This was the first properly nice moment of the evening. The conversation hadn't stalled out on Beatrice's awkwardness and now Miss Dempsey was smiling at him and very nearly batting her eyelashes. Of course it didn't last. He might have expected that, broadly speaking, but the specifics caught him off guard. Even for Bea's level of social ineptitude this remark was beyond the pale. She was choosing her comments intentionally to embarrass him in front of his potential bride and would-be in-laws. It wasn't as though she was ignorant of who they were or why their opinion ought to matter, either; he'd made his intentions clear enough during the last conversation that they'd had, a month ago. Beatrice may have been many things, but she certainly wasn't stupid. She would have connected the dots and realized that Miss Dempsey could only be the woman Victor intended to propose to.

He glared daggers at his sister, but didn't respond to the comment. Doing so would only have drawn more attention to it, and while he doubted anyone at the table hadn't heard it, he might as well leave the chance intact.

"I've heard you're interested in sailing, Mr. Dempsey?" he said instead, signalling to everyone that he did not intend to dignify his sister's criticism with any more of his attention.

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