“My, but you two are late,” said Miss Courtenay, apparently completely failing to take anything from the fact that we were arriving at breakfast within seconds of each other. “Those of us who went out visiting until late in the evening are still at the breakfast table before you are!”

Luke only gave a sickly smile, and I looked down at my plate.

“We had a lovely time,” Miss Courtenay continued. “I am sure that Mrs. Curtis loved my playing. She will be a good friend, and I am sure that she will love coming to Woodshire. She has her own home, of course, but it does not quite have the history.”

New money, then. I might have guessed that Miss Courtenay would look down on a lonely older woman who was only looking for friendship.

“How was your day yesterday, Miss Quinton?” asked Lillian, the only person in the party who was not either ill bred or sick with nerves.

“She’s not,” said Luke, just as I began to speak.

“It was lovely,” I said, and then looked at Luke. He looked as if he no idea of what to say next.

And, of course, neither did I. So I reasoned that I might as well simply say my piece.

“We got married,” I said, and Lillian appeared to be the only person who understood me. Her face bloomed in a smile, while the other ladies at the table only frowned.

“Whom did you marry, then?” Mrs. Barlow asked me. “I’m afraid I do not understand.”

I looked to Luke. He swallowed, and said nothing. So with some annoyance, I took on the duty of informing his family.

“Mr. Barlow and I are married,” I said. “And I am therefore no longer Miss Quinton.”

Miss Courtenay only laughed, but the mother had enough sense to look to her son. “Lucas,” she said, “Is this so?”

“Yes,” he squeaked, and Miss Courtenay darkened.

Mrs. Barlow was apparently without words, but finding something to say was not a problem for one of our breakfast companions.

“I knew that grandfather had taken a certain liking to you,” hissed Miss Courtenay, apparently failing to realize that she was never going to marry into the family and become the old man’s granddaughter-in-law. Therefore, it no longer made sense for her to refer to him as “grandfather,” though it might well take some time for her to realize that. “Grandfather fancied you, even. But for you to exploit that with a marriage!”

Luke, at last, found his voice. “She did not marry grandfather, Miss Courtenay,” he said. “Alice is my wife now.”

It was fortunate that Lillian flew to embrace me, because Miss Courtenay rushed at me and seemed ready to deliver a blow. But with Lillian’s arms around me, and her sweet face smiling into my shoulder, there was no way for the wronged woman to get through.

In fact, Lillian might well have thought of this when she ran to my side. She was more adept than anyone I’d ever seen at protecting visitors to the household.