could compare with your beauty and grace. It is as though Aphrodite herself fashioned you…”
Felicity yanked her hand away and wiped his token of affection on her skirts. Had his lips always been so soggy?
Mr. Dunn continued to drone on about the same things those fools always said. He was far more gifted with his flattery and managed to avoid breaking into bouts of poetry, but Felicity was finished with the moderate politeness she’d been bestowing.
“Enough, Mr. Dunn. I count myself lucky that my uncle stopped our ill-advised elopement all those years ago, and your renewed attentions have done nothing to change my mind. I will never marry you, so please maintain your last shred of dignity and leave me be. Your petitions have moved from irritating to insulting, and I am done allowing you to waste my time,” she said, turning away with a dismissive wave.
“Felicity, please!”
Hearing that informal address was enough to set her teeth on edge, and Felicity fought against the urge to berate him. Not that she cared about bruising his feelings, but to engage him in conversation once more would only prolong his presence in her life.
With pounding steps, she marched back to the assembly room door and was met by a figure in the darkness. Stepping into the moonlight, Mr. Finch glanced at her and then at Mr. Dunn, his eyes narrowing. But when his gaze returned to Felicity, the hardness fled, leaving them filled with concern.
“You are interrupting a private conversation, sir,” said Mr. Dunn.
Felicity sucked in a breath, closing her eyes and letting it out through her teeth. When she opened her eyes, Mr. Finch was staring at her, his brow pulled low.
“I am here to claim my set with Miss Barrows.” Mr. Finch’s voice was quiet, but it carried through the night air. “And it is monstrously rude for you to keep her out here in the cold without a proper cloak, sir.”
“You’ve had your set,” replied Mr. Dunn as he straightened his jacket.
“My first, but not my second.”
Mr. Dunn stilled at that, and the gentlemen’s gazes locked. Felicity let out another exasperated sigh. Turning away from the pair of them, she made a straight line through the doorway and into the crowd as her thoughts cursed all menfolk. But Mr. Finch was at her elbow an instant later, and he guided her onto the dance floor.
“Will you not give me the courtesy of asking before you force me into another set?”
Mr. Finch’s brows rose. “Do you object to it?”
“To the dancing or to your rescue when none was needed?” Some part of her heart prickled at the tartness of her tone and the hard words, but that organ was so twisted and shaken that Felicity could hardly move through the steps, though the dance had a languid pace with simple movements. Her feet were heavy, plodding things, doing their best to stay on the beat despite the terrible weight that settled on her.
Felicity was so very tired of feeling like a coin purse and not a person. But though Mr. Finch was a source of much of the present heartache, he did not deserve such censure.
“I apologize, Mr. Finch,” she murmured as they passed down the line, weaving between the others. “You were trying to be of assistance, and I have repaid it poorly. But you needn’t worry about Mr. Dunn. He is a pest, but I am used to unwanted suitors haranguing me. They are irritating but harmless, and he will leave when he realizes I will not budge. He may be more persistent than most, but my will is stronger than his.”
Mr. Finch’s blonde brows twisted together, his gaze holding hers with such concern that Felicity felt like crying. But there was no point in spilling tears: her life was her life, and she would make the best of it somehow.
“You needn’t suffer alone, Miss Barrows.”
“Not entirely alone, true. But alone enough.” A smile tinged with sadness drew up the corners of her lips, but she met his eyes with an empty gaze. “My family is gone, and I live in a great big house with only servants to break the silence. I have friends aplenty, but they have lives of their own to live with husbands and children who are their priority. More often than naught, I am left to soldier on alone.”
Cringing, Felicity rubbed at her temple and sucked in a breath. “I apologize. I am not usually so maudlin. I adore my life, and I