Magnificent Devices [5] A Lady of Resources by Shelley Adina Page B

would not go off during the dancing,” the Lady said with some irony. “But the fact remains that between the two of you, you are responsible for the deaths of three men.”
    “Those bully-boys intended to hurt us, Lady.” Lizzie could not believe it—she had barely escaped with her life, and she was being blamed for the explosion?
    “I realize that. I also realize that the matter is in the hands of the magistrates now, and that it is entirely possible you had more to fear from the bully-boys than from Mr. Seacombe, and I am being unfair to him. Now let us change the subject. What is in your pile?”
    “Nothing of interest.” And there wasn’t. What good did court circulars and notices of art exhibits and subscriptions to scientific periodicals do anyone? Even if she wanted to go to an art exhibit, the Lady probably wouldn’t let her.
    “It is a lucky thing the chickens are not in the house,” Lady Claire said quietly. “One might be tempted to roost upon your lower lip.”
    Maggie giggled, and to Lizzie’s disgust, a smile flickered on her own lips—the lower one included. “It’s just not fair,” she mumbled.
    “I remember many things not being fair when I was sixteen, which was not so long ago. Are you so anxious for this visit, darling, despite what you know?”
    There was hope! “Yes, Lady, ever so much.” Lizzie leaned forward, pushing the pile of circulars out of the way. “Mr. Seacombe has never been anything but kind and generous to me. I want to make friends with them—with Claude’s set. There might be girls there who are going to Geneva, too, and I would have friends when I arrive. Don’t you see?”
    “I do see,” Claire said slowly. “I see that this is a means to an end that you seem set on. It is to be finishing school, then, despite Maggie’s and my feelings on the subject?”
    “I want to go, Lady.”
    “A woman is not restricted merely to being an ornament to society, dear one. She can fill a useful place—it is still possible to use one’s mind while making the world better for others.”
    Mr. Seacombe, man of the world that he was, had said he looked forward with pleasure to society’s newest ornament. “But being an ornament does not mean being brittle and shallow, with conversation that means less than the tinkle of a music box. A woman can be an ornament to society in good ways—encouraging others, supporting her friends, creating places where people can shine and enjoy themselves.”
    The Lady addressed herself to little Lord Nicholas’s letter once again. “And while she is making life beautiful for others, what is she doing for her own?”
    Which was just so completely puzzling that Lizzie was sure the Lady, for once, had missed the point.
    Maggie squirmed, as if her corset were not sitting comfortably. Finally, she burst out, “But Lizzie, you don’t mean for me to go with you to finishing school, do you? Because I am quite sure I should hate it.”
    “You must make your own choice, Maggie,” the Lady said. She slit open another envelope and began to read. “Be influenced by nothing other than your own heart and mind.”
    A fine thing to say, when the Lady herself was trying to influence Lizzie away from the choice of her heart and mind!
    “I want to go back to Munich with you, and complete sixth form,” Maggie pleaded. “What should I do without you, Liz? Who will I sit with in the park, and laugh with about Sophie Bug Eyes?”
    “Sadly, it seems Sophie is going to Maison Villeneuve, too. If you came with me, we could do those things still.”
    But Maggie only shook her head, staring blindly at the pile of invitations on the table. Never mind. Lizzie still had the whole summer in which to convince her sister that they needed to make this decision together, and choose a path together, the way they always had.
    She would succeed. She and Maggie had never been separated before, and there was no reason to begin now.

10

The letter that had arrived as they