“Your concubine, doxy, paramour—whatever you wish to call her,” Bliss answered tightly, folding her arms.

Jamie rocked back on the heels of his boots. Though he spoke in low, carefully controlled tones, he lapsed into the brogue. “Am I missin’ somethin’ ’ere, Mrs. McKenna?” he wanted to know. “You’re the one, lass, that sneaked out of me bed while I slept, robbed me blind—”

“Robbed you blind!” Bliss yelled. “I took three pounds from you—little enough, considering what you’ve put me through!”

“What I’ve put you through, is it? Why, you—”

Bliss could bear no more. She raised one hand and slapped Jamie across the face with all the strength and fury she possessed. He stared at her for a moment, crimson prints of her fingers glowing on his cheek, and then whispered, “Get your things together, Mrs. McKenna, for we’ll be gone from ’ere as soon as me driver comes round again.”

Setting her jaw, Bliss glared up at him, telling him with her eyes that she didn’t plan on going anywhere.

“I won’t leave without you, Duchess,” he warned in a low voice, and that was when Bliss knew she’d lost the battle, if not the entire war. She could not subject her aging aunt to the kind of scene that would surely result if she continued in her rebellion.

Dropping her eyes, Bliss conceded temporary defeat. “All right,” she whispered. “Just let me get my satchel.”

Jamie stepped aside, allowing her to pass, and she went down the hall to her tiny room beneath the staircase. She had barely gone inside when her aunt joined her, looking very agitated.

“I knew I should have summoned the police,” the old woman fussed and fretted. “When am I going to get it through my head that a stitch in time is only skin-deep?”

Bliss smiled as she packed her things carefully away in the satchel. “Everything will be all right, Aunt Calandra,” she said. “I promise. Jamie can be very intimidating, but he’s not cruel.”

Calandra looked sad. “I often wish that I’d married, you know.”

Bliss closed her satchel and then gave her aunt a gentle kiss on the cheek. Because the room was so small, she did both without taking a single step. “Good-bye, Auntie, and thank you for everything. I’ll come to call if I get the chance.”

Jamie was waiting near the front door, with his coat on and his leather hat pulled down over his forehead. Either the carriage had arrived, or he expected it at any moment.

“Scoundrel,” Bliss muttered, and though she was very angry at his high-handed manner, she had to admit, at least to herself, that she was also glad to see him again.

Jamie glared at her, but before he could say anything, Calandra interjected yet another pearl of wisdom. “If the truth hurts,” she told her niece’s husband firmly, “wear it.”

Jamie glanced at Calandra, looked away, then looked back as her words penetrated his quiet fury. Bliss wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a hint of a grin lift one corner of his mouth.