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  'Of course if it is inconvenient for you to receive my family – '

  'It is extremely inconvenient!' she interrupted. 'You know very well that I have Lucilla Carleton staying with me, Geoffrey! I am astonished that you should expect me to entertain Amabel and your children at such a moment!'

  'I must say I should have thought your own family had a greater claim on you than Miss Carleton,' he said, in an offended voice.

  'You haven't any claim on me at all!' she flashed. 'Nor has Lucilla! Nor anyone! That's why I left Twynham, and came to Bath, to be my own mistress, not to be accountable to you or to anyone, for what I choose to do, and not to grow into a spinster aunt! Particularly not that! Like Miss Vernham, who is only valued for the help she gives her sister, can be depended on to look after the children whenever Mr and Mrs Vernham wish to go junketing to London! but at other times is very much in the way. She can't escape, because she hasn't a penny to fly with. But I have a great many pennies, and I did escape!'

  'You are talking wildly!' he said. 'I should like to know what demands have ever been made of you when you lived with us!'

  'Oh, none! But if one lives in another person's house one is bound to share in the tasks which arise, and who can tell how long it would have been before you and Amabel fell into the way of saying: "Oh, Annis will look after it! She has nothing else to do!" '

  'I really believe your senses are disordered!' he exclaimed. 'All this scolding merely because I have ventured to ask you to shelter my wife and children for a few days! Upon my word, Annis –'

  'You didn't ask me, Geoffrey! You made it impossible for me to refuse by arranging for Amabel to set out for Bath tomorrow morning, knowing that I should be forced to let them stay here.'

  'Well, I was obliged to make all possible haste, when Tom was crying with pain,' he said sulkily. 'He was awake all last night, let me tell you, and here are you expecting me to write you a letter through the post, and wait for you to answer it!'

  'Not at all! What I should have expected you to do, had I known anything about it, would have been to have taken Tom to Melling immediately he complained of the toothache – whatever Amabel's opinion of his skill may be! Good God, how much skill is required to pull out a milk-tooth? Why, I daresay Dr Tarporley would have whisked it out in a trice, and spared Tom his sleepless night!'

  This left Sir Geoffrey with nothing to say. He looked discomfited, and sought refuge in wounded dignity. 'No doubt it will be best for me to hire a suitable lodging in the town!'

  'Much best – except that it would set all the Bath quizzes' tongues wagging! I will give orders in the morning for rooms to be prepared, but I am afraid I shan't be able to entertain Amabel as I should wish: I have a great many engagements which I must keep, in addition to accompanying Lucilla when she goes out. That, since her uncle has entrusted her to my care, is, you will agree, an inescapable duty!'

  On this Parthian shot, she left the room. She was still seething with anger, for her brother's demeanour and lame excuses for his descent on her had confirmed her suspicion that his real reason was an obstinate determination to prevent any intimacy between her and Oliver Carleton. Amabel was to be planted in her house as a duenna – though what Geoffrey imagined Amabel (poor little goose!) could do to prevent her doing precisely as she chose only he knew! She was too angry to consider whether what seemed to her to be unwarrantable interference might not be a clumsy but well-meaning attempt to protect her from one whom he believed to be a dangerous rake; and the sight of Miss Farlow, hovering on the threshold of her bedchamber did nothing to assuage her wrath. She had no doubt that Miss Farlow was responsible for Geoffrey's sudden arrival, and it would have afforded her great pleasure to have shaken the irritating titter out of that meddlesome old Tabby, and have boxed her ears into the bargain. Suppressing this most unladylike impulse, she said coldly: 'Well, Maria? What is it you want?'

  'Oh!' said Miss Farlow, in a flutter. 'Nothing in the world, dear Annis! I was just wondering whether dear Sir Geoffrey has everything he needs! If only Limbury had told me of his arrival I should have slipped away from the party, and attended to his comfort, as I hope I need not assure you, for it is my business to provide for your visitors, is it not? And even such excellent servants as our good Limbury, you know –'

  'Limbury is far more capable than you, cousin, to provide for Sir Geoffrey's needs,' interposed Miss Wychwood, putting considerable force on herself to hold her temper in check. 'If anything should be wanting, Sir Geoffrey will ring his bell! I advise you to go to bed, to recruit your strength for the task that lies before you tomorrow! I shall require you to provide for several more visitors! Goodnight!'

  A night's repose restored much of Miss Wychwood's shaken equilibrium, and she was able to confront her brother over the breakfast cups with tolerable composure. She asked him, quite pleasantly, whether he wished her to provide accommodation for him during Amabel's stay, and accepted, without betraying the relief she felt, his prosy explanation of why circumstances prevented him from staying beyond the time of Amabel's arrival. This instantly made Miss Farlow break into a flood of protestations, in which (she said) she knew well dear Annis would join her. 'I am persuaded dear Lady Wychwood must need your support through the approaching ordeal!' she said. 'Such a time as it is, too, since you last came to stay in Bath, for I don't count the scrap of a visit you paid us the other day! And if you are thinking that there is no room for you, there can be no difficulty about that, for you and dear Lady Wychwood can be perfectly comfortable in the Green room, which can be made ready for you in a trice. You have only to say the word!'

  'If he can edge one in!' said Miss Wychwood dryly.

  Sir Geoffrey gave a snort of laughter, and exchanged a glance pregnant with meaning with her. As little as any man did he welcome conversation at the breakfast-table, and it was probable that he had never liked Miss Farlow less than when he came under the full fire of her inconsequent chatter.

  'When am I to expect Amabel to arrive?' asked Miss Wychwood smoothly.

  'Well, as to that, I can't precisely answer you,' he replied, looking harassed. 'She has the intention of starting out betimes, but with all the business of packing, and seeing to it that Nurse hasn't forgotten anything – which very likely she will, because excellent though she is in her management of the children she has no head – none at all! When we took Tom to visit his grandparents last year, we had to turn back three times! I can tell you it tried my patience sadly, and I was provoked into declaring that I would never undertake a journey in her company again! Or in Tom's!' he added, with a reluctant grin. 'The thing is, you know, that he is a bad traveller! Feels sick before one has gone a mile, and after that one has to be for ever pulling up, to lift him down from the chaise to be sick in the road – poor little fellow!'

  This perfunctory rider made Miss Wychwood break into laughter, in which he somewhat sheepishly joined her. 'Now I know what the circumstances are which make your immediate return to Twynham quite imperative!' she said.

  'Well, I hope I am not an unfeeling parent, but – well, you know how it is, Annis!'

  'I can hazard a guess at all events! It has not yet been my fate to travel with a child afflicted with carriage-sickness, I thank God!'

  'Oh, it quite wrings my heart to think of that sweet little boy being sick, for there is nothing more miserable!' broke in Miss Farlow. 'Not that I am myself a bad traveller, for I daresay I could drive from one end of the country to the other without experiencing the least discomfort, but I well remember how ill my particular friend, Miss Aston, always felt, even in hackney carriages. She is dead now, poor dear soul, though not in a hackney carriage, of course.'

  Judging from her brother's expression that he was on the brink of delivering himself of a hasty snub, Miss Wychwood intervened, to suggest to her garrulous companion that if she had finished her breakfast she should go to talk to Mrs Wardlow about the arrangements to be made for Lady Wychwood, her children, her nurse, her dresser, and the nurse's m