Page 73 of The Wallflower Manifesto
But instead—
“My father found out what we were doing,” Dot told her, sounding just as she had when they were children and Dot had toppled the entire Christmas cake onto herself.
“Did he?” Millie replied, suddenly worried that nowherfather would find out as well.
“He went mad,” Dot said through her teeth. “Pacing and ranting and calling me his perfect little fool. And then …”
Dot trailed off then, cracking the pantry door to look one way and then the other. “Then,” she continued in a hush, “he kissed Mrs. Knox. Right on the mouth!”
“He didwhat!”Millie gasped.
“He did! And he said something about the ridiculousness of servants and masters. He didn’t think I saw. But I saw!”
“Well, did you talk to him about it?” Millie pressed, somehow both aghast and enthralled.
“Of course not!” said Dot. “How do you bring something like that up?”
“Well, did she kiss him back?”
Dot stared at her for a long time. Silent. And then she nodded.
Unfortunately, before they could delve any further into it, the men had arrived. All of them.
They had only been expecting Freddy and Cresson, but here were Silas and Abe too, all grumbling amongst themselves about who and how and when until Freddy threw up his hands andstalked away from them entirely to go see to the preparation of the carriage.
Well, Millie reasoned, she supposed Silas lived here. So that explained his presence, but the other one …
“What’s wrong with Freddy?” Silas muttered, scratching at his head, but neither of the others answered.
Instead, Mr. Cresson moved into position to explain the route and specifics to the young ladies who were departing this evening, both of whom were currently being served slices of unexpected cake by a dowager countess. If they were confused, they hid it well.
And then Abe decided it was his turn to intercept Millie.
“What are you doing here?” Millie hissed before he could begin his nonsense.
“Observing,” he answered with half a smile, “supervising.”
“Abe.”
“I didn’t want to be left out,” he said, holding his hands up as though that would prove his earnestness. “And I wanted to see you. I’d suggest you drag me to court over it, but there are too many people in this house who actually would.”
Ember appeared next to them, a plate of half-eaten cake in her hands. “Hullo,” she said innocently. “What are we plotting over here?”
This was not the careful exit they had planned for the poor fugitives. They didn’t seem to mind, though. Both women were huddled over either of Mr. Cresson’s shoulders as he walked them through a document.
Any time one of the women spoke, Cresson went respectfully silent, then answered, holding the asker’s eye to ensure that he was doing so clearly.
“Just some light mutiny,” Abe said with an affected sigh. “Care to join the cause?”
“Maybe later,” Ember said with a chuckle, like she was just happy that someone had finally humored her.
She was watching Mr. Cresson too, a thoughtful glint in her eye as he paused every so often to check that both Gretchen and Paula were following what he was saying.
And now Abe was watching her watch Cresson with a similar glint, and MIllie felt awfully confused.
“He is a welcome surprise,” she said, just to attempt to join their thought process. “Terribly competent.”
“Yes,” said Ember Donnelly, her voice suddenly soft. “Terribly.”
