Visiting cards.
What Malinda had tossed in front of Arthur were three visiting cards.
They were from Young Lissop and the nephews of Lord Dubois and Lord Bath.
Their contents were identical: they hoped to attend Malinda's Peerage Inheritance Ritual.
Almost the instant Arthur saw those three visiting cards, he understood why Malinda had reacted that way earlier-
She felt that someone had "arranged" things for her.
Your pride made you feel you'd lost your freedom in that moment.
But that unfamiliar feeling left you even more uncertain!
You weren't sure what my intentions were.
Although you felt your dignity had been hurt, you were afraid of affecting our partnership, so...
You used this to test me and get under my skin at the same time, didn't you?
Having finally figured out what was going on, Arthur's lips curled upward.
"You don't think I arranged this, do you?"
Arthur looked at Malinda with a teasing smile.
"If not you,
then who?"
Malinda looked thoroughly unconvinced.
Had it been Young Lissop alone, Malinda could have believed that the young man had acted on his own initiative, but there were also visiting cards from the nephews of Lord Dubois and Lord Bath.
Just because Arthur had saved their lives didn't mean the two would voluntarily send visiting cards requesting to attend the Peerage Inheritance Ritual.
Even if they wanted to, they couldn't.
Because behind them stood their uncles, those two lords.
Unlike the Lissop Family, who were "new nobility," the two tradition-minded lords would never allow their nephews to do something so contrary to etiquette.
Noble social conventions absolutely forbade turning up uninvited at such a grand occasion.
Contact had to begin with a small gathering.
Preferably something like a private salon.
Unless they already had an established relationship-
For instance, a