Page 11 of The Best of Friends
“Points?” Artemis pressed.
“We’re making a game of it, Toss and I. We’ll each receive a point for everything we do that our respective families would not choose for us, and at the end of the Season, the one of us with the most points will be the champion.” It really was a fun game, the more she thought on it. And spending her last Season in London doing something truly enjoyable was a lovely prospect. Toss really was a dear to have given her a means of finding extra delight in her last trip to London. “We don’t have a prize chosen, but there is something to be said for simply emerging victorious. I’m so seldom the victor in any sort of contest, excepting the little wagers Tobias and I undertake from time to time. He won our most recent one and will buy me a ribbon for my hair that I have to wear when he says so because I lost. I do win sometimes, but not often.” Her mouth always did run away with itself when she was excited or worried. This time, it was the former. “Toss will likely recruit Charlie to help him, so I’m unlikely to think of as many things that would earn me points as they will together. But it will be lovely to try. And I will get to greet dogs and eat ices and do other enjoyable things. That will be well worth doing, don’t you think? Even if I don’t win.”
“Charlie is helping Toss?” A smile began to bloom on Artemis’s face.
“I assume he is. He’s likely been thinking about it ever since he and Toss first discussed it.”
“How fortunate for you, Daria, that you now have all the Huntresses, aside from our much-missed Lisette, thinking about it too.”
She looked around at them all, excitement bubbling. “Would you help me?”
“I haven’t the least doubt Toss will recruit his and Charlie’s friends to the cause. It seems only fair that the ladies do the same for our competitor.”
“It is to be the ladies against the gentlemen?” Ellie seemed to very much like the idea.
“Oh yes.” Artemis rose to her full height. “Andweare going to win.”
“If I might make a suggestion,” Rose said, pulling all their attention to her, “there is a swatch in that pile that is deep plum printed with tiny yellow Welsh poppies. It would make a very lovely day dress.”
“And ’tis decidedly not blue,” Nia said.
Daria smiled broadly. “I pick that one.”
“Your first point,” Gillian said. “The first on the road to victory, I predict.”
“You’ll help too?” Daria didn’t actually doubt it. Gillian was distracted lately but not dismissive. Why, then, had Daria felt compelled to ask? Sometimes her brain gave her mouth instructions that made very little sense.
“I will help for as long as I am in Town.”
She’d forgotten Gillian and Scott would not be staying in London long. Their funds were quite limited, and they’d only been able to come at all because of the generosity of a family friend. Daria’s very best friend and their final London Season together would be cut horribly short. She realized that London was not the only place where two friends could spend time together, but she doubted her parents would be willing to expend the effort and money needed for her to journey to other counties to spend time at the homes of her friends. This really was, in so many ways, her last time with any of them.
“It will be a fine diversion attempting to best the gentlemen at this game they invented. And Toss showed himself to be a tremendous amount of fun throughout the various diversions we all undertook during the house party,” Daria said. “This will make our time in London all the more enjoyable.”
“And to make it even more so,” Artemis said, “I mean to propose a prize to the gentlemen.”
That perked up the entire room.
“What prize?” Daria asked.
“If we win, the gentlemen will be charged with planning our next house party. Planning itandmaking certain everyone is able to attend.”
“Everyone?” Daria held her breath.
Artemis reached over and squeezed her hand. “Absolutely everyone.”
“And what if the gentlemen are victorious?” Ellie asked. “It cannot simply be the reverse of the prize because the house party is likely to be planned by one of us as it is.”
Ladies did tend to carry the responsibility for such things. But it wasn’t the planning part that Daria wished to place on the shoulders of Toss’s friends; it was the responsibility for gathering everyone. Other than perhaps Artemis, none of the Huntresses was in a financial position to fund the travel of another person. Lisette had money enough, but being in France and having rather overbearing parents, she’d not be able to do it.
“It seems only fair,” Rose said, “that if the ladies choose the prize they would win for being victorious, the gentlemen should be granted that same ability.”
Rose always had been a voice of reason among them.
“Never you fear, Huntresses,” Artemis said in conspiratorial tones. “I’ll make certain Charlie’s friends choose a prize we will be perfectly happy with.”
With a look of amused pseudo-annoyance, Rose jumped in. “Iwill liaison with the gentlemen, as something of a neutral third party.”
“Secure us something wonderful, Rose,” Eve said. “We’re depending on you.”
