Fipps returned to the door and opened it. “Good day, my lord.”
“No, it is not, Fipps, and no one will tell me why.” Drake stormed out of the place, racking his brain for what could have possibly gone wrong. Felicity knew everything about him.
Well, almost everything.
He came up short, halting in the middle of the road. Had she somehow discovered the truth about Uncle George? He slowly shook his head. No. There was no way. And even if she had, would she not have asked him? They’d endured several long discussions about his state of affairs, and she had admired him for attempting to restore honor to the Wakefield name.
But if not the truth about his uncle, then what? That was the only secret left between them. What had caused everything to suddenly turn sour?
Chapter Nine
Determined to seeFelicity if he had to sit on her doorstep each day from dawn to dusk, Drake banged the brass door knocker that he had come to hate. He likened it to a death knell on the precious moments he had shared with his beloved Felicity. Beloved? Yes, most definitely. He loved her and needed whatever had come between them to be resolved.
The door opened. Thankfully, it was Fipps. “Good day, my lord. Do come in.”
“Thank you, Fipps. Is my lady receiving today?” Drake was in no mood to dance around with niceties. He needed to see Felicity. Speak with her. Find out what had gone so terribly wrong.
Expressionless as always, Fipps paused and eyed him for a long moment before proffering a polite nod. “A moment, my lord. I shall confirm whether or not Lady Felicity is receiving.”
Drake resettled his footing, struggling to maintain a calm demeanor even though he didn’t feel calm at all. He wanted to bellow Felicity’s name until his lady love answered.
Fipps reappeared, ambling down the hallway and giving nothing away with his stoic mien.Damn his eyes.The butler could at least give a glimmer of hope. He halted and bowed. “Lady Felicity will see you in the garden, my lord. If you would be good enough to follow me.”
Drake would follow the man straight into the jaws of hell if it led him to Felicity. “Lead on, Fipps.”
Felicity was seated at the garden table where she had locked his jaws with her infamous bitter biscuits. She stared off into the distance, not even bothering to look his way as he approached. He glanced all around, searching for either Lady Merry or Lady Serendipity, but didn’t see them. Surely, they had to be nearby. Never would they allow Felicity the impropriety of being alone with him.
“Felicity?” He waited for her to acknowledge his presence before he dared to take a seat.
Ever so slowly, she tore her gaze away from the garden and leveled it on him. The hurt and hunger for retribution in her expression shocked him.
“Have a seat, my lord,” she said with a coldness that sent a shiver through him. When he started to sit in the chair beside her, she stopped him. “No. Over there, if you please.” She nodded at the seat across the table.
“Felicity, please…” He settled into the chair she had indicated. “What is wrong? What have I done?”
Unsmiling and slightly pale, she barely narrowed her eyes, glaring at him with such intensity that it burned. “The scrapings you found at the bottom of the barrel deserve better, my lord. You might not think so. But I do.” Her delicate fist trembled as she thumped the table. “I deserve better.”
He slowly shook his head, utterly confused. “I fear you have me at a loss, my lady. I do not understand.”
“Did you have a list that you went through? Did you check off each name when it failed?”
“A list? What names? Felicity—” He reached across the table for her hand, but she yanked it away before he could take it. “Pray tell me what I have done that has angered you so?”
“I am not angry,” she said, her tone eerily calm. “I am enraged. Humiliated. Hurt. Heartbroken.” She jutted her chin higher. “Job well done, my lord. You obliterated my soul in flames, but like the phoenix,I have risen from the ashes. Thanks to my sisters.”
“What did I do, my darling? Please tell me so I might set things right between us.”
“You do not have permission to address me so intimately. Either observe common decency or leave.”
Heart sinking like a lead stone, Drake swallowed hard. A grievous wrong had been done here, but he had no idea what or how. “Forgive me, Lady Felicity. But again, I must ask what I did to fall from your impeccable graces.”
“Lady Nedia Stranserton,” she said, spitting the name as though it was poison.
Drake frowned, trying to match the woman with the name. “I seem to recall meeting a Lady Nedia Stranserton, but I am not certain. The name is familiar, but the face…” He shook his head. “I cannot bring her to memory.”
“So, you proposed to so many well-dowried ladies of theton, you can hardly keep track. Is that what you are telling me?”
“Proposed?” This was madness. He hadn’t proposed to anyone. He had discreetly sniffed out information about dowries, but that was the extent of his efforts on the Marriage Mart.
