Free Rules of Attraction by Christina Dodd Page A

didn't hear me."
    "He would have to be deaf not to."
    "Oh, pshaw!"
    While they squabbled like children, Hannah pushed herself away from Dougald— in a cooler moment, her plot for revenge seemed ill-advised and to have gone sadly awry— and stood on her own two feet.
    Dougald rose and without primping— his hair appeared to be quite mussed— said, "Good evening, ladies." He walked toward them, grave and tall and apparently not at all perturbed to be caught kissing a stranger.
    "How are you, dear boy?" The diminutive, gray-haired lady stood on tiptoe. Dougald leaned down. She kissed him on the cheek and patted his head. "Have I told you how happy I am to have my nephew here at last?"
    "Several times, Aunt Spring." Hannah recognized the deep repressive voice. This was the lady who had interrupted them. She sported beautifully styled white hair, and she towered over the diminutive Aunt Spring in both height and breadth. Not that she was fat, but she was big-boned and broad-shouldered, the kind of woman who would have done well caring for the bedridden.
    "But Miss Minnie, she may tell me as often as she likes." Dougald bowed to them both. "It is a pleasure to be so precious to my kind great-aunt."
    Miss Minnie gave a grunt.
    Aunt Spring lightly punched her in the arm. "You see, dear? He is quite a dear boy."
    "Yes. He is." Miss Minnie did not so much speak as decree, and she entered the room like a frigate under full sail. "Good evening, Dougald."
    Dougald bowed at her, then at the lady with twinkling eyes and a mouth made for smiling who had so loudly doubted his masculinity. "Good evening, Miss Isabel."
    Her dark skin and spiny features made Hannah suspect she was Spanish or Italian, and indeed when she spoke Hannah heard the faintest of Latin accents in her low, smoky voice. "Dougald dear, I've told you. You must call me Aunt Isabel. Everyone does." Tweaking his ear, Aunt Isabel winked at Hannah. "You, too, dear."
    Hannah contained the bubble of amusement that rose in her chest. They were either giving her time to regain her composure, or they were always overwhelming in their impetuosity.
    The white-haired lady whipped about the room at the speed of lightning. Stopping at the vase that Charles had rearranged, she restored the flowers to their original position, talking all the time. "Dougald, did you see my rosebush? I told you if we moved it to that sunny corner it would bloom, and today, even in this wretched weather, there was a most handsome blossom of yellow."
    "Good evening, Miss Ethel." Dougald bowed.
    "Aunt Ethel, please. The petals are pointed, you know."
    She seemed to require an answer to her botanic conversation, but Miss Minnie had already turned to Hannah, "Is this the gel who's supposed to take care of Spring?"
    "She is," Dougald said. "Aunt Spring, Miss Hannah Setterington will be your new companion."
    Hannah curtsied. "An honor to make your acquaintance, ma'am. All of your acquaintances."
    Aunt Spring trotted over, her heels clicking on the hardwood. "My, you're a pretty thing."
    "Thank you, ma'am," Hannah murmured.
    "Call me Aunt Spring." She placed her hands on either side of Hannah's face, turning it down toward her. "Aren't you tall?"
    "I am, ma'am." Almost a foot taller than Aunt Spring, two inches taller than Miss Minnie, and about five inches taller than the other ladies, and they were of average height.
    "When I was a gel, I wanted nothing so much as to be willowy like you." Aunt Spring patted Hannah's cheeks. "But Lawrence loved me as I was, and he was quite a handsome man."
    "Lawrence?" Hannah had assumed Aunt Spring was a maiden aunt, one of the legion of girls who grew up not blessed by a dowry, never plucked by a suitor.
    "My dear love. He was killed in the Peninsular Wars before we could marry." Aunt Spring's cheery face dimmed. "It was a long time ago, but do you know I still miss him? I think I hear him call my name, and I turn around, but he isn't there."
    "Stuff and nonsense," Miss Minnie