It was clear that the old woman needed companionship, but there was something else there. A knowing glint in her eyes, perhaps? A half-suppressed smile? Amelia kept catching clues, then losing them again, unsure as to whether she was imagining it all.
Somebody cleared their throat in the doorway, and Amelia and Letitia glanced up. Stephen, of course, did not look up from the newspaper.
It was the maid from last night, Jane, the one Letitia had all but bullied into releasing Amelia. She came drifting forward, and Amelia got a proper look at her for the first time.
Jane wasremarkablypretty, with delicate features and an open, friendly face. A single red-brown ringlet peeked out from under her cap, and beneath her unflattering maid’s dress and apron, it was pretty clear that she had a willowy, petite figure. Amelia thought of her own ungainly form and bit the inside of her cheek.
“Beg your pardon, Your Graces,” Jane breathed, her gaze going directly to Stephen. Perhaps it was Amelia’s imagination, but the maid seemed to smile a little more sweetly when she glanced at him, batting her eyelashes as if hoping he’d look up at her. “The Misses Holt have arrived.”
“Oh?” Stephen remarked, eyes still on his paper. “You’d better let them in, then. I hope you haven’t kept them waiting at the doorstep.”
“Well, yes, but there’s a bit of a problem, Your Grace.”
At long last, Stephen glanced up. Jane seemed to perk up when his gaze landed on her, but she needn’t have bothered. Stephen’s expression didn’t even falter.
“What problem?” he asked, and she seemed to deflate a little. “A large or small one?”
She winced. “It isn’t asmallproblem.”
At that moment, a deep bark echoed through the hall, making everybody flinch.
“A dog?” Letitia cried.
Amelia scrambled to her feet, knowing exactly what was coming next. A footman let out an anguished yelp. There was a crash, followed by an incoherent shout. Then a dog the size of a small horse came skedaddling into the breakfast room, its claws sliding across the hard floor.
He would likely have slid forward, momentum piling up behind him, and crashed into the breakfast table if Amelia had not intercepted him. They went down to the ground in a tangle of limbs and paws.
Footsteps followed, and Amelia scrambled to her feet.
“Oh, Tiny, you are a wretch,” she mumbled, seizing the dog’s floppy red-brown ears.
He stared adoringly back at her, his tongue, which seemed the size of her forearm, stretching desperately in his determination to lick her face.
“Tiny?” Stephen echoed flatly. “This dog’s name isTiny?”
“Well, hewastiny when we first brought him home,” Amelia responded defensively, clambering to her feet.
Tiny pranced around her, shaking his head and letting out an occasionalwoofof joy.
He was not a long-haired dog, and in fact, his fur was so short that they had a little jacket for him to wear in the coldest months. His bony tail was whip-thin andfeltlike a whip across one’s limbs. His jowls hung low, his ears long and silken, and his eyes were the largest and brownest Amelia had ever seen on a dog.
“When he was a puppy, you mean?” Stephen muttered, hands on his hips.
He watched with heavy disapproval as Tiny cantered around the table, rushing first to greet Letitia, who patted him delightedly on his head. Then he continued his circuit, pausing only to snatch a piece of bread from Stephen’s plate, devouring it at once with a great smacking of lips.
“I’m sorry, he’s not used to visiting other houses,” Amelia managed a little lamely. “He is a little clumsy.”
That was an understatement.
Amelia scanned the room, biting her lip and hoping that the house did not contain anythingtoobreakable.
“Hold on, young ‘uns!” a male voice cried from the hallway outside. “You can’t just go rushing in, you have to…”
There was athump, a groan, and a scuttle of footsteps. Then Nancy barged into the room, wide-eyed, her tiny fists clenched for a fight. Her gaze fell on her sister, and relief swept over her features.
“Amelia!” she cried, flinging herself into her sister’s arms.
Amelia snatched her up, holding her tight. A knot that she had not even known was in her chest loosened.
