Page 6 of A Bachelor’s Lessons in Love

There was a dollhouse on a side table, its delicate furniture and miniature figurines arranged neatly inside. Toy horses stood guard along the mantel. A selection of children’s books, thin volumes with brightly covered covers, filled a shelf near the bed. A bed with a quilt in a riot of colors. A large painting over the mantel depicted children playing with puppies and kittens, a piece better suited to a nursery than to the room of a seventeen-year-old young woman.

So, the man truly has no idea what he is doing, Felicity thought, shaking her head in dismay. Men rarely did, she reminded herself. They promised futures they couldn’t be bothered to build, left rooms and hearts half-furnished…half-forgotten.

Mrs. Lane cleared her throat, and when Felicity turned sharply at the sound, she felt a momentary pang of guilt when the housekeeper winced. “Dinner is two hours from now, Miss Price. I will send a maid up to assist you both a half hour before. If you have need of anything, there is a bell-pull beside each of your beds.” She curtsied. “A pleasure to serve you both, Miss Price, Miss Daphne.” She had backed out of the room and shut the door before Felicity had recovered her tongue.

Daphne walked listlessly to the dollhouse, lifting a small chair from inside. “What…what is the meaning of this? I haven’t played with dolls in ages. This is more like my old nursery than my bedchamber at h-home.” Her voice wobbled on the last word, and Felicity hurried to wrap an arm around her niece’s shoulder.

“You are quite right, my darling.” Felicity led Daphne with gentleness to the bed. “I am afraid your guardian is out of touch with what a young lady requires. But never mind, this is why I am here—to put matters to rights and make certain you are well cared for.”

Daphne nodded rapidly as she sank down, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Yes. Please, Aunt, you cannot leave me to this. He obviously knows nothing about women, and I cannot even think of what I could say to repair the situation.” She looked about her with dismay. “This is awful.”

“There is nothing to fret over, Daffodil.” She sat next to the young woman, her heart breaking yet keeping her face calm, as best she could. “Men like Colonel Halstead, bachelors, they rarely have need to think about what young women need. They simply assume. Perhaps he thought these things would make you comfortable. I doubt there was any malice in the room’s preparation. Everything would be quite lovely…were you a decade younger.” She tried to inject humor into her tone, but her words did not calm her niece.

“Papa wouldn’t have made such a mistake. This man is a stranger, he doesn’t know me, and I am supposed to live in his home?” Her niece sniffled, her eyes full of tears. “I like novels, and music, and drawing. Not—not whatever all of this is.” She gestured around her helplessly.

Mention of Anthony made Felicity’s throat tighten. She had to clear it, softly, to keep her own tears at bay. “You will not be alone in this, Daphne. I am here. I will not leave you.”

“But what if he sends you away?”

Felicity forced a smile, though her stomach knotted most uncomfortably. It was a challenge, to hear her greatest fear vocalized by the person she cared for the most. “He will not, my dear. I have a plan. We are going to prove to Colonel Halstead that he cannot do without me. That you cannot do without me.” She smoothed the sleeves of Daphne’s gown, then tugged a handkerchief from her own and pressed it into her niece’s hand. “Dry your tears, my dear. Lay down for a time. Rest before dinner.” She kissed Daphne’s cheek before standing. “I will go inspect my room and hope I do not find it full of tiny tea sets and Indian rubber balls.”

That made Daphne’s smile appear, though only in brief. “I should prefer rubber balls to all of this.”

“Then if I have any, I will share.” She went to the door that joined their two rooms. “All will be well, Daphne. You will see.”

Felicity entered her room and barely spared it a glance as she marched to the trunk which had already been brought and left at the end of her bed. She knelt on the floor, glowering as she opened the lid to her things.

“Edward Halstead is ill-equipped for his new responsibilities,” she muttered as she found a dress for the evening that would suit her, the gray of mourning adorned with cream-colored embroidery at its hem. “And it’s my duty to ensure he doesn’t ruin Daphne’s future.” She took in a deep breath as she held the dress to her chest. “Even if I have to fight him for control over it.”

She went to the bellpull and gave it a tug. She needed a maid to press her gown long before it was time to dress. Her brother, Anthony, may have been a soldier, but she knew well how to dress for the sort of battles only a woman could fight and win.

Looking around the room, Felicity shook her head. Her niece’s chamber had been filled with things that were, while not appropriate to her age, at least pretty. Her own room was sparsely furnished. It was not a welcoming chamber for a guest, let alone one closely related to the gentleman’s new charge.

It felt all too painfully familiar. She knew what it was to be given the bare minimum of care, just enough to suggest she was remembered, but not enough to feel wanted.

Once had been enough. She would not endure it again.

Biting her lip, Felicity shook her head. “You will not rid yourself of me by making my room unwelcoming,” she said sternly to her absent host. “I am here to stay as long as Daphne needs me.”

She had sworn it to herself, and to her brother’s memory. Felicity would do everything in her power to ensure Edward Halstead realized how much he needed her at his side.

Chapter Three

The drawing room nearest the dining room hadn’t ever received much of Edward’s attention, as he rarely spent any time within it. Bachelors rarely entertained, for one thing, and he took most of his meals wherever was most convenient to him, for another. His desk, his room, the library, and even the garden saw him enjoying his dinners more than the dining table ever did. Thankfully, the staff still kept the rooms neat as a pin. The nearly bare mantel had no dust upon it. The large velvet curtains covering the windows did not smell of damp.

The stiff furniture looked practically new, though he’d purchased it used when he’d come to the house. All in all, there was nothing about the room to make a guest uncomfortable, nothing that would make anyone question his ability to maintain a household—yet the instant the ladies entered the room, he saw the disapproving sweep of Miss Price’s gaze take everything in before they settled on him.

The single clock on the mantel ticked loudly in the quiet.

The blunder with Miss Daphne’s age rolled about in Edward’s mind like an unruly hound, refusing to come to heel and let him put the matter aside. He looked to her, the one who should most concern him, to find the young woman pale and her eyes lowered, the gray circles beneath them standing out all the more thanks to the matching color of her gown. Her shoulders were rounded, making her look quite small and helpless beside her much-more composed aunt.

She was not as young as he expected, but she was a child who had lost a father. The poor mite was hurting.

Edward cleared his throat and bowed, then held his hands out in a friendly gesture to gesture at the drawing room. “Ladies, good evening to you both. Please, do make yourselves comfortable. Dinner ought to be announced in a few moments.”

“Thank you,” Daphne murmured with a small dip of her head.

Miss Price settled on the settee, and Daphne beside her. That left him the chair across from them, which he settled into with less than his usual grace. He had always been rather large, too tall and too broad, but as he looked across at the woman before him he felt positively ogrish.