Author's Note: This chapter contains one of the scenes I had considered cutting, so I hope those of you who encouraged me not to neglect my subplots enjoy getting a little backstory on one of them. I also hope you will all forgive me for ending on a cliffhanger, it was just too tempting!

The weather proved more willing to match itself to Kurt's mood than it had to Blaine's. It rained most obligingly for the next three days. This provided Kurt with a ready excuse for staying indoors and being miserable, though by Monday he was forced to claim he had a stomachache as well to explain his lack of appetite.

In a reversal of their usual roles, Finley prepared mugs of warm milk and brought them to his stepbrother's room. "I hope you have not caught Miss Fabray's ailment," he said. "She was ill for so long, though the worst of it seems to have passed now. Do you feel faint? She often said she felt faint."

"I do not think I am in any danger of swooning, and I am sure I do not have the same complaint as Miss Fabray." Kurt was a bit surprised that Miss Fabray still had not explained the true nature of her ailment to Finley, but his mind was occupied with other matters.

The Hummels were to spend only one week more in Bath. Kurt still did not know where he stood with Blaine. He was not certain he would even have the chance to see him again before the Hummels returned to Lima. Blaine had discouraged Kurt from calling on him and had not called himself these past few days. Though Kurt tried to convince himself that the rain had kept Blaine at home, he had called before when the weather was bad. Blaine had said at Molland's that he cared for Kurt as a friend, but a caring friend ought to have called or at least sent a note to ask how he was. Kurt might be dying of a broken heart for all Blaine knew.

Kurt had never expected to find himself asking his stepbrother for advice on affairs of the heart, but he had no one else to turn to. "Finley, did you always intend to marry Miss Fabray?"

"No, of course not. When I was a boy I never thought of marriage at all!"

"I mean once you began courting her. Did you know that she was the woman you wanted to marry, or did you ever think that perhaps you ought to only be friends?"

"I thought for a time that Miss Fabray would not have me, and that I had better find someone else." Finley paused for such a long time that Kurt thought he had finished speaking, then said "I fear I used Miss Berry ill. She is such a sensitive girl."

"Excessively so, I always felt," said Kurt. He knew there had been a brief flirtation between Finley and Miss Berry; Miss Fabray had told him as much herself. She had described it as Miss Berry pursuing Finley and Finley being too kind to reject her, which had sounded plausible enough to Kurt. He felt that Finley had little cause to feel guilty now. "She has a tendency to make too much of things."

"Then I ought to have been more careful in my conduct! You do not know how I behaved. It was very wrong of me, even if Miss Fabray and I were not yet engaged."

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Do tell."

Slowly, in his typically rambling way, Finley explained how one day that summer he had met Miss Berry while walking back from the village. She had planned to spend the day sketching the landscape and had packed a picnic lunch. Finley offered to carry her basket for her. Once they had found a spot with a suitably picturesque view, she invited him to join her for refreshments. They had a long conversation during which much raspberry cordial was consumed.

"And then I—I kissed her," Finley stammered, getting to the point at last. "I kissed her, and I felt—well, I felt as I had not expected to feel with any woman but Miss Fabray. I was not certain then whether Miss Fabray would ever agree to marry me. We'd had a terrible quarrel only a few days before. She'd said that I lacked ambition and would never be able to provide for a family. Miss Berry seemed pleased to just sit and talk with me, and I thought she was such a good sort of girl and really quite pretty in her way, and...I could not help myself."

"She must have been very surprised," Kurt said drily. He knew Miss Berry had no great interest in drawing, or in any artistic pursuit that did not involve an admiring audience. He considered it unlikely that she would be wandering about with a heavy basket unless she expected to meet a certain strapping young soldier.

"She swore she was not angry with me, but I knew that I should not have taken advantage of her in such a way. I made my apologies and went home. Then the next time I saw Miss Fabray she told me that she was sorry she had been so cross with me and that she hoped I would forgive her. I could hardly be angry at her after what I had done."

"Does Miss Fabray know what happened between you and Miss Berry?"

"Yes, I confessed to her that I had gone walking with Miss Berry and that we had kissed. I thought Miss Fabray would be upset, but she was really most understanding about it. She asked me if I preferred Miss Berry to her, and I said I did not. Then she said that if I promised to be true to her from then on, she would kiss me as often as I liked." Finley scratched his neck and smiled dreamily. "I asked for her hand soon afterward."

Kurt suspected that during this reconciliation Miss Fabray had agreed to do more than kiss. Many puzzling aspects of Miss Fabray and Miss Berry's behavior had become clearer to him after hearing Finley's tale, but he had been more interested to learn that both Finley and Miss Fabray had once possessed doubts about their future together. Perhaps there was still a chance that Blaine would change his mind about Kurt. It was very pleasant to think of Blaine promising to kiss him whenever he liked.

The next day, the weather and Kurt's mood both having improved, he decided it was high time he paid a call on Miss Fabray. He explained at breakfast that he intended to advise Miss Fabray on the trim for her wedding gown and asked if Finley wished to accompany him. As Kurt had predicted, his stepbrother claimed he had other business to attend to that morning. Kurt set off for the King's Circus alone.

As he was passing through Laura Place, someone called his name. He did not have to turn to see that it was Miss Berry. He had no desire to hear of her evening at the theater with Blaine, so he turned up the collar of his coat and began walking more quickly. She pursued, the clinking of her pattens coming closer and closer behind him.

"Mr. Hummel! Mr. Hummel! I know that you hear me!"

He whirled around and lifted his hat to her. "Ah, Miss Berry! How delightful to see you! I am afraid I cannot stop to chat. Good day."

He was not to escape so easily. "So you have not the courage to face me after what you have done!" Miss Berry cried. "I should not be surprised. Only a coward would send his friends to torment me!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"How dare you say such things to Lady Susan? I have never been so offended in my life!"

"You are confused, Miss Berry." Kurt was confused as well. He had thought at first that she must be angry about the Malvolio Scheme, yet Lady Susan had no part in that. "I have never spoken of you to Lady Susan, and I cannot think why I would ever wish to."

"She told me herself! She came to warn me to withdraw my claws from you, for I was not fit to be joined to the same family as her goddaughter, and to be careful lest I gain a reputation as a fortune hunter. Do not try to deny it! Miss Jones said that you told her that you were in love with me as well."

Kurt remembered that Lady Susan had been at Molland's the last time he had been there with Blaine. She must have overheard their conversation and taken it at face value as a quarrel over Miss Berry. While it was fortunate that Lady Susan had not suspected his true meaning, Kurt wished that she had not taken it upon herself to interfere. Now he would have to deal with Miss Berry.

"Did that surprise you?" he said. "It would take a harder heart than mine to resist a girl with your delicate manners and placid nature. Yet as charming as I find it to stand in the street and listen to you shout about your quarrels with other women, not even love can compel me to spend another moment looking at that bonnet. Please give my regards to your grandmother, for I assume that is who lent it to you."

Miss Berry's eyes flashed. "Spare me your irony, Mr. Hummel. You may think me a fool, but I know who it is you love, and for whose sake you spread these lies about me."