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is always a certain amount of truth in gossip, and I love good gossip,” Cynara said with a grin. “Besides he has several . . . bastards, sons and daughters. He has recognized them all, and provided for them as well. The women he has loved adore him, except perhaps for my lady Castlemaine, who is now discarded in favor of an actress.”

      “Gracious!” Fancy laughed. “Where do you learn all of this?”

      Cynara chuckled. “I listen,” she said simply. Then she sighed. “ ’Odsfish! Diana is already surrounded by gentlemen. Do you wonder they call her Siren? There is little difference between the three of us, and yet they flock to her like bees to honey. I do not understand it, Fancy. What is it she has that we do not?”

      “Well,” Fancy said thoughtfully, “you, I suspect, are noted for your pride and your sharp tongue. I am surrounded by scandal. I am an unknown quantity. Our sweet cousin on the other hand is noted for her engaging ways and dulcet disposition.”

      “But I am a Stuart!” Cynara protested.

      “And therefore less approachable,” Fancy responded.

      “Then what good is having a beautiful wardrobe and Grandmama’s wonderful jewels if no one will pay attention to me,” Cynara wailed.

      “They will pay attention to us both soon enough,” Fancy said. “We are all beautiful and all rich. Qualities gentlemen find most desirable in marriageable women I have been told.” Her tone was suddenly bitter. “Be careful in this courting game, Cyn,” she advised her cousin. “Be careful, and do not believe anything a man tells you else you will end up as I have and be miserable.” For the second time this evening, her eyes filled with tears. She brushed them impatiently away.

      Cynara saw her cousin’s tears, but she said nothing. “Come on,” she decided. “Siren cannot have all the gentlemen to herself. Besides, she does not really know what to do with them. Let’s share in her bounty.”

      Fancy laughed. “All right,” she said, and together the two young women joined their cousin. The royal reception lasted until midnight. There was much gossiping, some dancing, and gambling. The Season was just beginning. The cousins had agreed that when all was ended they would meet their grandmother in the Great Courtyard where their carriage would be awaiting them. Having bid Charlie and his wife good night, Fancy made her way with Cynara and Diana through the palace to their agreed meeting place.

      A gentleman approached them suddenly, and bowing said to Fancy, “I am William Chiffinch, Mistress Devers. The king invites you to supper.”

      Before Fancy might reply, Cynara spoke up. “Oh, dear!” she said. “You must tell His Majesty that my cousin is regretfully unable to join him tonight as we are meeting our grandmother, the dowager duchess of Glenkirk immediately.”

      “However,” Fancy now put in, “I should be honored if His Majesty would ask me again, when I shall be more than pleased to accept his kind invitation.” She curtsied to Mr. Chiffinch.

      “Of course, madame,” the king’s confidential servant replied, and he bowed to the three young women before turning away, and walking back down the corridor.

      “The king asked you to supper, and you turned him down?” Diana was astounded by her two cousins’ boldness.

      “Silly goose,” Cynara laughed. “When the king asks a lady to supper, she is meant to be the last course. He has just seen Fancy for the first time tonight. His ardor is more likely to increase if it is denied. Many a young woman has been ruined by accepting the royal invitation and then boring the king so she is not asked back.”

      “I am surprised he would approach me at all,” Fancy said.

      “You are beautiful, and you are widowed,” Cynara responded. “The king would not approach Diana or me, for we are innocents.”

      “The way you advise our cousin, I sometimes wonder,” Diana said. “How is it that you are so knowledgeable of men and their ways?”

      Cynara shook her head. “I don’t know if I am that clever, Siren, but when dealing with gentlemen, it seems to me that common sense should apply. When you can obtain something you desire easily, you lose your appetite for it. And men, I have noted, are mostly boys at heart. Boys crave excitement. Where is the excitement in an easily won prize?” She turned to Fancy. “You surprise me speaking up so quickly and telling Mr. Chiffinch that you would accept the king’s invitation on another occasion. Would you really?”

      “Yes,” Fancy said quietly.

      “I thought you were through with men,” Cynara said.

      “I said I didn’t want a husband,” Fancy replied. “I think I might prefer being a king’s mistress to being any man’s wife. A mistress, it seems to me, maintains her freedom as long as she is true to her lover. And if I would be a mistress, I would prefer to be a king’s mistress than a common man’s. The king seems a kind man.”

      “My lady Castlemaine might disagree with you there,” Cynara said with a chuckle. “The king is through with her, and she is most put out about it all.”

      “I do not know her whole story,” Fancy said, “but I do know she has enriched herself and her children in the king’s bed. If she had any sense, she would retire gracefully and retain the king’s friendship rather than make an enemy of him with her tempers.”

      “But Fancy,” Diana said, her look concerned, “are we not better than my lady Castlemaine? Would you not prefer the comfort of a wife’s place to the uncertainty of a mistress’s position?”

      “A wife and a mistress maintain the same position. On their backs,” Cynara said laughing.

      “Cyn!” Diana blushed.

      “Do not fret, sweet cousin,” Fancy said. “There is no guarantee that the king, having been refused, will ask me to supper again.”

      They had reached their carriage where Jasmine sat waiting for them. Liveried footmen helped them into the vehicle and the doors shut. The coach lumbered off out of the Great Court and through the Whitehall Gate onto the street.

      “The king asked Fancy to supper!” Cynara burst out.

      “Did he?” Jasmine said. I must be getting old, she considered. I did not see that coming at all. “And you refused him, of course.”

      “For now,” Fancy replied.

      “I had thought you would remarry one day,” Jasmine said to her granddaughter. “There is little future in being a king’s mistress.”

      “I find it a more preferable fate to being another man’s wife,” Fancy told her grandmother. “I find the king an attractive man, and he is said to be kind to the ladies who please him.”

      “Yes, he is that,” Jasmine admitted, “and if you give him a child, he will acknowledge it. The Stuarts always accept their paternal obligations as I certainly well know. Your uncle has teased me about it, but it would seem he is correct when he says the Stuarts have a tendre for the women in this family. I was once Prince Henry’s mistress, and your aunt Autumn, my youngest daughter, was for a brief time this king’s mistress. You look nothing like her so whatever the allure is that we seem to possess, it is not in our similar features. Well, let us wait and see if you have whetted the king’s appetite, or if your refusal has but put him off.” She looked at her other two granddaughters. “You will say nothing of this to anyone,” she instructed them both. “Diana, I know I may rely on you. But Cynara, my gossipy wench, if you should allow your tongue to wiggle-waggle, you could cause not just your cousin, but the entire family, great damage. Do you understand why, dear girl?”

      “Yes, Grandmama, I do. I shall speak on this to no one,” Cynara promised Jasmine. “Especially not Papa or Mama.”

      Jasmine’s eyes met those of Cynara’s. “Ahh, you do understand,” she said, well pleased. Then she sat back, and closed her eyes. “I am far too old to be spending half the night

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