with Daphne, her sister had insisted they be left behind—that they’d be replaced with garments more suitable to town life. Those new frocks had never materialized and Percy was left wondering if she’d been played for a fool yet again.
Selecting the least offensive of the garments, Percy changed her clothes and then tidied her hair. It wasn’t a great improvement, but at least she didn’t look like she’d been climbing garden walls. In the corner of the room, Richard’s broken kite taunted her. If she couldn’t fix the blasted thing herself, she’d have to take the small bit of money she did have to replace it. That or risk his threat to tell all manner of foul lies to his mother and see her sent packing.
Thoughts of Mr. Dunne crept in once more. She had never thought of having a husband, truthfully. But then she’d never met a man handsome enough and charming enough to tempt her, certainly not one who’d so boldly indicated his own interest. He was certainly those things and more. There was something about him that seemed a bit wicked. And that she found very appealing. So appealing that he robbed her of breath and sense and even thought. But no one fell in love at first sight. Did they? Surely her own unsteady heartbeat wasn’t a true indication of such a thing. Why she might be ill, perhaps. Or hysterical, even. It couldn’t possibly be love! And yet a part of her wanted it to be. Love, romantic love, at least, wasn’t something she’d thought possible for her anymore. And marriage, well, what would it be like to be married to such a man when merely looking at him could make her pulse beat like a drum?
Pushing that thought aside, Percy forced herself to be practical. His statement that he meant to court her was hardly a proposal, and even if it were a precursor to such an arrangement, they were little more than strangers and it would take time for any sort of attachment to occur regardless of whatever insanity she was currently experiencing. And time, given Daphne’s capricious moods and constant threats to economize was a commodity in short supply.
“I suppose I’ll just have to buy him a new kite,” Percy said aloud. “Rotten, horrid boy.”
It was precisely three in the afternoon when Algernon knocked upon his neighbor’s door. While it might not have seemed a momentous occasion to some, it certainly was to him. He had, after all, sworn that hell would freeze over before he would ever darken their door. It wasn’t that he objected to their being cits. He was one himself, after all, though a generation or so removed from it. He didn’t even mind that they were a bit loud and gauche in their tastes. No. It was their hell spawned children whose shrieking could be heard the length of the block that had made him swear them off for good. That and Daphne Fennelworth’s obviously grasping nature which he found terribly off-putting. But it was a voluptuous blonde with eyes the color of rich, dark chocolate that had prompted him to alter his position entirely.
With a bouquet of his own roses clutched in his hand, he lifted the knocker and waited. The butler who answered the door did so with a lightly raised eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Mr. Algernon Dunne,” he replied and produced a calling card. “To see, Miss Blake and Mrs. Fennelworth.”
“Do come in, sir,” the butler said and stepped back, allowing Algernon to place the card on a silver tray. “Please wait here for a moment and I will inform Mrs. Fennelworth of your arrival.”
And so he stood in the foyer, like a tradesman, his hat in hand. Where the devil had that woman hired her servants? Did they truly know no better? After a moment, the butler returned and with a wave of his hand indicated that Algernon should follow. He was still holding onto his own hat and his own coat. He wasn’t a peer of the realm, certainly, but as a rule, his arrival anywhere was greeted with a bit more fanfare.
After a moment, the butler returned. “This way, sir. Mrs. Fennelworth is awaiting you in the drawing room.”
Algernon followed the man down the corridor and into what had to be the most hideous room he’d ever entered in his life. Everything was red and gold. Everything. The various shades of red created a rather dizzying effect that left him stunned and he simply