“If anyone else said that to me,” Lady D said, thumping her cane against the floor even though she was seated in a perfectly good chair, “I’d take it as an insult.”
“But not from me?” Hyacinth queried, trying to sound disappointed.
Lady Danbury chuckled. “Do you know why I like you so well, Hyacinth Bridgerton?”
Hyacinth leaned forward. “I’m all agog.”
Lady D’s face spread into a creased smile. “Because you, dear girl, are exactly like me.”
“Do you know, Lady Danbury,” Hyacinth said, “if you said that to anyone else, she’d probably take it as an insult.”
Lady D’s thin body quivered with mirth. “But not you?”
Hyacinth shook her head. “Not me.”
“Good.” Lady Danbury gave her an uncharacteristically grandmotherly smile, then glanced up at the clock on the mantel. “We’ve time for another chapter, I think.”
“We agreed, one chapter each Tuesday,” Hyacinth said, mostly just to be vexing.
Lady D’s mouth settled into a grumpy line. “Very well, then,” she said, eyeing Hyacinth in a sly manner, “we’ll talk about something else.”
Oh, dear.
“Tell me, Hyacinth,” Lady Danbury said, leaning forward, “how are your prospects these days?”
“You sound like my mother,” Hyacinth said sweetly.
“A compliment of the highest order,” Lady D tossed back. “I like your mother, and I hardly like anyone.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her.”
“Bah. She knows that already, and you’re avoiding the question.”
“My prospects,” Hyacinth replied, “as you so delicately put it, are the same as ever.”
“Such is the problem. You, my dear girl, need a husband.”
“Are you quite certain my mother isn’t hiding behind the curtains, feeding you lines?”
“See?” Lady Danbury said with a wide smile. “I would be good on the stage.”
Hyacinth just stared at her. “You have gone quite mad, did you know that?”
“Bah. I’m merely old enough to get away with speaking my mind. You’ll enjoy it when you’re my age, I promise.”
“I enjoy it now,” Hyacinth said.
“True,” Lady Danbury conceded. “And it’s probably why you’re still unmarried.”
“If there were an intelligent unattached man in London,” Hyacinth said with a beleaguered sigh, “I assure you I would set my cap for him.” She let her head cock to the side with a sarcastic tilt. “Surely you wouldn’t see me married to a fool.”
“Of course not, but—”
“And stop mentioning your grandson as if I weren’t intelligent enough to figure out what you’re up to.”
Lady D gasped in full huff. “I didn’t say a word.”
“You were about to.”