Percy could feel the blood draining from his face, as if it did not wish to be in the vicinity of what his ears had just heard. “How, pray, did the lady trick you?” he asked.
“She pretended. She pretended she knew all about it. I guess it started with her asking me how long we’d known each other, and then I mentioned our old set at Eton, but now it was only me, you, and Magnon.”
Wiles paused and laughed a little, though Percy failed to see the amusement in anything that had been said so far.
“She thought the others died, you see,” Wiles said. “So then I told her no, they did not die, they just got married… and that somehow leapt to chains and how you would not be chained down. Hard to say how it happened, really.”
Percy had a great urge to hit Wiles over the head with the book in his hand.
“Now,” Wiles continued, “when you reflect on it, I think you’ll see that my slip was actually a good thing. I’ve saved you some trouble, my friend.”
“You’ve saved me trouble? How have you worked that out?” Percy asked, incredulous.
“Because it seemed to me that Lady Felicity was not as pretending about you as she had been in the beginning. I think she’d started to get ideas, you see?”
“Yes, I do see,” Percy said tightly. “And here’s the problem—I’ve started to get ideas too.”
“Ideas? You? But you said you would not be chained… Many times and very firmly, actually.”
“I know what I said many times and very firmly,” Percy said. “I merely changed my mind. Firmly.”
Wiles tapped his chin. “I did not know, you should have told me. Well, how about you tell her I was lying? I made the whole thing up because I was jealous. Or I made the whole thing upbecause I am unreliable and a terrible fibber. Just say I made it up. Yes, that would do very well, I think.”
“It would not do very well at all because Lady Felicity is not an idiot. My god, what will she tell her father?”
Wiles did pale at that idea. “Oh no, what will hedoabout it is the better question? You might want to take yourself off somewhere. Rustmont went to Dorset to look in on an old aunt—you could go there too and see how she gets on.”
Percy ignored that rather ridiculous suggestion. He was going nowhere. He had to fix this unfortunate turn of events.
He had no idea how, just this moment, but he would fix it. Lady Felicity would attend the Jameson’s rout on the morrow, he would fix it then. If only he could send flowers in the meantime, but he could not. She was put out enough without being thrown into a sneezing fit.
Percy had begun to wonder if there were types of flowers that did not make one sneeze. Roses were out, but perhaps there were other choices? He would have to look into it.
“Mr. Stratton,” the marchioness called, “I insist you put that book down and pair at whist with Miss Feldstone.”
Percy slapped a smile on his face and nodded. Though, it was the very last thing he’d like to do.
Chapter Eighteen
Felicity had beengrateful that her sisters had gone to bed early. Most of them, anyway. Grace and Patience had still been awake and reading in the drawing room, but she’d claimed she came home because of a headache and could not bear to speak. They sensibly let her be, though it would have tortured Patience to do so.
Mrs. Right had not looked particularly fooled, especially not with the glance her father had given the housekeeper, but that good lady always knew when one of them wished to talk or preferred to be left alone.
She awoke to an early dawn that promised a sunny day, which seemed a rebuke to her mood. Felicity had not slept much, her stinging feelings, which only served to fuel her temper, did not like rest and repose. They only wished to rage and shake the windows.
It did not help that she considered herself a first-rate idiot for falling for Mr. Stratton’s charms. Really, when she thought about it, he was charming to everybody. He’d even been charming to Valor.
It was the tiger that had pushed her over the edge of commonsense. He’d saved her from a tiger. She supposed she might have been anybody at all and Mr. Stratton would have done just the same.
Felicity gripped the bed sheets in a fist. She had been taken down a notch. She had been shown she was not all that alluring. Perhaps all along, Mr. Stratton had his eyes on Lady Mary—that lady of the frothy blond curls who was supposed to be the season’s diamond of the first water.
It was infuriating.
There was a quiet tap on the door, though it was still very early. Mrs. Right came in with a cup of tea in hand. “Extra milk, just as you like it,” the lady said. “I thought I might pop my head in before your sisters are up.”
“You can tell something has happened before even being told it,” Felicity said.
“It was as clear as day thatsomethinghappened, though not at all clear what it was.”
