Barbara shook her head. “It was obvious to me she did not care for young Mr. Benton.” She fluttered her lashes at Lewis. “She only had eyes for you, Mr. Upchurch.”
Lewis leaned near the brunette beside him. “While I only had eyes for you, Miss Lyons.”
“As did I,” Saxby said, glaring at him.
Lewis shook his head and confessed, “I am afraid I was less than gallant with Miss Macy. For the truth was, I was smitten with another lady.” He looked meaningfully at Miss Lyons. “One as far from my reach as Miss Macy is from Nate’s.”
Nathaniel inhaled slowly, willing anger to remain at bay.
Saxby huffed. “Oh, you are never heartbroken for long, Lewis. I seem to recall you flirting with a whole succession of females since then.”
“None seriously.” Lewis kept his gaze on Miss Lyons’s face, coyly dipped though it was.
“I wonder you find yourself at Fairbourne Hall so much more often lately,” Saxby persisted, reptilian eyes sliding to Miss Lyons before returning to Lewis.
“It’s Nate here,” Lewis quipped. “Has me on a short tether these days.”
“Has he? I thought it might have more to do with a certain ginger-haired girl in Maidstone.”
Lewis’s grin faded. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Oh, come,Lewie,” Saxby sneered. “You forget Lavinia and I still have friends and family nearby. Local gossip does not fail to reach us.”
Lewis said through clenched teeth, “The gossips have it wrong.”
“Do they indeed?”
Nathaniel wondered if Saxby manufactured such a claim to put a wedge between Lewis and Miss Lyons. It was obvious both men were vying for the woman’s affections.
While the question, the challenge, hung in the air, Lewis flicked a look across the room, as if checking his reflection in the window. Connor, his valet, stood behind his chair, ramrod straight.
Lewis then riveted Saxby with an icy glare. “Indeed.”
“Then I stand corrected.” Saxby met his glare, then relaxed back against his chair. “Or should I say,sitcorrected.” He raised his glass in a mock toast.
Nathaniel glanced at his brother’s valet. Noticed Connor’s jaw tighten. He supposed the young man was privy to most of Lewis’s comings and goings, clandestine or otherwise. He likely knew whether Lewis—or the gossips Saxby quoted—spoke the truth. But Nathaniel knew a good valet was nothing if not discreet. Lewis’s secrets would be safe.
Just as Margaret’s secrets were safe with him.
Formidable in her dark silk dress, the keys to the
household at her belt... it was often the housekeeper’s
duty to show visitors around the house.
—Margaret Willes,Household Management
Chapter 21
Even after the uncomfortable dinner party, Margaret’s mind continued to drift to the mystery of Fiona’s ball gown. While she and Betty scrubbed the dining room floor the next morning, Margaret daydreamed about Fiona’s past, imagining several possible scenarios.
Unable to resist any longer, she slid her pail forward and asked, “Whycan’t I ask Fiona about the dress?”
Betty pulled a face. “Not this again. Just... don’t ask.”
“A gown like that must have cost a great deal of money. Too much for a housemaid to afford. And I can’t imagine her mistress handing down such a gown—it’s too impractical.”
Betty squeezed out her cloth. “Fiona wouldn’t want us talking about this.”
