Toby poured coffee while Buxton brought out the cake, covered with creamy white icing.
“Shall we wait for Jude?” Jasper suggested.
“Heavens, no,” Katherine said. “Not when there’s cake involved.” She signaled for the cake to be cut and served.
As the minutes passed, Anne began to grow uneasy. “Perhaps I had better excuse myself as well. The meal was delicious, but—”
“Nonsense. You haven’t eaten your dessert yet,” Katherine said. “Or drunk your coffee.”
What was he doing up there? Anne wondered yet again. Was he in his own room, or Lady Celia’s, or even Rosa’s?
When the footman set a slice of layered cake before her, she took a small bite. It tasted like sawdust in her mouth.
“Good, isn’t it?” Jasper asked.
Anne forced a smile around the cake in her mouth and reached for her water glass.
“After dinner,” Katherine said, “I thought the four of us might play a few rubbers of whist.”
Anne forced down one more bite over a throat that seemed increasingly tight, then rose with a squeal of chair legs. “Pray forgive me, but I cannot stay away too long.”
“Miss Loveday, do sit down and finish your cake,” Katherine said, voice high.
“I could not eat another bite. Thank you for including me, and felicitations on your birthday.”
“Wait! We are not finished!”
But Anne turned, more concerned about what might be happening upstairs than about being thought rude.
From behind her, she heard Katherine hiss, “Jasper, go after her.”
“Why? Let her go.”
Anne hurried up the stairs. Reaching Lady Celia’s room, she saw the goose feather on the floor again and didn’t pause to pick it up. She pushed her way inside, fearing what she might find. She stopped and quickly scanned the room. Lady Celia lay in bed, undisturbed, chest rising and falling in shallow,slow, but regular breaths. Anne looked around the room. All was quiet. Then a sound from the adjacent dressing room caught her attention.
“Don’t.”
“You’re the one who came to my house.”
“It’s not your house. I came here to work for Lady Celia.”
“Right. Are you sure that’s all you came for?”
“If I did harbor any lingering romantic notions about you, you have certainly succeeded in destroying them! Now unhand me.”
Sounds of a scuffle. An almost maternal protectiveness surged in Anne. At the realization, she thought of Nancy and her efforts to steer and help her.
Anne rapped hard on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply. She walked in and found Mr. Dalby clasping Rosa about the waist and pulling her against him. At her entrance, he stepped away.
“Rosa, I’m back.” She turned cold eyes on Rosa’s would-be seducer. “Here you are, Mr. Dalby. We all wondered what was taking you so long. What a shock to find you in your aunt’s dressing room harassing her lady’s maid. Your cousins are still waiting for you downstairs. May I suggest you go and join them?”
His eyes narrowed. “I’d preferyouto leave.”
“I won’t. But I will wake your aunt if I have to and tell her you are attempting to take advantage of her maid.”
“Good luck rousing her.”
She looked at him sharply. What did he mean by that?
