Angélique grinned at her cousin as she looked around the room. "Oh, but I was informed that I was seeing a young lady practically near dead of shock and travail! You don't look a thing like that. You look like you were escorted home by Antoine Laurent."
Who, she had been happy to discover, she had remembered rightly. His younger brother was pretty Aimé, who was the one whispered to be had for a price, and Antoine was supposedly the one who did the collecting. Or perhaps the having, if you believed another version. She could hardly wait to tell everyone just how familiar Patience had seemed with this gentleman with such dark gossip surrounding him. Angel didn't wait for her cousin's permission and simply dropped into a seat by Patience's bed.