Alicia by Laura Matthews Page B

of a shopkeeper, I hear at the inn,”he remarked insolently.
    “I have nothing to say to you, sir,”Alicia stated flatly and made to pass on.
    “But I have something to say to you, dear lady.”His eyes wandered insinuatingly over her body. “Coming out of mourning, I see. Tsk. Tsk. That hardly shows the proper respect for Sir Frederick.”
    Alicia had a maddening desire to slap his smugly handsome face but remembered yesterday’s occurrence too vividly. Instead she walked away from him toward the inn. He followed her and spoke confidently. “It had not occurred to me, I must admit, that you might not desire the arrangement I suggested in the neighborhood where you had friends. No matter. I can as well provide an arrangement for you here under the same terms.”
    Alicia stopped and glared at him. “Mr. Tackar, it has obviously not occurred to you that I do not intend to accept your ‘arrangement’at any time or place or on any terms. I detest you. You insult me by your very presence. Just stay away from me.”
    “Alicia, Alicia, you are overwrought! You cannot have thought of the advantages I can provide for you. Sir Frederick did not leave you very well off, I know. I was one of the few who knew how he had left matters in his will because he foolishly bragged of it in his cups one night.”
    “And so you killed him!”Alicia’s voice was rigid with contempt.
    “It was a duel,”he snapped, “and a fair fight.”
    “You killed him,”she repeated.
    “He was not so very handy with a pistol,”he rejoined smugly. “Why should you care? He did nothing but disgrace and impoverish you.”
    “I was not impoverished until his death.”
    “But I assure you that you need be no longer.”
    Alicia fled from him then, into the inn and straight up to her room. She found her daughter at the window. Felicia turned with a troubled frown and said, “Did Mr. Tackar upset you again, Mama? What does he want? Why has he followed us here?”
    Alicia dropped into a chair and tossed her hat on the bed. “Lord, child, if I could explain that. Mr. Tackar is a detestable man and I hope you will avoid him always.”
    “But he bought Katterly Grange for more than it was worth,”her daughter protested.
    “Nevertheless he did it only to make us beholden to him. I refuse to be so.”Alicia did not wish to pursue the subject and said more calmly, “You will be pleased to hear that Miss Helen returned to the shop, this time with her father, and purchased the bonnet.”
    “I am glad. Her grandmother is a harridan, is she not?”
    “Yes, rather,”Alicia said with a grin. “Show me what you have been doing.”
    Felicia brought over the two hats she had finished, and illustrated for her mother how she intended to liven up the others. “It will take no time at all, and I think they will be much more likely to sell when they are finished.”
    “There can be no doubt of it, love. I should not have set you to work this afternoon, and especially not in the shop.”
    “I enjoyed it enormously.”
    “I might have known you would,”Alicia said with a helpless shrug.
     

Chapter Five
     
    When Lord Stronbert left the shop he assured himself that his daughter had been reunited with her governess, and waved them off on their way back to the Court, his mother and son having already departed. He had left his horse at the Feather and Flask but was not as yet ready to leave town. The carriage maker was located a short distance from the center of Tetterton and he walked there to consult on the progress of the carriage he had ordered. He was well known in the town and frequently stopped to speak with acquaintances as he made his unhurried way along the street.
    His task accomplished, he was returning to the Feather and Flask when he witnessed Lady Coombs accosted by Mr. Tackar. He was unable to see her expression but he saw her reject the man’s touch on her arm. He could not hear their words, but the tone of them drifted to him, hers