Verity moved to take a seat and Ford reluctantly placed his bookmark in the pages of his book, letting it lie idle in his lap. There was no deterring his sister when she had something on her mind, so it would be best to just address it. He'd expected the jibe about Miss Belby to just be a lead up to something else, though — a request for another new dress or berating him for not introducing her to someone the night before, if he had to guess — not the actual matter she'd come to address. He was shocked when she pulled out a copy of that silly girl's magazine and read his name out of it.

"A broom cupboard?" he repeated, his ears and cheeks as red as they'd been on the night in question. "What does — is that an allusion to something? I don't follow."