somehow, he had been adopted. There was something equally satisfying about that.
Strange.
Graham gave a nod to the musicians, who immediately struck up a jaunty tune. The Bradford sisters and Miss Chesney were quick to form lines with their partners, and they were joined there by Lord and Lady Sterling, Tony and Georgie, and the Mortons.
“Why are you not opening the dance?” Eloise asked with just as much exasperation as her last question had held.
Graham sighed. “So many rules for being the host, I seem to have forgotten that one.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I highly doubt that.” She sniffed and looked around the room. “Now, where is Miranda? I simply must… Oh, there she is!” Tapping his arm with her fan, she disengaged herself from his hold and moved away.
“What happened to finding a chair?” he asked after her, knowing a response was unlikely.
No matter.
Graham smiled at Lady Ingram as he neared her, his eyes casting around for her husband. “I was going to congratulate you on the return of your husband, my lady; only I do not see him near.”
Lady Ingram laughed, her head tilting back in a charming fashion, highlighting her beauty in an entirely natural way. “Aubrey has gone to fetch me a drink. He will return momentarily.” She smiled at him, her hands folding elegantly before her. “I do wish you would call me Grace, Radcliffe. With all that you are doing for Edith, I’d feel much better calling you a friend.”
Graham inclined his head in a nod. “If you wish it, I would be honored to do so, if the familiarity will not earn me an eye blacking from your husband.”
She grinned quickly. “No, he would never. Besides, Tony, Cam, and Sebastian call me by my name. I daresay Hugh Sterling will as well, once he adjusts to being part of the group. We are all on quite familiar terms, Radcliffe. Rather like a family.”
“I see that,” he murmured, watching Mrs. Morton laugh merrily while briefly partnered with Tony. “Rather remarkable, I must say.”
“It has become so, and I am ever so grateful.” Her smile turned wistful, though there was a fond edge to it. “My own family gives me little enough reason to smile or laugh, apart from my husband. But with the Spinsters, I have never felt bereft of anything.”
“Who’s feeling bereft?” Ingram asked with mild alarm as he approached, his eyes tracing over his wife as though looking for injury.
Grace rolled her eyes. “No one, Aubrey. I was just saying that I do not feel bereft. Radcliffe was commenting on the Spinsters.”
“Ah.” Ingram nodded once, flashing a quick smile. “Bereft is most certainly not a word to describe the Spinsters.”
“So I see,” Graham murmured, watching the various members of the group around the room, all of whom were full of good cheer.
Yet he did not see Edith anywhere.
Suddenly, bereft was the only word to come to mind.
“Looking for someone?”
The suspicious note of curiosity in Ingram’s question brought Graham around to look at him, sardonic expression in place.
“Looking for everyone,” he corrected easily. “As host, I could hardly have guests avoiding the ball, could I?”
Ingram made a face, accepting the lie as accurate reasoning, no doubt. “I suppose not. What a dreadful idea.”
“Avoiding a ball?” Grace asked on a laugh.
Ingram looked at his wife with open honesty. “No, hosting.”
Graham choked a laugh into a fist and took a glass of champagne from his footman with a nod of thanks before turning back.
“How did your business in London go?”
Ingram sobered at once and stepped closer. “Not as well as I had hoped, but not as bad as I expected. The solicitors we’ve hired are now poring over every possible document and working on a solution that might not leave Edith so destitute. Mr. Chadwick, who is Camden Vale’s brother-in-law, has been working especially tirelessly, when he is available.”
“Available?” Graham repeated. “I thought he was a scholar.”
“So did I,” Ingram said with a shrug, “and yet he seemed to have many conflicts in his schedule. Still, he has a brilliant mind, so I have complete faith that if anything can be found, Chadwick will find it.”
“Good,” Graham grunted in satisfaction. “Tony was with you in that?”
Ingram nodded. “And Francis. Cam made the introductions, but the law is not his particular friend.”
“Now that, I can understand,” Grace commented dryly. “The man is a paradox in every legal respect.”
“Cam is perfectly respectable, love,” Ingram insisted. “A gentleman of the highest degree.”
Grace blinked at her husband once.