‘I am not the mistress of the house, my lord.’
‘You refuse, Carinthia?’
‘I would keep from using those words. I have no right to refuse the entry of the house to you.’
‘If I come in?’
‘I guard my rooms.’
She had been awake, then, to the thrusting and parrying behind masked language.
‘Good. You are quite decided, I may suppose.’
‘I will leave them when I have a little money, or when I know of how I may earn some.’
‘The Countess of Fleetwood earning a little money?’
‘I can put aside your title, my lord.’