust. “That’s horrible!”
“It is the way of the publishing world,” he mused as he crossed one leg over the other and clasped his hands in his lap. “Many agents pay thousands of dollars for Lady Trent to read their client’s work. She has quite the lucrative business for it.”
I pinched one corner of the letter between my finger and thumb, and glared at it. “I think I’m going to have to disappoint the ‘good Lady Trent’ and give a ‘no.’”
Ben’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “You don’t desire to go to a smoke-filled salon and hear discussions about the latest dramatic novels?”
“I think I’d rather hear more about the thunders than the book clubs,” I told him as I opened my fingers and the invite floated onto the table. I scooted my chair closer to Ben and set my elbows on the table before I cradled my chin in both upturned hands. “Like how loud are they really?”
A crooked smile slipped onto his lips. “Would you like to hear it?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
Oh, poor naive me. I should have known better from the look in Ben’s eyes.
“Then what do you say to a ride down to the stables tomorrow?” he suggested as he plucked an olive from the smörgåsbord spread out before us. “Ferox will be rested by then, and if he refuses, we can always take the twins.”
I smiled at him. “I like that plan, but what do I do about this?” I tapped one finger against the creamy envelope.
Ben tilted his head back and furrowed his brow. “We might say the mail was lost.”
“In a tragic fishing accident?” I teased.
He chuckled. “Nothing so dramatic. We may say that Ferox, out of spite, ate it.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Would they believe that?”
“His temper is well-known throughout the city, and especially among my acquaintances. They could believe he would eat a child.”
My eyes widened. “Would he?”
“Only if it harassed him enough, or he may merely tenderize the little hellion with his hooves.” I must have had a strange look on my face because Ben burst into laughter. “Or I may be exaggerating, though none of the children have dared antagonize him to such lengths. So long as I feed him he will behave himself.”
“That’s. . .not comforting.”
Ben tossed the olive into his mouth and grinned. “A warm meal soothes the hardest of hearts, or so my mother used to say.”
