“Please do not do anything so foolhardy,” she counseled.
The duke shrugged. “Perhaps you are right. The law is never set up the way one needs it to be! If there were any justice, I might wring his neck with impunity!”
“Now, Papa, I know you have been so set on getting us all out of the house, but I think I cannot wed just now. It is not possible for me, at least not this season.”
“Well, my girl, I’ve put up with you for eighteen years, I suppose nineteen won’t do me in. For now, we will go home and you will have the comfort of that horde of hooligans you call sisters.”
“And Mrs. Right, too,” Felicity said.
“Ah yes, is there anything Mrs. Right cannot fix? I suppose a broken heart will be no different.”
Felicity did not answer. She did not wish to own that she was just now in possession of a broken heart. Though, she was just now in possession of a broken heart.
It really did make her wish to throw something.
*
Percy had keptan eye on the doors, all the while toe-tapping under the table, but the duke had never returned to the dining room.
Lady Felicity had met the duke in the hall and then he’d not come back.
Was the lady ill? Or was it just Wiles who was ill? That fellow kept staring and staring at him with wide eyes like Percy was a specter suddenly spotted on a dark and forested lane.
Finally, Lord Jeffries came to the thrilling conclusion of his tale of an old reprobate in his neighborhood who was forever poaching on his land but could never be caught red-handed. Joe Candle was his name, and Joe Candle still was not caught.
Every gentleman at table refused a second glass of port, as they all knew it would just lead to a second poaching story from Lord Jeffries. Joe Candle would probably be surprised to know how boring he could make a meeting over port.
This was the sort of moment when the Duke of Pelham’s attendance would come in very handy. The duke would not have allowed Jeffries to get two minutes into that story without interrupting him with a joke.
Jeffries rose. “I suppose we’d best go in, then,” he said.
Percy leapt from his chair and it clattered and nearly fell over. Was Lady Felicity in the drawing room or not? Had she been taken ill and gone home? Had she been perfectly well and the duke just decided he preferred the company in the drawing room?
It was not out of the realm of possibilities to think it—if the duke preferred to break with convention and be elsewhere, he would not think twice about it.
It was something to hope for anyway.
As he made his way out, Wiles hurried behind him and said, “Make your way to the back of the drawing room. There is an alcove back there with a bookcase. We will pull out books and pretend to be engrossed.”
Percy stared at his friend. Why had Wiles transformed himself into a spy intent on scheduling clandestine meetings in the back of the drawing room?
He began to get a very troubling feeling. Lady Felicity had dined with Wiles. Had he said something about the ruse? Percy had been sure Magnon would have encountered him this afternoon and informed him of the new lay of the land.
But even if Magnon had not seen Wiles, surely Wiles would not have approached the subject and given the game away? Not even if he did not know there was no longer a game to give away.
Nevertheless, he did as he was bid, searching for Lady Felicity or the duke as he made his way to the back of the room. Both were absent.
She had gone.
He avoided the marchioness’ eye, as he was all but certain she would pull him into a game of whist. He did not care for it very much, but he was rather good and so was sought after more than he would like.
Percy reached the alcove of the drawing room, took a book and opened it. “Here I am, pretending to be engrossed by a book I do not even know the title of. What is wrong with you? What has gone on?” he asked Wiles.
Wiles flipped pages of a book and he did very much look as if he were reading. Reading intently, as a matter of fact.
“Whatever it is,” Percy said, “you will not find your words in there, but only in your mind. Out with it.”
Wiles let out a plaintive sigh. “The unfortunate thing is, Lady Felicity tricked me into believing that you’d told her all about the ruse.”
