“If you must.”
“Oh, I must,” her friend snapped. “What if you’d found me in the same situation my brother found you?” Abby continued, undaunted. “Desperate and alone.”
“I was not desperate and alone.”
“Desperate and alone,” Abby reiterated, folding her arms.
“I was in complete control and would have turned things around. I just needed time.”
“I loathe arguing with you. It’s the same with Gabe. You have all the answers and refuse to admit you are in the wrong. It’s extremely vexing, when clearly you are.”
“It’s one of my finer traits.”
“Tell me why your nefarious brother made you leave your home with nothing more than a bag, Dimity.”
“There is little to tell other than he now owns the house and wanted me out of it.”That, plus he is likely not my brother. She kept those thoughts to herself. Abby did not need to know what she’d found in that letter; it would simply complicate things further.
“Very well, but promise you will come to me in the future should anything dire happen, Dimity.”
“I promise.” She didn’t shuffle her feet at the dark look her friend was giving her, but it was a near thing. “I am sorry that I did not ask for help.”
“Yes, well.” Abby huffed out a breath. “See that you are not so pigheaded and foolish again.”
“No, please, don’t hold back.”
“Come and sit, please, ladies. We are to take tea, and Lord Raine is to read for us fromCaptain Broadbent and Lady Nauticus. It is the latest in the series.”
They turned to look at the duchess as she spoke. Life in her household was certainly interesting, Dimity had come to realize.
The woman had a great deal of energy and liked her life run a certain way. She terrorized her staff for no other reason than she seemed to get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. She’d told the duchess that it was mean to do as she did, as the staff had no recourse. The woman had dismissed her words, but Dimity noticed when a maid spilled tea this morning, she just muttered something instead of yelling at her.
“I said come and sit!”
Abby started to move at the duchess’s screech, but Dimity held her arm. “If you do as she asks, then she will not realize it is rude to behave in the manner she does. It’s a little like training Walter.”
“You cannot be serious? The woman has been terrifying people for years,” Abby hissed. “There is no training someone of her age who is set in her ways, surely. And I for one have no wish to try or be caught in the crossfire of someone foolish enough to try.” Abby said the words out the side of her mouth.
“Coward.”
Abby ran to take her seat as far from the duchess as she could, next to Michael Deville, leaving the seat beside Lord Raine free. Dimity moved over to the far side of the room, away from the group, to the chair beside the desk.
“Where are you going?”
“Here.” Dimity sat as the duchess called to her.
“Come back here. You know these people. There is no need for such distance!”
“I should not sit with you during morning calls.”
Dimity could not make out what the duchess then muttered, but soon Lord Raine was on his feet and heading her way. She braced herself.
“If we must endure that woman for your sake, then so must you,” he said, coming to a halt before her, so close that the toes of his polished black boots touched hers. So close that she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. He’d managed to block out the people behind them.
Sitting with this man looming over her was not terribly wise, but she had no choice, as he’d boxed her in.
“I am doing what is right. I thought you’d be pleased—and I did not ask you to visit me with your sister and brother.”
“Ungrateful wretch.” The lines at the sides of his mouth deepened as he looked down at her. “We accompanied our sister, as I did not want her coming alone and being exposed to the duchess’s wrath.”
