Free The Moon by Night by Gilbert Morris, Lynn Morris

to see if they needed more food or drink. With very slight nods she signaled the servants—young girls named Sylvie and Mallow—and then encouraged them with approving smiles, all the while keeping up with the conversation. She and Richard also exchanged meaningful glances to communicate when one of his neighbors was being neglected or when it was time for the next course. Shiloh wondered if these graces were a matter of education or practice or simply a birthright of the privileged classes.
    But then, he decided with deep affection, his wife was “to the manner born”—as Prince Hamlet of Denmark so memorably said—but generally she was much too engrossed in whatever conversation she was in or whatever topic her active, mercurial mind was working on at the time to be very proficient at conducting a dinner party. It was just not in her nature to be concerned about such things, he realized, even though Cheney was a sociable creature. I need to learn how to do these things, he thought with one part of his mind as he listened to Victoria and Irene talk across him about the seating in the Academy box for the opera.
    Cheney’s used to lavish social functions like dinner parties and cotillions and assemblies and junk like that. With the holidays coming up, we should be entertaining some, but just how am I supposed to learn? I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. Cheney would like it, and she shouldn’t have to be married to a big dumb oaf who doesn’t know what an aperitif is or which spoon to use for the pudding….
    â€œMm, Madame Gallot’s cherry roly poly with Dally’s double cream,” Richard was saying as Mallow set the delicious dessert in front of him.
    â€œMother, you actually got Madame Gallot to admit that Dally’s double cream is better than her sweet whipped cream?” Cheney asked.
    â€œNo, she never admits it,” Irene answered. “She just uses Dally’s cream and pretends that it’s her own.”
    â€œAh yes, Colonel Duvall, I had forgotten,” Victoria said mischievously, “that you had replaced Dally with Madame Gallot, who speaks only French, I recall? And how do you get along with her?”
    â€œJust fine,” Richard answered with a twinkle in his clear gray eyes. “I do whatever she tells me to do, eat whatever she prepares, and never answer back to her, so we get along very well. Over the years Dev and I came to understand that that is how a gentleman had best conduct himself in a houseful of females.”
    â€œSo true, sir,” Dev agreed with a rare smile, his dimples flashing. “That reminds me—Shiloh, have you told everyone about the addition to the Irons-Winslow household?”
    Hastily Shiloh answered, “Buchanan, you’re going to get me into hot water for sure. I haven’t even had a chance to talk to the doc about him yet.” Cheney had stayed at the hospital until late, and Shiloh had had four meetings that day, so both of them had barely had time to bathe and change before one of Victoria’s coaches had arrived at Gramercy Park to pick them up. Cheney and Shiloh had discussed their day with each other on the ride, but Shiloh hadn’t quite had time to figure out how to approach the subject of Phinehas Jauncy with Cheney before they had arrived at Duvall Court.
    â€œOh. Sorry,” Dev said guiltily. He, too, had come to understand the supreme importance of discussing domestic things with his wife before springing them on her, as it were, at dinner parties.
    But Cheney merely smiled. “I already know anyway, Dev. It’s all right. You didn’t get Shiloh in trouble. I had a feeling that yesterday we had a highwayman camped in the front parlor, but today we have a new butler.”
    â€œEr…he’s a gentleman’s gentleman, if you please,” Shiloh said, sighing. “I named him PJ. Can I keep him, Doc?”
    â€œSo long as he