no longer grateful.
"My son says there is a larger suite of rooms on this level," Lady Vickers was saying.
Lincoln's gaze slid to Seth's. Seth swallowed heavily.
"May I have them?" she went on.
"No," Lincoln said.
"But he tells me that your fiancée no longer lives here, and so I assumed—"
"You assumed incorrectly. The suite is unavailable."
Behind her, a strange smile crept across Seth's face. "The yellow room will have to do, Mother. I'm sure it's comparable in size to the one your footman secured for you in New York."
She stiffened at her son's barb. It would seem that Seth wanted to punish his mother for running off to America with the family's second footman, leaving Seth with debts to settle. Lincoln couldn't blame him for that.
"Seth tells me there are no maids here," Lady Vickers said.
"That is correct," Lincoln said.
Her smooth forehead dipped into a frown. "But who will see to my personal needs?"
"Who saw to them in America?"
"Oh, the Americans are different." She waved her hand. "They don't like to keep maids."
Lincoln had been to America. New York's upper classes kept as many servants as the English gentry. It was more likely that Lady Vickers and her footman lover couldn't afford one on his wages. Lincoln wondered if the footman was indeed dead, or if she had left him to return to a country where she assumed people still recognized her and respected the Vickers title. If so, she was in for a shock. Seth may have paid off all his father's debts, but the name was as firmly stuck in the mire, as it had been when she left. She needed to take the blame for that as much as her late husband, in Lincoln's opinion.
"I have no objection to you appointing your own maid," he told her. "As long as she stays out of my way and that of my men. Seth will see to the expense." He gave Seth what he hoped was a knowing nod.
Seth must have understood that Lincoln would give him an allowance to cover the wages of a maid, because his lips parted and nothing came out. For once, the man took several moments to respond. "Er, yes, sir. I'll see to it. Thank you, sir…for reminding me that I will see to it, that is." He cleared his throat and smiled at his mother, only to have it wither when she frowned at him.
She turned back to Lincoln. "You call my son by his first name?"
While Lady Vickers knew that Seth lived in Lincoln's house, she probably didn't know that he was effectively a servant. How would Charlie respond to such a question?
"That's what friends do," he said lamely. No, Charlie wouldn't have said that.
"A friend of a peer calls the peer by his title, in this case, Vickers. The peer would then respond with the fellow's first or last name, not 'sir.'" If her lip curled up any more it would disappear into her nostril.
Since he could think of nothing to say, Lincoln simply nodded at Seth, in the hope he would understand that Lincoln wanted the woman gone from his rooms. "Seth, if you're finished, I wish to speak with you."
"Yes, sir."
Lincoln suspected he'd added the "sir" to rile his mother. The man's lack of pomposity was another reason Lincoln liked him.
Lady Vickers bristled. Her back went rigid in the same way that Julia's did when she felt slighted. "What time is the dinner gong?"
"We only use the gong when we have guests," Lincoln said. "Dinner can be at whatever hour you like. Simply inform Cook. Or inform Doyle, who will inform Cook."
"But what time do you prefer, Mr. Fitzroy? I don't want to upset your routine."
"You won't. I eat in here at odd hours. You are free to do the same in your own rooms."
"Oh." She touched her ring finger again. "I had hoped to eat in the dining room."
"Then eat there. I don't mind."
"Alone?"
"Ask Seth to join you." He didn't emphasize the name, yet Lady Vickers's spine straightened even more. Behind her, Seth smirked again. Lincoln almost nodded at him, as if they'd shared a private joke. "I have work to do, and I need your son, madam. Seth, fetch Gus."
Seth left. After a moment, his mother left too, muttering under her breath about England having gone to the dogs since her departure. Lincoln ate lunch while he waited and tried to think of his next course of action. It wasn't easy reining in his thoughts, and he finally