“Felicia just arrived,” he told her, stating the obvious.
“It is lovely to see you again, darling,” Sylvia said with a smile. “Walter, why didn’t you tell me she was coming? We need to have one of the guest rooms aired for her. You are staying here, aren’t you, dear?”
“Of course, Auntie,” Felicia replied, as she hugged the older woman.
“I didn’t know she was coming, or I would have told you,” he added.
“Well, come with me to the drawing room. I have a pot of tea there, and I would love to hear your news over a cup, while Walter finishes with his ledgers. You can start with telling me what brings you here.”
Felicia’s smile turned tentative as she replied, “On that note, I would love to share my news with you, Aunt, but first I must … I have to discuss something of great importance with Walter.”
The glance his cousin gave him suggested she did not know how much he wanted her to say with his mother present. Then, he recalled, the last she knew, he had not told his mother his reasons for having gone to France in the first place.
After a pause, Sylvia nodded. “Very well, I will leave you two to talk while I have some refreshments prepared.”
“Actually, Aunt Sylvia … you may want to wait a while to do that…” Felicia told her, looking furtively at Walter, who felt as though he was bursting at the seams to get her alone and question her.
“Oh, very well. Just let me know when you have the time to talk to an old woman like me,” she replied with an exasperation that was both playful yet genuine.
“We will, Mother, I promise,” he said, and, after a quick kiss on her forehead in thanks for her understanding, he hurried Felicia away to where he could talk to her in private.
He closed the door behind them, instantly turning to her and asking, “So?”
“Ambrose Rowley,” was the one name she gave in reply, her mouth forming a thin line.
“You are certain it was him that started it?” Walter asked, trying to refrain from feeling too angry. He could not let himself jump to any hasty conclusions. Not again.
She looked annoyed he should even question her certainty. “Of course, I am certain. There cannot be any doubt since he is the one who told me.”
“What?” he exclaimed, completely caught off-guard by this. That Rowley had started the rumor, he had predicted, but that he could be the sole perpetrator of it, or that he had directly told Felicia himself, Walter would never have guessed.
Felicia obviously knew what his mind was going through, as she nodded in agreement. “I know! The audacity of it! If you had…” she winced and stopped herself, but he knew what she had been about to say.
He sat down with a thud as he finished her sentence, “…if I had simply verified whether Georgiana was engaged, then I would have discovered it was untrue, asked you about it, and Rowley would have been exposed in his lie before a single day had passed…”
He closed his eyes tightly, though that did not help him avoid seeing his own stupidity, which was threatening to overwhelm him at that moment. He felt Felicia take a seat beside him.
“I could have told you I heard it directly from Rowley. What that might have changed, I don’t know … I can’t even tell you why I felt I should leave that piece of information out…”
“It is not your fault at all,” he assured her, grasping her hand for a moment to comfort them both. “It is that man’s fault,” he stated, refusing to even utter his name as he rose to his feet.
Walter paced back and forth as his anger grew. Clenching his fists, he realized he really wanted to punch something in his fury. He knew without a doubt, he wanted to punch one very specific person but, just then, something else was far more important.
Heading for the door, he told Felicia, “I need to go and see her.”
“Wait!”
He paused, albeit grudgingly, and looked at her, “Why?”
“I know your first instinct is to tell her right away, but wouldn’t the next time you see her be soon enough? That way, you will have the time to … cool down a little. Besides, might she not refuse to see you?”
He hesitated at the door. While he hated the excellent points she had made, he could see the sense in her suggestion … it was