Her uncle, Lord Collingwood, was kind in a distant way, but the rest of the family regarded their guest with feelings that were dubious at best. Maxie could understand their position; she was an oddity that never should have set foot in an English country house. She suspected that the fashionable world would be even less welcoming. No matter; she had no desire to enter that world. In her own country, there was more room to be different.

The major deterrent to returning home was that she had less than five pounds to her name. However, Lord Collingwood would surely lend her the fare to America, plus a little extra to support her until she was established.

His lordship would probably balk at first, worrying whether he was doing his duty by his late brother's only child. Proper English girls would not want to go off on their own; the correct behavior was to live on someone else's charity.

However, Maxie was neither proper nor English, as had been made clear in a hundred subtle and not so subtle ways in the four months since she and her father had arrived in Durham. She did not choose to become one of her uncle's dependents.

Even if his lordship was reluctant to see her leave, he couldn't prevent her from doing so. Maxie had just turned twentyfive, and she had been taking care of herself and her father for years. If necessary, she would find work and earn her own passage home.

Her decision crystallized, she rose to her feet with an unladylike athleticism, brushing crushed grass from the skirt of her black dress. The mourning gown was a concession to the sensibilities of her English kinfolk. She herself would have preferred no outward display of her loss. Well, it would not be for much longer.