Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,37

reaffirming to the entire room what a beautiful girl she was. “Oh, yes! It was breathtaking, and the actors so very talented. I couldn’t take my eyes from the stage!”

Izzy giggled to herself, drawing Charlotte’s attention while the others went into more detailed questions with her.

“What’s so amusing?” Charlotte asked her friend quietly. “Was it dreadful?”

“No, not at all.” Izzy shook her head, copper hair dancing as she did so. “No, she’s quite right; I thought I had seen all possible renditions of Cinderella by now, and yet Mr. Rossini surprised us all. Delightful show, you should attend.”

Charlotte frowned, scooting closer. “I’ll tell Mama, but why should that be amusing?”

Izzy bit her lip, snickering softly. “It isn’t. Kitty saying she couldn’t take her eyes from the stage is quite amusing.”

“Because it’s incorrect?”

“Because it is utterly correct.” Izzy put a hand over her eyes, giggling further still.

Charlotte stared in abject confusion, wondering if her friend had truly lost all sense of herself, or if married life had softened her intelligence. She could only wait for Izzy to recover enough to speak coherently.

There had never been occasion in her life to think those words where Izzy was concerned, but she had learned to never set absolutes in life. They were almost always upset.

She glanced over at the rest and found them still in conversation about the beauty and imagination in La Cenerentola. Charlotte had no interest in the discussion, so she returned her focus to Izzy, who by now had put her hand at her throat.

“So Kitty stared at the stage,” Charlotte stated. “What of it?”

Izzy’s bright eyes met Charlotte’s dark ones. “There was someone who happened to be at the theater also. Someone who joined our box, at our invitation. Someone who clearly wanted Kitty’s attention to be somewhere other than on the stage.”

Charlotte’s mouth slowly dropped open, then spread into a wide grin. “Oh dear. How terribly upsetting for him.”

Izzy nodded her head slowly. “Indeed. He was terribly disappointed when we left, but by pretending he paid attention to the music, he was at least able to converse with her. Which, I think, was better than nothing.”

Now it was Charlotte who giggled uncontrollably. “Oh, I can just imagine his face! The poor man, he must have thought it such a clever scheme!”

“I think he must have, but he underestimated Kitty’s love for opera.” Izzy pressed the back of her hand to a cheek as though to cool her face. “I cannot wait to see what he attempts next.”

“So you and Sebastian know, then,” Charlotte said, choosing to avoid naming the man in question, on the chance she was incorrect in her assumptions. And to keep Kitty from hearing a name that might turn her attention to their conversation rather than her own.

Izzy nodded again, this time just once. “Oh, yes. He was rather upfront about it, wanted to be sure there would be no misapprehensions or strain between friends in this. He insisted that both Sebastian and I be present for the conversation, which I said was not necessary, but I think it may have helped his case where my husband was concerned.” She smiled ruefully. “There is something to be said for giving honor and respect to the wife of the man whose sister has caused an interest.”

“Put that into a Chronicles article,” Charlotte suggested dryly. “It will revolutionize the whole nature of courtship.”

Glancing over at her sweet but shy sister-in-law, Izzy sighed. “He would be so good for her, Charlotte. Trouble is that she has grown so used to him, so comfortable with having him near, that she cannot see him for what he could be. What he wishes to be. I worry that she never will, and if that should be the case, she will miss out on an utterly perfect match.”

Charlotte grunted once and reached for a biscuit, munching it softly. “I wouldn’t worry so very much. If I know him, and I daresay that I do, he won’t give up. He’ll try again and again and again until there is no mistaking him. And Kitty was such a skittish thing when we first met her. It’s no wonder he spent so long getting her comfortable with him, it was the only way to be near her. She might have hated or feared him had he spoken before this.”

Izzy shook her head again. “He could have spoken in the fall. It would have been perfect timing.”

“Don’t judge him too severely,” Charlotte urged her friend. “He knows