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Lady Maccon looked her sister over, still in shock Felicity was dressed in the latest of velvet long coats, white with a red front, hundreds of tiny black buttons running up it, and a long white skirt with red and black bows Her blond hair was up, and her hat was perched back on her head in just the kind of precarious elique would approve of uess you had best cos and then maneuvered delicately around them and swept up the front steps and into the house

"Rugage, indicated the massive pile with her chin

Rumpet nodded

Lady Maccon stopped him as he passed "Do not bother to see them unpacked, Rue this differently"

The butler nodded "Very good, my lady"

Lady Maccon followed her sister into the house

Felicity had found her way into the front parlor and was pouring herself solanced up when Lady Maccon entered "I do declare, you are looking rather puffy about the face, sister Have you gained weight since I saw you last? You know, I do so worry about your health"

Alexia refrained fro that the only worry Felicity felt was over next season’s gloves She sat down across from her sister, folded her arlared "Out with it Why would you possibly allow yourself to be foisted off on me?"

Felicity cocked her head to one side, sipped her tea, and deht even lishwoman That is nice I should never have believed it had I not seen it for land since vaher ranks But Alexia had her father’s Italian skin and no interest in fighting its inclinations merely to look like one of the undead "Felicity," she said sharply

Felicity looked to one side and tutted in annoyance "Well, if I must Let me simply say it has become desirable for me to absentoverly s and she knows you want it"

"The truth, Felicity"

Felicity glanced about as though looking for some clue or hint, and then said finally, "I was under the iiht Alexia, so that as going on "Oh, you were, were you?"

"Well, yes, I was Are they?"

Lady Maccon narrowed her eyes "They are enca down her skirts and pluht back down there, young lady" Alexia took great satisfaction in treating her sister as though she were an infant "There is no point; you simply cannot stay withhere I have business in Scotland, and I depart this afternoon I cannot very well leave you at Woolsey alone and without a chaperone, especially as the regiment is in residence Simply think how that would look"

"But why Scotland? I should hate to have to go to Scotland It is such a barbaric place It is practically Ireland!" Felicity was clearly perturbed at this disruption in her carefully wrought plans

Alexia ca that she could think of, off of the top of her head "My husband is in Scotland on pack business I am to join hi back doith a whuhtful bother Why do you always have to be so inconvenient, Alexia? Can you not think of e?"

Lady Maccon interrupted what looked to be a long diatribe "I a is quite beyond all description Shall I call for the Woolsey carriage so you can at least travel back to town in style?"

Felicity looked glum "It cannot be countenanced, Alexia Mama will have your head if you send me back now You kno is"

Lady Maccon did know But as to be done?

Felicity sucked on her teeth "I suppose I shall simply have to accompany you to Scotland It will be a terrible bore, of course, and you kno I hate traveling, but I shall bear it with grace" Felicity looked oddly cheered by this idea

Lady Maccon blanched "Oh no, absolutely not" A week or orically bonkers

"I think the idea has rinned "I could instruct you on the subject of appearance" She gave Alexia a sweeping up-and-down look "It is clear you are in need of expert guidance Now, if I were Lady Maccon, I should not choose such somber attire"

Lady Maccon rubbed at her face It would ed sister fro Felicity was just self-involved enough not to notice or reive Angelique soe

That decided matters

"Very well I hope you are prepared to travel by air We are catching a dirigible this afternoon"

Felicity looked uncharacteristically unsure of herself "Well, if I must, I must But I am certain I did not pack the correct bonnet for air travel"

"Cooee!" A voice reverberated down the hallway outside the open parlor door "Anyone ho

"Nohat?" wondered Lady Maccon, fervently hoping she would not miss float-off She did not want to delay her travel, particularly now that she ie of the doorja a hat coht upright, and a few tiny puffy white ones, looking like nothing so much as an overly excited duster with a case of the pox

"Ivy," stated Alexia, wondering if her dear friend was perhaps secretly the leader of a Silly Hat Liberation Society

"Oh, Alexia! I let myself in I do not knohere Rumpet has taken himself off to, but I saw the parlor door open, so I deduced you ht to tell you…" She trailed off upon realizing Alexia was not alone

"Why, Miss Hisselpenny," purred Felicity, "what are you doing here?"

"Miss Loontwill! How do you do?" Ivy blinked at Alexia’s sister in utter surprise "Ia trip to Scotland this afternoon"

The feather duster trembled in confusion "You are?" Ivy looked rather hurt that Alexia would not see fit to inform her of such a trip And that Alexia would choose Felicity as a companion, when Ivy kne ible"

Miss Hisselpenny nodded sagely "So nified way to travel All that rapid racing about Floating has so ravitas"

"It was decided at the lastme There has been some domestic difficulty at the Loontwills’ Frankly, Felicity is jealous that Evy is getting married" There was no way Lady Maccon would allow her sister to seize control of a conversation at the expense of her dear friend’s feelings It was one thing to put up with Felicity’s jibes herself and another to witness them turned upon defenseless Miss Hisselpenny