stood there in the doorway for a moment.
“Mr. Dunne! How wonderful that you’ve come to call,” Mrs. Fennelworth cooed at him with false gaiety. “And such lovely roses. Thank you.”
Algernon forced himself to smile as he held the bouquet out of her reach. “My apologies, Mrs. Fennelworth. Had I been possessed of greater thoughtfulness, I would have brought two such tokens. As I did not, I’m afraid I only have the one and I had hoped to present it to your sister, Miss Blake. Is she not here?”
The woman’s bright smile faltered. "I see. Persephone is upstairs and will be down shortly. I confess, Mr. Dunne, when she stated your intent to call on her for romantic reasons, I had doubted her understanding of the situation. She can have a wild imagination, after all.”
“Why on earth would you doubt her? She is a very beautiful woman and remarkably charming,” Algernon replied, nonplussed by the sister’s reaction. It appeared that Daphne Fennelworth was all that he had imagined and more—in short, terrible.
“Well certainly, Persephone is lovely in her own plump, quiet way,” Mrs. Fennelworth continued. “But she’s not exactly fashionable, is she? And you are one of the most sought after bachelors in all of London, after all.”
“Hardly that,” Algernon stated emphatically, both annoyed and vaguely amused by her flattery. Did she really think appealing to his vanity would sway him so easily? “I've little care for what is and is not fashionable.”
The woman’s smile, while it had faltered before, now faded entirely. It was replaced with an expression of utter dismay, as if he’d turned her entire world upside down with a single utterance. “Of course, you care about what is fashionable! All people in society care about what is fashionable!”
Apparently, his dismissal had rattled her so that she forgot to keep her tone carefully modulated. While she wasn’t shrieking like a fishwife, there was an unmistakably shrill undertone. “I prefer quality to fashion,” he replied. “And Miss Blake is, unmistakably a quality individual. You did say she would be down shortly, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she replied, her smile once more pasted firmly on her face though it was tight and gave more the appearance of a grimace. “Tell me, how is it again that my sister came to be in your garden?”
“She came to retrieve your son’s kite.”
Daphne shook her head. “She should never have let him fly the silly thing in this weather. It is far too blustery today. She hasn’t the sense god gave a goose!”
“In point of fact, Mrs. Fennelworth, she told him not to fly it. And he defied her and now his kite is broken as a result of his own defiance and lack of respect for his elders,” Algernon said. He kept his tone mild and did not give in to the urge to tell her exactly what he thought of her horde of ill-mannered brats.
She blinked at him. “Surely, you misheard. My Richard is a divine child!”
“No boy aged ten to fifteen can ever be referred to as divine. At that age we are all scoundrels, scamps and know-it-alls,” he replied smoothly. “But I’d be happy to give him a talking to, if you like.”
She laughed uncomfortably. “That won’t be necessary. His father will see to it… when he returns.”
“Ah yes. Another trip to the Indies to see to his investments?”
Daphne’s tight smile turned positively glacial. “Yes. Another one.”
At that moment, the door to the drawing room opened and Miss Blake stepped inside. She was wearing a drab dress of a dusty lavender color that did nothing for her. It was also clearly more of a country frock than one with any sort of town polish to it. Of course, having an inkling as to what lay hidden behind the hideous sack of a dress, it didn’t really matter to him what she wore. It was worth noting that he reacted just as strongly upon seeing her for the second time. His heart was thundering as if he’d run a mile.
“There you are, Miss Blake,” he said, offering her a smile. “I know we’ve never had a formal introduction, but under the circumstances, I’d say it’s hardly necessary. Wouldn’t you agree, Mrs. Fennelworth? We are neighbors, after all.”
Mrs. Fennelworth laughed, a tight and high pitched sound that demonstrated very clearly how displeased she was with the entire situation. “Indeed. We’ve lived next door to one another for more than five years and yet this is your first visit! How remarkable.”
His lips twitched