So childish. But she’d long grown past that, realizing that her role was to protect and care for her more vulnerable sisters, particularly after the death of their parents. And she excelled at that, just as she did everything else. Except translating Greek, which she found a necessary evil, but the effort worthwhile.

And, she supposed, that sort of intuitive, prickling knowing when something was wrong, or odd, was perhaps her own version of the Sight.

“Very well, my lord,” Maia said, making her voice sound rather like a queen agreeing to an audience with her subject. “I shall review your correspondence on the morrow.”

She turned before he could respond, and immediately spotted Angelica in an intense, probably improper, conversation with Lord Dewhurst and his companion Lord Brickbank. Her sister was fresh and lovely in an Empire-waisted, butter-yellow gown, with her dark, almond eyes and gypsyish coloring. Not the usual peaches-and-cream coloring of every other female Londoner, like Maia herself.

And it took Maia only one good look to know that the Viscount Dewhurst was precisely the sort of man she had warned her sister about. A tawny-haired, golden god of a man with an insouciant smile, melting eyes and a neckcloth that had probably taken a dozen tries to fold properly, he was a rake of the first order, no doubt about it. The way he was eyeing Angelica as if he couldn’t tear his gaze away was enough to make Maia herself feel all warm and tingly deep inside.

If Alexander ever looked at her like that, Maia would probably melt into a pool of skin and bones at once. She already felt warm and heart-rushed when he kissed her and slid his hand around the neckline of her bodice.

But, interestingly enough, Angelica wasn’t speaking to Dewhurst. She seemed to be engaged in conversation with the red-nosed Lord Brickbank, who was staring at her in confusion.