Henrietta didn't realize where her hand was going to land until she'd already hit him, but then she let out another squeak of alarm. If there was anything her mother would consider worse than being alone with a man, it was being close enough to said man to cause a scandal, and if there was anything worse than that, it probably would have been assaulting him. How had she managed to make such a muck of this? Why did these sorts of things always happen to her, and no one else? Some of her friends were the very picture of grace and beauty, but not Henrietta Cartwright.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said in a rush, as she scrambled to a sitting position. "I was — you startled me."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said in a rush, as she scrambled to a sitting position. "I was — you startled me."
