She narrowed her eyes. “You’re just hoping to be rid of me.”
He inclined his head. “The curricle has arrived safely. Aren’t you going?”
“I’m your new carriage counselor,” she repeated with the arch of a brow. “Where this curricle goes, I go. And it’s staying here until you win the race.”
“You cannot possibly expect to move in with it.”
“Why not?” She widened her eyes innocently. “You don’t live inside the actual forge, do you?”
“He lives upstairs,” said one of the lads.
“With his mother,” added another.
“Future apprentices,” Giles enunciated distinctly, “should be seen and not heard.”
One of the lads frowned. “I thought that was ‘children.’”
“Or ‘ladies,’” suggested another.
“We can all hearher,” pointed out a third.
Lady Felicity eased into the shop and reached out a finger to touch his workbench.
Giles stepped closer. “No hands-on unless I specifically say so, Miss Carriage Counselor.”
She paused with her finger above a swage block and cocked an eyebrow in his direction. “Nothing?”
He smiled politely. “My smithy, my rules.”
She lowered her hand and smiled back. “And what are the rules, Curricle King?”
“Lemonade before aprons,” said one of the lads.
“Don’t stoke the fire without gloves,” said another.
“Say ‘thank you’ if someone gives you a biscuit,” said a third.
“Hardtaskmaster,” Lady Felicity mouthed in his direction as she made her way toward the decimated refreshment table. “There appears to be neither lemonade nor biscuits.”
“That’s because you cocked up rule number one,” one of the lads said. “Arrive first, if you’re hungry.”
“You can’t say ‘cock up’ in front of a lady,” whispered another in horror.
“I don’t mind,” Lady Felicity assured them. “He can say ‘cock up’ all he likes.”
All six lads gasped like pious grandmothers.
“To your stations,” Giles ordered. He grasped Lady Felicity’s elbow and led her out of eyesight behind a viscount’s barouche. “Does your brother know you’re here?”
“I came with his blessing,” she answered. “After you infiltrated our carriage house—”
His jaw fell open. “I scarcely infiltrated—”
“—I no longer feel safe working there,” she finished. A shadow fell over her eyes, but she blinked it away.
He stared at her in disbelief. “You don’t feel safe in your own home, but you feel safe in mine?”
“Safe from discovery,” she clarified, and gestured toward her torso. “Hence the disguise.”
