Captain Ingram's Inheritance by Carola Dunn

Constantia hurried there to accost him before he could disappear again. She attacked at once, the wait for his return having increased her indignation at his perfidy.
      “Fanny is very unhappy. How can you treat her so? I had not thought you so weak-willed as to crawl like a worm at Mama’s and Papa’s bidding.”
     “A worm!” With a repressive glance at an eavesdropping stable boy, Felix drew her through a brick archway into the English garden. “Their disapproval has nothing to do with it.”
     “They have nothing to disapprove of any more, since you have been treating Fanny like a stranger for three days. This morning, Mama went so far as to commend her neat stitches. Have you changed your mind, Felix, as you did with Lady Sophia?”
     He groaned. “I am deeper in love than ever. When I see her I want to...well, that’s not the sort of thing a fellow can discuss with his sister.”
     Her face hot, Constantia turned aside to inhale the fragrance of a pink and yellow honeysuckle. Bravely she persevered. “Is that why you are avoiding her? You are afraid of...of losing control?”
     “Good Lord, no! I hope I have more command over myself than that.”
     “Then why?”
     “Because she doesn’t need me any more, Con. I’m telling you this in confidence, mind. It turns out that she and Frank are closely related to the Duke of Oxshott and they have come into a fortune.”
     “A fortune? And a noble family?” Her mind whirled, but she refused to let herself be distracted. “Then what has she to be miserable about except your determination to avoid her?”
     “Perhaps I have been too aloof,” he conceded warily. “After all, we are good friends.”
     “Felix, you dear, blind idiot, she loves you. Did you tell her you love her?”
     He thought for a moment. “No,” he admitted. “I told her I’d adopt Anita and that I don’t care a fig for my parents’ opinion. And we were interrupted.”
     “There you are, then. It is all a stupid misunderstanding, I vow. You wait here in the honeysuckle bower and I shall send her to you.”
     By the time she found Fanny in the nursery, Constantia’s confidence was fading. She had assured Felix that Fanny loved him, but both she and the captain might be wrong. How dreadful if her interference only led to more pain for Felix and a shocking embarrassment for Fanny!
     Vickie and Anita were walking about the room with books balanced on their heads, under Miss Bannister’s strict but benevolent eye. Vickie’s usually boisterous carriage was much in need of improvement, and Anita loved to copy whatever she did. Constantia’s arrival made both girls lose their concentration and books at once. They fell into a fit of giggles.
     Fanny smiled, but with such an effort that Constantia knew she had to risk trying.
     “Fanny, may I have a word with you?”
     “Of course.” She followed Constantia out into the passage. “Connie, is Frank...?”
     “Captain Ingram is better every day. I’m sure he is too much recovered to have a sudden relapse. Fanny, I feel like a horrid busybody but I must speak. My brother...You and Felix...Oh, dear, I am making a dreadful muddle of this.”
     Fanny flushed, then turned pale. “Felix?”
     “You and he have unfinished business, do you not? He is waiting for you in the English garden. Will you go to him?” she begged, praying that she was doing the right thing.
     “The English garden? Waiting for me?”
     She seemed so dazed that Constantia gave her a little push. “Go on.”
     Fanny started towards the stairs at a sedate pace, then suddenly picked up her skirts and began to run. Reassured, Constantia followed.
     Now she could concentrate on what Felix had told her about the Ingrams. And she had talked of Felix giving in to persuasion that Fanny was unworthy to be his bride! No wonder the captain had been amused.
     Her pace, too, quickened. By the time she reached the long gallery she was positively marching