“Oh, but he can’t be bored with you here, Miss Temple. Are you going to marry him?”
“Lady Lucille!”
A wash of heat swept through Felicity and she gave an involuntary gasp. The governess twittered with annoyance.
“This is what comes of chattering, my dear young lady. If I have told you once, I have told you fifty times: think before you speak. No, don’t say a word! No excuses, if you please.” Felicity saw Lucille close her lips tightly, but her eyes were bright with speculation and resentment both as Miss Wimbush turned to the guest. “Miss Temple, I beg your pardon on behalf of my charge. You must be thinking I am perfectly ill fitted to be her mentor. She always becomes over-excited when her brother is home. I do hope you will forgive her.”
Felicity forced a smile. “There is nothing to forgive. It was an understandable error.”
A flush overspread Lucille’s face and she burst out, “Oh, no! But I like you so much, Miss Temple! Don’t you like Raoul? I quite thought you did.”
“Lucille, did you not hear me? I said be quiet! If his lordship could hear you!”
Heavens, but she must put a stop to this! Felicity held up a hand towards the twittering governess. “Let her be, if you please, Miss Wimbush.” Summoning her old schoolmistress manner, she turned to Lucille. “You are mistaken, Lucille. Your brother has been helping me with a difficult problem, that is all. There is nothing else to make out of my visit here. It was expedient because I had decisions to make and Ruscoe Hall was conveniently placed.”
“Oh.” Lucille’s disappointment was palpable. “I wish it was so. I am quite dreading Raoul marrying some horrid creature who will think me too pert and be beastly to me.”
“I am quite sure he won’t allow anyone to be beastly to you, Lucille. He regards you with a great deal of affection.”
Lucille’s eyes were suddenly swimming and her voice became choked. “I know. He’s the best brother in the world and I love him dearly.” She gazed hopefully at Felicity. “Couldn’t you bring yourself to marry him? I just want him to be happy, and I know you would make him so. He likes you a lot, I can tell.”
It was too much. Felicity dropped her roll, pushed back her chair and got up. “I cannot! I know it’s foolish of me, but I can’t!”
She left the table precipitately, hardly hearing as both Lucille and Miss Wimbush broke out behind her, and ran out of the parlour. With no idea where she was going, her vision blinded by tears, she raced along the set of rooms opening one into the other.
Stumbling to a halt at last, she found herself in a large apartment lined with bookshelves. Out of breath, she glanced around and stood stock-still in shock.
Raoul was standing behind a desk, his startled gaze on her face.
Embarrassment gripped Raoul, compounded by the jolt that hit him at her unexpected appearance — impassioned and eminently desirable. Blood shot to his loins and his breath caught. Inappropriate and unwanted, for he knew her mind too well. He fought to school his countenance. Before he could command his voice, Felicity’s expression changed, her pale cheeks beginning to show colour.
“Well met, my lord marquis!”
Her tone was clipped and furious. Raoul braced as, in one convulsive movement, she came to face him across the desk, digging a hand into her skirts.
“Here!”
The hand reappeared and she flung a folded sheet upon the desk. It broke apart and Raoul recognised his letter with its accompanying enclosures. Confusion superseded all else.
“What the devil —?”
Felicity grabbed up the bank note and flourished it. “This is my worth, is it, my lord? Dismissed with a matter of ten measly pounds?”
What in heaven’s name was she talking about? Acutely conscious of his steward standing off to one side and evidently unnoticed by Felicity, Raoul signed to him to leave them.
She glanced at the man as he headed for the door, her flush deepening. “I did not realise you were not alone.”
“Evidently.” He waited for the door to close behind Chesterford and then picked up his letter. “Didn’t you read this?”
The glare in her eyes raked him and he all but winced.
“Read it? Of course I read it. To my cost. What is it, my lord? You’ve never been rejected before and so you must needs insult me?”
Good God, she had it all wrong! But his temper was too quick for him and he hit back. “What in Hades do you mean, coming in here and accusing me of insults? How have I insulted you? And I wish you will stop my lording me in that ridiculous fashion!”
She came back like a tigress. “You deserve it! How dared you treat me like an unwanted servant? Throwing money at me!”
“I did not throw money at you,” he retorted, stung. “I only thought you might need a little cash, since you can’t bear to be dependent upon me.”
