Mrs. Bell looked down at her notebook.
“I returned his plate to the cupboard.”
Sebastian waited.
“She said he wasn’t ready to join the table.”
“Did you know about the points?”
“Not until he was serving.”
The chef spoke next.
“I sent bread through Rose. He wouldn’t eat it.”
“Why?”
“He said eating early would count as taking something.”
Sebastian looked toward the kitchen door.
He had spent the last day imagining the humiliation.
He had not yet understood every practical consequence of it.
The driver, Jonah, shifted in his chair.
“My daughter wanted to call him.”
“Nell?”
“Yes. Lavinia said it would confuse the evening.”
Sebastian nodded slowly.
“I’ll speak to Teddy about inviting her again.”
Jonah looked uncomfortable.
“Please don’t make her part of an apology to me.”
Sebastian met his eyes.
“She’s his friend.”
“Then let them be friends. They don’t need a lesson attached.”
That was fair.
Sebastian accepted it.
At the end of the meeting, he thanked everyone.
Rose remained behind.
“You’re going to want them to tell you everything immediately now,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Make sure they see what happens when the information is something you don’t like.”
He nodded.
The promise would mean very little until someone tested it.
Lavinia returned three days later to speak with Sebastian.
They met away from the house.
She brought a notebook.
For a moment, he thought it contained an apology.
Instead, she had written examples of Teddy’s difficult behavior.
Refusing vegetables.
Interrupting a conversation.
Complaining when an outing changed.
“He’s not the helpless little angel you’re treating him as.”
Sebastian looked at the list.
“No. He’s a child.”
“He needs limits.”
“Yes.”
“So why am I being punished for providing them?”
“Because you made love and food part of the limit.”
She pressed the notebook shut.
