Clearly the girls hadn’t told Aunt Dottie of the previous night’s meeting. They didn’t move. Aunt Dottie laughed and gave them a little shove. “Don’t be shy, girls, he’s your brother. He’s the same dear boy he always was, just taller and broader in the shoulders. Go and give him a welcome-home kiss. Remember how much you missed him when he first went away?”
“Good morning, Cal,” Lily murmured, and came forward and planted a light, polite kiss on his cheek. It was a far cry from the warm and enthusiastic embrace of the previous night.
“Good morning, Brother Dearest,” Rose said, kissing the air next to his cheek. “A delightful surprise indeed.” She bared her teeth at him in a parody of a smile.
It was war, then.
Aunt Dottie didn’t seem to notice the tension. Cal stood back to let the ladies precede him into the breakfast room, Aunt Dottie first, and Lily bringing up in the rear.
“How did you sleep, Lily?” he murmured as they entered.
She gave him an odd, almost guilty look. “Very well, thank you.”
“I’m glad,” he said quietly.
Breakfast was a fairly stilted affair. Aunt Dottie chattered happily, throwing questions at Cal and encouraging the girls to do likewise. They sat there like oysters. She seemed to think they were shy in his presence.
Cal knew better. He wasn’t forgiven yet. Not that he needed their forgiveness; he’d done the right thing, he knew. Lily was reserved, not yet trusting the man who’d made her cry at their first meeting as adults. And Rose—well, Rose turned every opportunity for conversation into an indirect snipe at him. It was almost amusing. She was very sharp and quick witted.
“And what are your plans for today, Aunt Dottie?” he asked as he buttered a piece of toast.
“Well, of course we always start the day with a visit to the Pump Room, don’t we, girls?” The girls gave an unenthusiastic murmur of agreement.
“Don’t look like that, girls—the waters are nasty tasting, but they’re very good for you. Lily’s spots cleared right up, remember?”
Lily flushed and looked down.
Her complexion was smooth and unmarked, as perfect as her sister’s. Cal remembered the agony of his own spotty period. “But Lily’s complexion is perfect,” he said. “I can’t believe she ever had a spot in her life.” He grimaced. “I, on the other hand, suffered with them terribly as a youth.”
She looked up and gave him a shy smile. Rose shot him a hard-eyed stare. Suspicious little cat, she was. He winked at her and she bridled.
“What are your plans today, Cal?” Lily asked.
“He’s coming with us to the Pump Room, of course,” Aunt Dottie declared.
At Cal’s ill-concealed look of dismay, Lily giggled and Rose’s scowl turned to a grin of pure pleasure. “Won’t that be delightful, Brother Dearest?” she purred.
Aunt Dottie continued, “Well, you don’t imagine I’m going to let Almeria Bracegirdle think she’s the only one who can enter the room on the arm of a dashing young gentleman, do you? Her grandson, Albert, looks well enough on his own, but beside Cal he will look like a... like a...”
“Like a poodle,” Rose said.
“Apoodle?” Aunt Dottie laughed. “You have a wicked tongue, Rose dear, but you’re quite right. Heisa poodle. Oh, dear, I shan’t be able to keep a straight face when I meet him now. A poodle!”
“And how long does this Pump Room visit usually last, Aunt Dottie?” He was hoping for a quick visit: make their entrance, eclipse the poodle, drink the nasty waters and leave. “Half an hour? Forty minutes? It’s just that I have some business to transact today.”
“Forty minutes? Oh, no, it will takemuchlonger than that,” Rose said with spiteful relish. “We’re usually there forhours.”
She was teasing, of course. He glanced at his aunt, who nodded complacently. “Rose is quite right. An hour at the very least, but more usually two. We have so many friends and acquaintances there, you see, it’s quite the social occasion.”
“It’s our only social occasion,” Rose muttered.
“Oh, no, dear, you know that’s not quite right,” her aunt said reprovingly. She turned to Cal and explained, “After the Pump Room, we usually visit some of the shops on Milsom Street and elsewhere. Bath has some delightfully modish shops, you know, for all that people say it’s not as fashionable a place as it used to be.”
“And we go to the library,” Rose said. “Lilylovesthe library.”
Cal frowned. There was some undercurrent there he didn’t understand.
“It’s a very good library,” Aunt Dottie agreed. “And we frequently stop for a bun and a cup of tea at one of the tea rooms—there are several elegant establishments we like to patronize, don’t we, girls? And we quite often attend a concert—what was the one we attended last month?”
