"May I?" Prescot asked.
McKenna nodded and took his hand. "I assure you, 'Tis the best offer I have had all night."
"Truly?" he asked, walking her into the parlor. "You did not fall madly in love with one of Colorado's finest?"
"Prescot, you cannae guess what a disaster this night was. Charlotte was there."
Prescot shook his head. "I feared we had not seen the last of that one."
"You feared right."
Hannish looked sideways at Sassy, "Why are you not dancing?"
"No handsome stranger has asked me."
"Must he be a stranger?"
She rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'd not like embarrassing myself in front of you and Miss McKenna. Alistair will teach me later, he promised."
"I see." He watched the two dancing couples for a moment more and then went to ask Cathleen to dance.
McKenna felt so comfortable with Prescot, she hardly noticed they were dancing. He was a good man and she began to wonder just what sort of woman would complete him. Millie, perhaps or… She stopped dancing and looked at her brother. "Hannish, why did April not come?"
"I do not know. Shall I try to find her?"
"Yes please. I do hope she is not still in Olivia's employ."
"So do I."
*
Upset, McKenna didn't bother to knock, walked into the study and sat down in a chair facing her brother's desk. "Abigail has called twice this morning and I cannae claim a headache much longer. I will have to take her call soon."
"I know."
She rubbed her forehead for a moment. "Charlotte's accusations are bound to be talked of and we cannae let what she said go uncontested. Sassy will hear of it sooner or later and then what?"
Hannish puffed his cheeks. "I have thought of nothing else half the night and all this morning. I've not the slightest idea what to do. We have become a scandal."
"We cannae just hide from the world. I have already sent the invitations to our garden party, which, I remind you, is only three days away." She stood up and paced across the room twice before she stopped. "Suppose someone questions Sassy at the party? We must warn her, but what can we say…that she has been accused of…oh, I cannae even say the words."
"Sassy has not been accused, I am the one accused."
"I doubt this society will know the difference and it shall fall on Sassy to deny it."
Hannish puffed his cheeks. "Perhaps it is time they knew the truth about what happened that night."
"Not without her permission, surely."
"Shall I talk to her?"