Dolores had remained in town after the infamous solicitor meeting, to campaign for her views on the matter. Twice she had written to him, demanding that he cajole Nicholas to see reason. Both times his response had been polite but firm. Nicholas already saw reason, and it was for Dolores to alter her opinion.

Now, however, he had requested this meeting and called on both aunts. Although similar in height, dark hair, and the tendency to be harpies, they differed in significant ways. Agnes’s face showed a softness that might lead one to conclude erroneously that the rest of her was soft too. Dolores’s possessed a sharpness in features and gaze that gave fair warning of what one had in her. Their figures followed similar forms. Agnes’s thickness made her height twice as formidable. Dolores’s extreme thinness gave her a frail appearance, even if the woman was anything but that.

It was Dolores who greeted him. “Sit, Chase. It is so rare to have you alone.”

That sounded ominous.

“Have you been enjoying town?” he asked her.

“Not much. I prefer the country, as you know. I miss my little cottage in Kent.”

“Little cottage, ha!” Agnes muttered.

Dolores’s little cottage had at least fifteen chambers.

“Do you intend to remain much longer?”

“Yes, Dolores, do you intend to remain much longer?” Agnes roused herself to snap.

Dolores’s eyes narrowed. “Until the matter at hand is settled.”

“If you handle it the way you want, that will be years. Decades. You will die here,” Agnes said. “As I said before Chase arrived, nothing that you do here can’t be done by post. If your presence is needed, your little cottage is barely a day away by coach.”

He had interrupted a row, it seemed, and asked the one question sure to have it continue.

“As I explained, I will not impose much longer.” Dolores’s throaty tone carried an edge of steel. “I will avail myself of my nephew’s hospitality, if you prefer. I am sure Nicholas will not mind if I visit for a few days.”

Chase heard that with alarm. Nicholas would have his head if he allowed this notion to stand. “Aunt Dolores, I am sure he would not mind, but I fear that you would. The household is still disrupted. New servants only slowly are being engaged. I hear a new housekeeper just took up her duties, so it will get worse before it gets better. It would embarrass Nicholas to offer you such poor attendance.”

Dolores just stared at him. Agnes looked at her with smug satisfaction.

“If you want to remain in town for a few weeks or more, why not let a house? There are many available this time of year,” Chase said.

“Why not indeed,” Agnes said. “My thought exactly.” She gave Chase an ally-to-ally look.