Minnie laughed brightly at the comment, though it was tinged with a touch of bitterness, understanding the sentiment perfectly well even if there was precisely nothing she was able to do about it with her own circumstances.

“Then may I suggest you never become a debutante Mr Longbottom,” she knew she ought to be less candid perhaps, but he certainly didn’t seem the sort that would find her excessively at fault for being so. She was finding, to her great pleasure, that the older she became the more she seemed able to get away with – as though the gentlemen actually enjoyed hearing a real opinion on a subject rather than the same comments regurgitated. The champagne helped with that enormously.

“Idleness may be the only thing I am an expert in, though I do try not to let myself become such a recluse I never leave the house for fear of accidentally getting some exercise or mental stimulation!”

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no, really MJ is just showing off at this point