Felix put down his fork and knife, the food forgotten. “I would thank you to stop insulting my guest at my table.”
“Your Grace,” Lady Fitzroy said, her tone placating as she switched her attention to him, “I was wondering if we would see you at the first ball this year. I would assume that you have been administering lessons to the American. She would do well with learning to move her feet in a proper manner. I have seen her walking at the modiste and her posture is atrocious.”
“Like your behavior,” Isabelle snapped, the fire finally back in her eyes. She glanced at Edith with a thin smile. “I apologize, Your Grace, but I will not sit here and allow myself to be insulted.”
“If you did not wish to be the center of attention, perhaps you should have arrived at dinner with the rest of the quests,” Miss Fitzroy said, glancing at her mother.
Edith threw her napkin on the table and her chair screeched backwards against the floor. “I just remembered hearing, Lady Fitzroy, that your husband was seen several times with a young blonde woman. Do you have a new maid? If you do, I should like to know from whom you hired her. I am in need of several new maids myself, unless, of course, she is the selfsame mistress your husband is rumored to consort with. I would think that if you were going to address proper behavior, you would look to your own home first.”
Evangeline and Hyacinth giggled at the other end of the table. Stanford was quick to stand and usher them from the room.
Lady Fitzroy stood, her cheeks the same crimson color as her dress. “You insult me.”
“And you insult my charge.” Edith stood tall, gesturing to the door. “I would suggest that you leave at once lest you want that piece of ‘information’ to become public knowledge.”
Isabelle stood and placed her napkin on the table. “Excuse me. I fear that I have caused more trouble here than is warranted.”
She fled from the room and as soon as the doors swung shut behind her, Rose started yipping. Felix rose from the table without a word and followed her into the hall.
The puppy turned and came barreling at him, jumping and trying to lick his hands. He bent to pet it, looking around for Isabelle who seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Felix scooped up the puppy and stood, ignoring the razor-sharp teeth that nibbled at his fingers. He continued down the hall, following the faint scent of her perfume.
It was only when he reached the kitchen that he found her sitting at the table in the middle of the room. Mrs. Peregrine sat across from her with a small smile, her daughter Elizabeth beside her. When the Peregrines had followed them to London they had brought their youngest daughter along. She was close to Isabelle’s age and Felix had thought it good to have a maid close to her own age with whom she could form a kinship.
Isabelle looked up as he entered the kitchen with the dog. “I am sorry for the trouble I have caused.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” He set Rose down on the bench beside her. “Lady Fitzroy has always been a horrible woman with nothing but hate in her heart.”
Mrs. Peregrine nodded. “Even in the country I have had to serve her on several occasions. It is not a satisfying visit for her if she does not make at least one person cry.”
Felix’s chest tightened when he realized there were indeed tears running down Isabelle’s cheeks. “You will not have to interact with her anymore this season. I will not bring her into my home again.”
“You will have to throw a ball of your own sooner or later,” Isabelle said, her voice wavering as Elizabeth handed her a handkerchief.
“And I shall invite the entiretonand their staff, and she shall be left on the outskirts of it all.” Felix sat down beside her, one leg on either side of the bench as he faced her. “I may be a cold man, but even I thought that she went too far.”
Isabelle wiped at her tears and sniffled. “I knew that being in England would be hard and I was going to be treated as if I was less than the others in theton, but I now see that I underestimated how prepared I was.”
Edith swept into the kitchen then, her gaze drifting around the room until it landed on the two of them. “Mrs. Peregrine, Elizabeth, would you like to help me invite the staff to a meal? You have made such delicious food and since our guests are gone, there is far more than we can possibly eat.”
Mrs. Peregrine stood. “Yes, Your Grace.”
Elizabeth and Mrs. Peregrine left the kitchen and Edith followed behind them. Felix sighed and looked around the kitchen before getting up and going to the pots and pans that rested on the wood stove.
He took two plates from the cupboard and loaded them with meat and roasted vegetables before returning to the table. “You must eat.”
She looked at the food in front of her and set the handkerchief down. “I do not think I can stomach anything right now.”
“There is something you must learn about society if you are to succeed here,” he said as he sat down beside her with his own food.
“What is that?”
“If you are to survive it, then you must remember that those women are beneath you.”
Isabelle shook her head. “I disagree. They have been raised to belong here and I have not been able to fit in anywhere. I was too English for the Americans and now it seems like even a drop of American blood makes me too savage for the English.”
“I happen to think you are a breath of fresh air.” He nudged her plate closer to her and picked up a fork, putting it in her hand. “Now eat.”
Felix stayed with her until she had finished her meal. Afterwards they sat together, basking in the warmth of the wood stove, neither of them saying a word.
