Kate's embarrassment continued, not having intensified but rather matured. It was one thing to have a conversation with someone who had no idea of her family's history or of her father's infamy, who could use ignorance as an excuse if anyone asked him later why he'd been seen talking with her. Even if he could only feign ignorance, it was at least something. Willingly continuing to talk to her after being apprised of the ... situation, as it were... was something else entirely. Kate wasn't entirely sure what it would mean, herself, being still very new to the concept of polite English society (or, in the case of the two women who had wandered by, the less-than-polite English society), but she knew that it was too big of a sacrifice to ask of someone she'd just met a moment ago.

"You don't have to do that," she protested. "I just came to see the school. I can go find Mrs. Daws and you can go back to your evening." She didn't need to dance the night away, or anything romantic like that; her heart wouldn't be broken by a conversation drawing to an impromptu close. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened to her, nor, she suspected, would it be the last.