Percy could barely look in her direction. What did it mean?
He knew very well that she had begun by despising him and being bowled over by Rustmont. If her feelings regarding himhad changed… well, he did not see how they could have got worse. If one is at the bottom of the barrel, one cannot go any deeper. The only way was up.
He must presume she had taken on a better opinion of him than she’d begun with. Of course, it made sense—a lady who had been through the shock of a tiger on the loose was bound to rethink some of her opinions.
Percy was not certain how he felt about this warming of temperatures. He ought to be wholly against it—it had been very convenient that Lady Felicity despised him.
He could not say he waswhollyagainst it, though. This evening had been rather pleasant, after all.
“I know my opinion has changed,” Lady Winsome said. “It had been very low, if I’m to be honest, Mr. Stratton.”
“I, myself,” Lady Verity said, “always perceived Mr. Stratton’s worth.”
“Liar,” Lady Winsome said.
“Do you say, then, Winsome, that Mr. Stratton has no worth?” Verity asked.
“That is not what I say and you know it.”
“Do I?”
“Well!” Lady Felicity said, “I am afraid we have tired Mr. Stratton with our game.”
Lady Felicity looked warningly at all her sisters and they seemed to have received the message.
“Only to be expected, Stratton,” the duke said. “I live in a constant state of exhaustion, dealing with these people.”
“Papa!” Lady Grace said laughing.
Percy rose, as he thought he ought to take his leave before any more probing questions were thrown his way.
The goodbyes and farewells were all prettily done. Except perhaps from the duke, who called after him as he mounted hishorse. “If you see my sister on your way home, drop her off at the nearest nunnery!”
Percy laughed all the way home.
*
After Mr. Strattonhad left the house, Felicity and her sisters made a great show of being tired and left their father in the drawing room with his bottle of port.
All of them perceived that an immediate sisterly conference must be had to discuss impressions of the evening.
Felicity was most interested in hearing her sisters’ opinions, as hers were quite a jumble. It had occurred to her that the Mr. Stratton she had met this evening was a Mr. Stratton she would have been most interested in if she were encountering him for the first time.
She was only not certain of the cause. If her feelings were to change so much on account of being saved from a tiger, it would be well to know it. Those feelings arose from shock and would not last.
Winsome pulled the bell for tea and biscuits and Mrs. Right, fully expecting it, was up in a trice.
The sisters ranged round Felicity’s enormous bed while Mrs. Right took the chair by the fireplace and poured out cups of tea.
“Felicity,” Grace said, “Mr. Stratton is so different from what you described. What I mean to say is, you described his looks very well—they are really very good, and nobody could beat that knot. I noted Papa glancing at it several times.”
“But his temperament, Felicity,” Patience said. “That is what seems different from what you described.”
“Itisdifferent,” Felicity said. “He seems changed, somehow.”
“What won me over,” Serenity said, “was how kind he was to Valor—calling herLadyValor and discussing the weather with her. It was very well done, I almost cried I was so moved.”
“Aye,” Mrs. Right said, “the little mite told me all about it, she was very gratified.”
