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“Do not give it another thought,” Theo assured her. “I felt tired in any case and went home early.”

“There she is,” Lil said, stepping forward to awkwardly embrace Hetty. “Ain’t seen you in an age, darlin.”

“It’s good to see you, Lil,” Hetty managed to respond, though she looked a little self-conscious.

“Take this seat here, Hetty,” Theo urged her sister as she looked around for a jar or vase big enough to accommodate her bouquet.

“Clem begging your pardon, is he?” Lil asked, eyeing the large bunch of flowers meaningfully.

Theo was reading the short accompanying note. “Sorry and I really mean that. You deserve to get everything you ever wanted. I never meant the sting in the tail, Dora. I was just disappointed. Friends it is. BE.”

“Not at all,” Theo insisted, though Lil’s question seemed an odd one, as Clem sent her flowers to almost every performance. “These are from a friend.”

“A friend what’s done you wrong,” Lil commented, exchanging a significant look with Henrietta.

Theo glanced up, startled. “Why do you say that?”

“Purple hyacinths mean regret and white tulips signify sorrow. It’s the language of flowers,” her sister explained.

“I doubt Mr. Ewell knows the language of flowers,” Theo responded dryly. Though perhaps his florist did.

“Oh ho! From that young scamp, are they?” Lil looked diverted. “What did he do? Forget himself?” To her embarrassment, Theo felt herself turn very red. Lil whistled. “I thought the wind was in that quarter,” she said sotto-voce. “You tell him it’s early days and Clem ain’t got bored of you yet.”

Theo opened her mouth, but Henrietta got there first. “I’m sure he never will grow bored of Theodora,” she said quickly.

“Hah!” Lil huffed. “That’s what we poor women always think, but—”

Mercifully a knock on the door interrupted them, for Theo could see Hetty’s face was growing tense at the direction the conversation was taking. It turned out to be another bunch of flowers arriving, this time for Lil who preened and cooed over them.

“Anyway,” Theo said reaching for her evening suit, “stop trying to distract us. We want to know what has happened with your husband. I was telling Hetty all about his astonishing return on the way here.” She turned to her sister. “Hetty, would you mind putting all these flowers in water?” Her sister stood up at once and started filling up the jars. “Now, Lil, as we dress you must tell us all about it.”

Lil laughed. “Just wait till you hear what’s happened now, girls,” she said with a wink, and as they got ready, Lil filled them in on the fact Johnny Longdon had been utterly stupefied to find that his mother had been supported by Lil all these years. “For it turns out, he’s been corresponding with his sister all this time and she’s been spinning him some right yarns! According to her, Mother Longdon had been living with her this past ten years. He’s even sent them money, not a penny of which reached his poor old mother! Lord knows what Marianne’s been spending it on, bonnets most likely,” Lil sniffed. “Johnny’s reeling.”

“Surely his sister will be held accountable for her lies?” Hetty asked, pausing in the act of topping up the jars from the water pitcher.

“Huh! If she is, it’ll be the first time, mind you. Their mother’s spittin’ mad. You should have ‘eard ‘er,” Lil cackled. “There he was, on my doorstep, breathin’ righteous indignation and holding forth about how I’d reap what I’d sowed in the hereafter and Mother Longdon bolts past me through the doorway and delivers him a great ringing blow to his ear! I know you ain’t talkin’ about my Lillian! she says, the daughter what’s treated me like her own. The daughter what’s kept me off the streets this past ten years! He didn’t know where to put himself! Looked like he’d seen a ghost, he did!”

“Good!” said Theo. “I am vastly glad to hear it!” She frowned over her neckcloth. “I wonder how he found out your address.”

“Most likely paid one of those hired thugs of Clem’s,” Lil said disparagingly.

“Not Eddie,” Theo said quickly.

Lil clicked her tongue. “You and your favorites.”

“And did Mr. Longdon seek out his sister yet?” Hetty asked. “It seems to me an odd thing that he started with you, Lil, considering he was so determined to reward the virtuous. Yet the first person he seeks out on reaching these shores is none other than his estranged wife.”

Theo turned to look at her sister. “That, Hetty,” she said, “is a very good point.” She looked back at Lil. “He seems rather fixated on you, Lil, for someone who supposedly no longer cares.”

Lil snorted. “He probably wanted to rub my nose in it. A surly, resentful creature is Johnny Longdon. Besides, the Montague-Smythe mansion is empty right now. Marianne’s in Tunbridge Wells, so he can’t even get a hold of her even if he wanted to.”

Theo buttoned up her shirt. “Where’s he staying? At a hotel?”

“Too right he is! He’s plump enough in the pocket and there’s sod all room for him round ours! Fasten me up, would you love?” Lil said turning her back to Henrietta who was quick to oblige. “You should have seen his face, Theo. Thunderstruck, is the only word for it.” Lil chuckled again. “It was just as good as when he realized you was a woman.”

*

That evening’s performance went off without a hitch. As always, Theo soared like a bird before her audience. She tottered off stage feeling her customary euphoria, her sister joining them in the dressing room afterward, full of congratulations.