“Myhome,” he said, his voice still perfectly calm.
Felicity snorted. “It will be your home when you actually inhabit it. There is not a thing in this house that tells me you have ever so much as set foot inside. It could belong to anyone. This,” she said, swinging her arms wide to include the cluttered rooms, “belongs to someone. It belongs to your aunt. So, she is the one with the right to accept or reject me here. She has rejected me. If you do not wish to lend me conveyance into Gloucester, I will simply walk. I know which way to go now.”
Well, she thought she did.
She turned again to go, trying so hard not to let Miss Fare see the new tears that threatened. Instead Higgins saw them.
“Higgins...” she began.
“It would be my honor,” he said with a formal bow. “If that is what you wish.”
“I amnotfrail,” Felicity heard behind her and almost smiled.
“Higgins,” Flint said, “if you let her walk out of this house, you go right after her.”
“Yes, my lord.” Higgins dropped a precise bow to the room and turned to follow Felicity.
She heard Flint sigh.
“Please,” he said, sounding wry. “Stay a bit longer, Miss Chambers.”
Felicity halted in the hallway. “Please?” she echoed, careful not to let anyone see her relief.
“Hadn't I said that?”
She shook her head. Higgins shook his head. Miss Fare shook her head.
“No,” they all said in unison.
Felicity finally turned to see the rueful grin on Flint’s face.
“My sincere apologies, Miss Chambers,” he said with a bow that rivaled Higgins’s. “I must have gotten ahead of myself. Will you stay while we sort this out?”
“As long as tossing your aunt out into the snow is not part of that sorting.”
He was now fighting a grin. “Difficult to do in September.”
There was another resoundingthunkof the cane hitting the floor. “Hisfrailaunt is right over here.”
No one moved for what seemed like an eternity.
“What room have you given her?” Miss St. Clair demanded.
“She will be given the Chinese bedroom,” Flint said.
The old woman nodded. “About time. That old besom you have in charge exiled her up in the maid's wing.”
“Yes, we'll be discussing that as soon as I finish here.”
“You going to dismiss her?”
“Mrs. Windom? Should I?”
Felicity got another quick look from the old woman. “No. Let this one do it when she's in charge.”
Finally, Felicity made a move. “Oh, no...”
“Oh, yes,” the old woman retorted. “If you mean to be in this family, you need to learn how to deal with the servants.”
