He ran both hands through his hair roughly, forcing the dark strands to all angles. After a moment he shook his head and gestured to the door. “You got what you came for, my lady. Please be so kind as to let the door smack your pretty backside as you leave.”
“Fine,” she snapped again. With as much dignity as she could muster, Sally swept from the room and into the hall. She stood in the dark, shaking with frustration and confusion. How could it feel so right to be in his arms and the next moment argue about it? How dare he use the Ford family motto against her too? He was not one of them.
She scowled at the door behind her. “You will be sorry.”
“I already am,” he replied bitterly from the other side before locking the door.
Chapter Sixteen
Sally took a breath, startled by Felix’s admission, and then decided he could not have meant it. He did not really understand her and would say anything to advance his own cause. Love to him was something he could put aside until he needed it again.
Furious with herself for lingering, she stalked away. A short walk before bed might be required to quiet her temper, and she was very used to navigating Newberry’s twisting corridors in utter darkness.
But the walk through deserted, familiar halls did not help very much. She was still too full of salt and vinegar to shake off her irritation with Felix. In desperation, Sally slipped into her sister’s room as she often did late at night when Louisa was abed, hoping she was awake and in the mood to talk. Unfortunately, Louisa’s soft, even breathing suggested she slept deeply. Disappointed to be denied her good and calming presence, she lay down on the long chaise and stared at the painting of Lord Cameron’s neighboring estate that hung above Louisa’s hearth.
When she grew chilled, she tossed a blanket over herself.
Louisa stirred in her bed. “I thought you would already be fast asleep.”
“I was not sleepy after all,” Sally explained. “I have been prowling the house for an hour. I did not want to wake you, but who knows when I will be able to slip into your room again.”
“I will miss these nighttime visits of yours. When you marry Ellicott I will hardly see you, so do not ruin it by snoring.” Louisa adjusted the pillow under her head. “We have a lot to do before the wedding takes you away, and I need my beauty sleep.”
“I do not snore,” Sally protested and clutched the blanket to her breasts. “And you are always beautiful regardless of how much sleep you have had.”
“What do you think of Captain Hastings now?”
“He seems unchanged,” Sally grumbled, but her heart was thumping wildly at the question. “Why do you ask?”
“Mama is still very taken with him, and he is handsome. She thought he might do for Victoria since you do not want him anymore.”
Sally ground her teeth. “He is a career man, like so many others in the navy. I would not wish to have Victoria’s heart broken when he leaves her behind.”
“Perhaps he could grow to love her enough to resign his commission. Mama believes he has funds enough to make Uncle George accept the match despite your past with him.”
Sally had once dreamed Felix would give up everything for her love, but such a dream could never come true. “Go to sleep and stop matchmaking. Victoria will find her own husband, someone other than Felix, when the time is right.”
“Well, even fate needs a push now and then.” Louisa sighed. “Lady Duckworth enquired about him as well, which I thought was odd.”
Sally sat up quickly. “What did she ask?”
“She wanted my assurance that his bedchamber was far from yours,” Louisa grumbled. “I told her Grandfather would not stand for any sort of nonsense under his roof and neither would you.”
Sally pressed her hand over her face as her cheeks heated. She and Felix were good at every sort of nonsense. Things Louisa did not yet need to understand. “Certainly not.”
Louisa fell quiet once more, but Sally was wide awake, watching in total shame as the moonlight cast shadows upon the walls. Thoughts of the changes to come brought no end to her confusion. There was so much she still had to do before she could leave for her new life. The wedding breakfast might be called a small affair, and yet she expected all the neighborhood, tenants and local aristocracy, to come to celebrate with the family.
Thoughts of Felix and her behavior with him worried her more though. Could she learn to desire Ellicott the way she did Felix?
She certainly had to if she wanted to recover her dignity.
~ * ~
Felix pulled at his cravat to gain some air but to no avail. The duke kept his private study damned hot, and on top of the accursed fever that was building again, he could not concentrate on the conversation. He wished to escape the heat and the endless questions. A cooling ocean breeze was just the thing to help on such a day. Perhaps even a dunking in the nearby sea to cool his body and clear his mind. However, Sally’s aunt Penelope was taking notes today with a diligence usually reserved for a court-martial, so he sat and did his best to be cordial.
“Tell me more about the day William was wounded. I understand you took an injury to the leg during the skirmish. The left leg, was not it?”
The duke was uncomfortably well informed. He brushed over the spot. “Yes. A flesh wound that has long since healed. A piece of the ship splintered during cannon fire from the enemy, and I was in the way as so often happens.”