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nfusion, her heart truly aching, her self-assurance and trust that all things would turn out well, gone.
~ Nineteen ~
“SCOTT!” FELICIA WAILED after she had finished repeating what she had just witnessed below. “Lady Daphne is here … she knows that you and I have run away. He is my guardian, she is his sister … she knows your father. We are done.”
“But … but … he is not old,” Scott, all at sea, objected.
“Wait,” Becky said, putting up a hand. “I do not understand any of this. What do you mean, you and Scott ran away from your guardian? I knew that business about Mr. Ashton being your uncle was a hum because … well, I knew that. And of course, you and Scott are not brother and sister, but … what is this about a duke and a guardian?”
Hurriedly, Felicia entrusted her new friend with all the facts that had led them to that moment in time. When she was done, she saw that Becky was unable to close her mouth and reached over and did it for her, saying, “There, there, I know it is a great deal to take in, but you must. I don’t have the time to go into it any further. Take it in stride, Becky. Had we not been unfortunate enough to come across a stupid highwayman … had Scott not been shot, we would now be in London at his aunt’s, and all would be well. I have but now six weeks left before I shall attain my majority.”
“Yes, but …” Scott said. “Ashton is a right ’un. He can’t be your odious guardian. He can’t have meant to take you to Swindon to marry you off?”
“Swindon?” Becky asked.
Felicia waved this off. “It doesn’t signify now. You don’t know the whole …” She couldn’t tell them that she and the duke had spent a night in his bed, could she? She tried to convey something though by confessing, “You see, I have kissed Ashton, full on the mouth … passionately.”
“FLIP!” Scott exclaimed, shocked beyond immediate measure.
“Yes, more than once,” Felicia added.
Becky laughed. “I am certain from what I have witnessed that he kissed you back, and I am also certain he wants to go on kissing you.”
“Becky!” again Scott found he could utter no more than a name.
“Really?” Felicia asked as Becky and she exchanged glances and took one another’s hands. “Do you think so? I had dared to hope, but now …”
“Now, matters are a bit more complicated, but only for a little over a month,” Becky said.
“Yes, but he doesn’t know … about me being his ward.”
“Didn’t know,” Scott said reasonably. “Brilliant fellow, bound to put it all together soon.”
“Yes, that is true,” Becky said.
“What is to be done?” Felicia cried.
“Come clean,” Scott answered at once. “Naught else we can do. Not so very bad, after all. I like Ashton, couldn’t have a better guardian, and what’s more, you like him … kissed him.”
“Many times, I’d warrant.” Becky giggled.
Scott’s brows went up, but he shrugged. “Well, then, there you are.”
Felicia’s shoulders drooped. “No, you just don’t see. How could you?” Her voice trailed off. They didn’t know that she had spent a night in her guardian’s bed. Oh, that sounded so very dreadful.
Becky glared at Scott. “It doesn’t matter, because, Felicia, how you feel about one another is a fact that has nothing to do with his guardianship over you.”
“My life is ruined,” Felicia said and then sniffed.
“She says that whenever she can’t get her own way,” Scott said pugnaciously.
Felicia’s look was dagger-dangerous. He saw it but laughed at her, and she snapped, “Oh, that is so not true.”
“It is too,” he countered.
“Oh, stop, you two,” Becky said, laughing. “This is not the time. We must find a way to sort this out.”
“There isn’t any possible way of doing that. He will hate me when he finds out I have led him false, for I never told him who I was … and he has been so kind.”
