A pause long enough for Bonnybell to say to herself that Edward had begun by jibbing at the attention to her foes alluded to.
“Did you see them all?”
“All but Toby; he was out.”
“Were they well?”
“Catherine had a bad cold.”
“The result of a pneumonia blouse, I suppose! As long as girls strip themselves naked in January they cannot be surprised at their chests and lungs resenting it.”
“Certainly not.”
“The following such a fashion is the solitary lapse from common sense I have ever detected in Catherine.”
The amende was honourable, and in consonance, as Edward felt, with Camilla’s principles, and the line she had adopted with regard to the woman whom she contemplated as her probable successor.
“Did they tell you any news?”