Reeve sighed. There were times when it was impossible to reach this woman. “Take your bath, Loretta,” he said in exasperation. “Drink your sherry. Then prepare yourself for a trip to the inn, because you’re not spending the night in this house.”

A tear slipped down Loretta’s cheek—or was it a raindrop? Either way, she turned in a swirl of out-raged femininity and swept up the stairs to lounge in Reeve’s spacious marble bathtub.

Reeve nursed a foolish hope that she would be gone before Maggie awakened from her nap, knowing all the while that the wish would not be granted.

Maggie woke to the sound of a woman singing. The voice was full and rich, obviously that of a trained professional. She knew without question that Loretta Craig had come home.

Despair thickened in her throat, making it ache, but she would not cry. She tossed back the quilt that had covered her, sat up, and began the laborious task of putting her shoes back on. When she’d done that, she smoothed her hair, now slipping from its pins, and stood.

In the hallway outside her room the singing was louder, and Maggie could make out the words. Something quite fitting, about being a bird in a gilded cage.

Squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin, Maggie made her way down the front staircase. Please, God, she prayed silently, don’t let me cry in front of Reeve or that woman. I’ll be virtuous to the end of my life if You’ll just not let me cry.

When Maggie reached the bottom of the stairs, she was dry-eyed. Catching sight of Reeve pacing back and forth in the parlor just to her left, she hoped she truly would be able to be virtuous for the next twenty or thirty years.

“Maggie,” he said almost forlornly as she crossed the threshold and stood facing him, her hands caught together in front of her in a dignified manner.

Maggie drew a deep breath. “If you’ll just drive me to the inn, and give back my ticket to travel on the omnibus—”

Reeve shook his head. “Loretta will be leaving, not you.”

Maggie lifted her chin another jot. “You misunderstand, Mr. McKenna. The decision has already been made, and if you won’t take me to the Parramatta Inn in your carriage, I shall walk.”

“In this rain? You must be out of your mind!”

Maggie was not out of her mind. She knew when she’d made a mistake, and she knew how to correct it. She left the parlor, and found her cloak and her reticule in the entryway. Draping the cloak around her shoulders and clasping the reticule in one hand, she opened the front door, crossed the porch, and walked out into the rain.

Chapter 10