fretted, tucking away a note in her mind to summon Dr. Gervase in the morning.
The manner in which he turned his head to stare at her felt unfamiliar and oddly intimidating. Perhaps it was a trick of the light, but she found herself shuffling back, noting how Crispin had perfectly cloaked himself in the shadows so that she was barely able to discern his features.
Still, the golden mask he had donned for this clandestine meeting was familiar. They had agreed that even if they were skulking around in their own home, it was best to do so with a measure of protection. “Do you prefer not to talk?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Are you still feeling under the weather?”
Another nod.
Worry curled through Maryann. But before she could probe further, Lady Sophie said, her voice carrying clearly, “Did you see how perfectly humiliated that sweet Miss Louisa was?”
Maryann shuffled closer, her heart jolting. “Bring the bucket, Crispin,” she whispered.
The bucket was pushed to her, and she peered at it, aghast. “I cannot do it. I am afraid of snakes.”
His lips curved slightly, and the oddest sensation fluttered in her belly. Before she could assess the strangeness of the feeling and why it happened, her brother crept forward, and she turned back to the ballroom.
“She is almost here. Pour them out quickly!” Mama, forgive me for the commotion.
He complied and poured the bucket full of small snakes and other dreadful crawlies through the window to splat on the parquet floor of the ballroom. Astonishingly, no one noticed. Least of all Sophie, who would soon be upon them. Perhaps the well-placed potted plants hid the invasion. Maryann almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
“Oh no, I think she is about to make her way over to Phineas Hadley! She won’t—”
An ear-splitting scream lifted, and then madness descended. In her haste to get away from the slithering mess she had stepped on, Sophie jumped into the arms of a gentleman, refusing to put her feet on the ground. He wobbled under her unexpected weight. In truth, the flustered gentleman seemed as if he had no notion of what to do with the lady holding on to him and sobbing hysterically. He grabbed her hips—how shockingly improper—and she then turned her wrath on him, slapping his cheek with her folded fan. They both tumbled to the floor…into a few terrified snakes.
Maryann never imagined anyone could scream so loudly. A few of Lady Sophie’s clique hurried to help her up, while some had the temerity to laugh. Sophie’s glare threatened retribution before her lower lip trembled, and her face crumpled.
Ignoring the confusion erupting inside, Maryann grabbed Crispin’s elbow and urged him to run with her from the scene of the crime. She started laughing only a few steps away. They hurried toward the hidden garden alcove they had often played in as children.
The memory of Sophie’s horror just now sobered Maryann briefly. But only briefly. Once in the deepest part of the gardens, she wheeled toward her brother. “Justice was served!”
He stepped back, pressing against the shadows of the neatly clipped high-hedged maze. Shrugging the coat from her shoulders, she dropped it to the soft verdant grass and lowered herself to the ground.
Lifting a hand in the air, she began dramatically, “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge?”
Maryann sighed. “Crispin, I do feel wretched but also glorious that she has been given a taste of her own bitter medicine. I am certain tonight’s incident will be in tomorrow’s scandal sheet and on the lips of everyone for weeks. We know how fickle society is about what they consider news.”
Lifting her face to the cloud-shrouded sky, she asked, “What do you think? Dare I hope that tonight might show Sophie the errors of her ways, or at least let her reflect on the torment she has afflicted on other ladies who have done nothing more than bravely wade out in the ton to attempt to secure their bit of happiness? Or do you think I might have to be more extreme with my lesson?”
She hoped she would not have to be more ruthless. For the satisfaction she had felt in seeing Lady Sophie shrieking and then staring at her giggling friends in horror was hollow. It took a lot to compromise her values of kindness and forgiveness, even as she felt satisfied that she had