The younger one on the left wrinkled his freckled nose. “Lady Joy said we was to keep you out of the kitchens, my lady.” He gave her an apologetic bow. “Begging your pardon, but she was most firm about that.”
“Was she now?” Felicity glared at them, but they didn’t step aside. They stood there, uncomfortably fidgeting in place. “Well, fine.” She couldn’t retire to her room without feigning illness, and her sisters would know that was a lie. Grace had witnessed her tidy little scene with Drake, and Felicity felt sure that information was currently traveling at an alarming speed to each of her sisters. There had to be somewhere she could take refuge to think through this irritating development. For the life of her, she couldn’t understand what had come over Drake. She understood how he might be a little jealous, and she found that quite flattering. But his surliness? She huffed. That was most unwelcome.
“Joy’s private conservatory. Surely, I could take refuge there.” She hurried down the hallway to the left of the stairs, thankful her sister had taken up an interest in painting while temporarily confined to a bath chair after the trauma of Lion’s birth.
As soon as she entered and closed the door behind her, she understood completely how this sanctuary had assisted in Joy’s healing. Even though it had a gabled glass roof and two walls of nothing but windows, the place possessed a privacy to it because of its location on the far side of the house, away from the gardens and festivities.
“This is exactly what I needed.” Felicity headed to the corner farthest from the door and windows and flounced down onto the settee covered in an abundance of pillows upholstered in vibrant floral prints. She hugged one of them like a child clutching her teddy. Calm enough that she no longer felt like crying, she tried her best to see things from Drake’s perspective. Granted, she had expected him to be rather upset and maybe alittlejealous, but he had all but stood there and accused her of lying about being a wallflower.
She huffed and squeezed the pillow harder. “I mean, really.” He had made it quite clear that at that moment in time, there would be no reasoning with him. “Now, how am I supposed to sort things through with him?”
*
Lady Joy stormedtoward him, flanked by Lady Serendipity and the Abarough sister who had appeared engaged in quite a robust conversation with that damnable Lord Tinslow.
Drake braced himself. This could not possibly bode well. The women were probably coming to cast him out and order him never to allow his shadow to cross anything remotely related to a member of the Broadmere empire ever again. He nervously raked a hand through his hair, wishing he had not allowed his bloody temper and jealousy to overcome him. He should not have spoken to his precious Felicity the way that he had.
“Are you that great of a fool?” Joy demanded as she and her sisters surrounded him. “What the devil did you say to my sister?”
He bowed his head, unable to look any of them in the eyes. “In answer to your first question: yes, I am that great of a fool.” A heavy sigh escaped him, and he kept his gaze locked on the tips of his boots that were in dire need of polishing. “I made it clear that I did not believe her to be a wallflower as she had claimed, and that Lord Tinslow would propose to her if she bloody well allowed it.” Rage pounded through him all over again at the image ofhisFelicity walking arm in arm with a viscount who was known to possess the wit of a sack of rocks.
“You called our sister a liar?” Serendipity stepped forward, looking ready to strike him. “How dare you!”
“Let me set my dogs on him,” said the sister he had never met. “I brought only three, but I am sure they are up to the task.”
“I should beat you with my cane.” Joy squeezed her bejeweled weapon of choice, then stamped the ground with it. “You and I have only just met, but know this—my sister does not lie.”
“Why do you think you met her in Lady Atterley’s kitchen?” Serendipity asked. “She hides away after growing tired of watching everyone else’s joy at every ball and party. You know better. You know Felli never lies.”
He nodded. “I know.” He shrugged and forced himself to meet their anger like a man. “I was enraged when I saw her on Tinslow’s arm. My jealousy took control, shoving what little sense I ever possessed out of my head.” He risked glancing across the grounds at the viscount in question. “He is a better match for her than I ever could be. After the past fortnight of being rebuffed, I felt sure I had lost her, and she was sending me on my way.”
“She was coming to sort things out with you, you thick-skulled fool.” The unknown sister nudged Serendipity. “Let me set the dogs on him. Please.”
“Grace, no.” Serendipity barely shook her head, studying him as though he were a bug she was about to crush. “What are your intentionsnow, Lord Wakefield?”
“Leave and never trouble her with my presence ever again.”
Grace snorted, and Joy rolled her eyes.
“The two of you have had the most difficult times, and yet it is all of your own doing,” Serendipity said. “Neither of you has learned to trust and speak openly with the other. Your squabbles always stem from misunderstandings, gossip, and things that should have been shared, yet were left unsaid. Have you learned nothing?”
Felicity’s sisters had no idea about his greatest lie of all, the lie that was about to end him. “You are quite correct, Lady Serendipity.”
“Then how do you expect to be married and not only coexist but ever find any semblance of happiness?” Joy slowly shook her head. “Felicity is smitten with you, but at this rate, you will lose her forever.”
More defeated than he had ever felt before, he hung his head. “As I said, I shall take my leave and trouble her no more.” Felicity would be better off without him, especially with the latest development in the Rum and Catherty debacle.
Grace threw up her hands. “So, you are simply giving up, then? Just like that? You do not intend to make things right? Fight for her?” She jabbed a finger at him, pointing. “You do not deserve our sister.”
Joy turned and nodded at the house behind them. “Go in there and find her. Talk to her.Listenwith your heart, you fool. Not your head.” Then she lifted her cane and shook it at him. “If you hurt our Felicity any more than you already have, you will not only have us to deal with, but the other three as well. Am I clear, Lord Wakefield?”
“Yes, Lady Joy. Quite clear.” Yet he stood there, uncertain where to begin in his search for Felicity and a bit uneasy about being told to search the hostess’s home.
With an almost feral growl, Joy took his arm and tugged him to fall in step alongside her. “Come. I will help you search.”
“We are coming too,” Serendipity said.
“I shall catch up with you after I fetch the dogs,” Grace grumbled. “They might yet be needed.”
