He didn't look particularly upset. “Do you always hide under beds?”
She couldn't quite meet his gaze. She kept brushing as if the dust hadn't all been quite vanquished. “Only when I am caught in the wrong place.”
“And you were in the wrong place because?”
But she had lost her train of thought again. Turning around, she crouched back down. When she had been brushing dust off her bodice, she’d realized she was missing something. The locket little Mary Lassiter had bestowed on her upon leaving her post as Mary’s governess. It was nothing much, something Mary said she'd picked up at a county fair for Felicity's birthday, probably pinchbeck. But it was Felicity’s only piece of jewelry.
His voice rumbled over her head. “I beg your . . .”
But she didn’t answer. On her hands and knees, she pushed her head back under the bed.
There it was, caught on the bed leg. She must have snagged it when she'd been pulled out. Gently disconnecting the chain from the bed frame, she edged back out and knelt on the floor, the chain draped over her fingers, the oval metal gleaming dully in the light.
She fought an odd tightness in her throat. The catch was broken. Well, of course it was. Her only piece of jewelry, her only memory of a little girl who had come looking for her every morning to share some new discovery when no one else would talk to her, and it was broken. And she lacked the funds to fix it. Why should she expect anything else?
“What is that?” his lordship asked, his hand out again.
Felicity instinctively clenched her own hand around the locket. “Nothing.” Pocketing the necklace, she took his hand and let him help her back to her feet. “A locket I wear. I must have caught it.” She brushed her dress out again. “You were speaking of something.”
There was a short pause, as if he wasn't ready to accept her answer. In the end, though, he moved on. “I was asking why you were someplace you weren't supposed to be.”
That got her eyes up. “Because I was forced out of my place of employment—”
“Forced? No one forced you. It was a request.”
She scowled up at him. “A duke’s son may see it as a request. The headmistress of a girls’ academy that relies on the good will of the aristocracy takes it as a royal command. I hadn't even time to pack a trunk before I was hustled into that great traveling barge you call a coach and driven twelve hours to this place, where I have been locked up for four days without explanation or company.”
He frowned. “Don't be absurd. You weren't locked up. You were free to go at any time.”
She tilted her head, becoming quite impatient with the direction of the conversation. Her ankle hurt from where she'd had to bend it to fit under the bed, her necklace was broken, and she was hungry. And this absurd man was standing here telling clankers. “And how was I supposed to do that? I'm not even certain where we are.”
“Outside Gloucester, of course.”
Of course. She waited in silence. He seemed to be assessing her, his features creased, as if she were as big a puzzle to him as he was to her.
“Well?” she finally demanded, hands on hips. “Why am I here?”
Now he really did look confused. “Did no one tell you?”
“No! I have spent four days wandering this drafty pile with no company but the head groom and the kitchen cat, both of which are singularly uncommunicative. So, if you do not mind, please tell me why a penniless teacher would receive a summons from the Duke of Lynden, or for the love of all that is holy, send me home. I have classes to teach. If I am not there to do it, they will be given to someone else, and I cannot afford to let that happen.”
He was smiling again, as if he knew the biggest joke in the world. Felicity was on the verge of screaming.
“YouareMiss Felicity Chambers?” he asked.
“Yes, of course. Since you have not bothered to introduce yourself, may I assume you are Lord Flint Bracken?”
His expression froze a bit. “Rather forward for a teacher, aren't you?”
“Rather out of patience and desirous of my luncheon, my lord.”
And much preferring to be carrying on this conversation anywhere but right next to this gentleman's bed. But she couldn't tell him that. Thatwouldbe too forward.
“A luncheon you will enjoy in your room,” he said.
It was Felicity's turn to look skeptical. “Because?”
She had to admit that there was some enjoyment to seeing such a self-possessed man actually blush. “Because I had not been told you were already here, so I brought company.”
