“I told you—I need to go home, right this minute. Or as soon as the wretched post chaise gets here.”

“But why are you leaving, Aunt Dottie? Has someone upset you?”

“A letter came for her this morning, from Bath,” Burton explained. “Whatever it said has upset her. She sent the new footman to order a post chaise, but he didn’t clear it with me, and I didn’t realize—”

“The silly man wants me to wait until Cal gets back. But I don’t need Cal’s permission to do anything, and I haven’t got time,” Aunt Dottie wailed. “I have to go to Bath now!”

Obviously George wasn’t going to get any sense out of Aunt Dottie while she was in this state. “Let’s have a cup of tea and some cake, and you can tell me all about it,” George suggested in a soothing voice.

“Tea?” Aunt Dottie said in a voice of loathing. “Cake? I am talking life or death and you offer me tea and cake?”

Just then they heard the sound of a carriage pulling up outside. “Is that for me?” Aunt Dottie pushed past Burton and wrenched open the front door. “Yes, yes, it is. A lovely shiny yellow bounder. Now give me my baggage, Burton, or I’ll go without it.”

The butler said in a low voice to George, “You can’t let the old lady travel all the way to Bath on her own, Lady George. Not in a hired carriage.”

“Who are you calling an old lady?” Aunt Dottie demanded. She jumped and made a grab for the bandbox, pulled it from his despairing grasp and hurried down the steps, calling to the postboy to help her.

“Lady George, you have to stop her.”

“How? I can’t very well wrestle her to the ground or lock her up,” George said. “She’s determined to leave at once and—oh, lord! Wait, Aunt Dottie,” she called out. “I’ll come with you. Give me two minutes.” To Burton she said, “Send a footman to hold that postilion. The state she’s in, I don’t trust her not to leave without me.”

Burton made a strangled sound of protest, but he snapped his fingers and sent a footman running. “You can’t mean it, Lady George. Go all the way to Bath without any preparation?”

She turned a hunted look on him. “There’s no other choice. Cal isn’t here, and I don’t want to distress Emm—she’s still recovering from the baby—so what else is there to do? As you said, Aunt Dottie can’t go all that way on her own, and even if we sent a maid or footman with her, can you see her listening to a servant in this state? Now quickly, give me a pencil and paper—I’ll leave a note for Cal and you can explain it in more detail.”