Aware that her sisters-in-law were smiling a trifle smugly as she left them behind, Fiona stomped off to the water’s edge, where Laurie and Preston were still throwing bread to the waterfowl.
Surely, their conversation would be far easier to bear.
Chapter 11
So much happened last night at Vin’s welcome ball.Rumor has it that Vin caught Harry kissing Moira in the hall and nearly beat the stuffing out of him before Vin was caught scandalously kissing her as well by that horrid, gossiping toad, Reginald Wallis!
I cannot even countenance the former, as my brother would have undoubtedly caused Harry some visible damage, but the real news is that because of the latter, Vin and Moira have become engaged!
I will have my chance with Harry at last!
~From the diary of Lady Fiona MacKintosh—Feb 1893
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The Glenrothes Townhouse
117 Eaton Square
Belgravia, London, England
Three nights later
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Two years.
The last words she said to Aylesbury then had been hurled at him in anger, and then the bitterness she harbored toward him had lain dormant until she had seen him again.One would think that such a length of time would diminish it, but her blood boiled each time she saw him, and now yet again, it began to simmer at the mere sight of him standing at the drawing room door with Hobbes at his side as the butler announced him.
“My lady, the Marquis of Aylesbury.”
As overwhelming as his appearance was, Fiona didn’t want the anger that fired her blood.Didn’t want the past to encroach on her future.She resented its intrusion into her life almost as much as she resented his.In fact, she’d decided that the best course of action would be to avoid his company altogether while they were in London.To focus her attention on performing her role in her brother’s little production as planned and moving forward with her own sub-plot to his scheme.
And it would have played out just fine if Aylesbury had properly taken his cues from her and stayed well enough away.
“What on earth is he doing here?”The question was asked of no one in particular, but Eve provided the answer anyway as Moira played hostess and went to greet the interloper.
