“Absolutely not.” It was Jane who interrupted them. She’d materialized in the doorway while they were distracted, as if summoned by the threat of mischief. “You know your mother will kill me if I let you set foot in Bishop’s.”
“She doesn’t need to know!” Miss Williams dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “I didn’t come all the way to London just to be dragged to her friends’ house parties every evening.”
“She’s only trying to protect your reputation.”
“You and Miss Danby built a whole gambling club by yourselves, and it didn’t hurtyourreputations!” Miss Williams was so indignant, her cheeks had grown red.
“That depends on whom you ask.” Jane finally came over to greet Della properly, and they all sat down together. The maid returned with some tea and sandwiches a moment later, which Jane fell upon as though she hadn’t eaten all day. Perhaps she hadn’t.
“How are you?” Della asked, after she’d given her friend a moment to chew and swallow.
“Quite out of sorts, to be honest,” Jane replied. “Gloria has a fever and hasn’t stopped crying all morning. The doctor thinks it’s only colic again, but she won’t settle for anyone but me when she’d like this.” She massaged her temples. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it to the club tonight, but I hate to ask you to handle things all alone again…”
Oh dear. Della could hardly reply that she’d come here to ask for the evening off, with Jane looked so worn out. And what was she supposed to tell her—that she’d invited a strange man to sneak into her bedroom window this evening for a few hours of bawdy amusement?
Della heaved a regretful sigh. Taking care of a sick infant trumped an indecent liaison. She would just have to write Lord Ashton a note asking him to postpone.
“It’s no trouble at all,” Della said. “You should be with Gloria.”
“Are you sure? You’ve been taking on so much extra work lately. I hope it isn’t an imposition.”
“Don’t think of it.” True, she’d had to decline more invitations this season than she’d ever done before, and a few of her old friends had probably forgotten what she looked like by now, but Jane was the dearest friend of them all. That counted for something. And Gloria wouldn’t be a newborn forever. If they could just make it through this patch, things would get easier.
“I could help,” Miss Williams chimed in. Seeing Jane had parted her lips to object, she hurried on. “I wouldn’t wager any large sums! And I could do anything you need, just so long as I can have one evening without Mama watching over me.”
It wasn’t clear whether the girl’s plea was addressed more to Della or to Jane, for her dark eyes entreated them each in turn, but it was her sister-in-law who answered firmly. “I’m sorry, Hannah, but you know we can’t.”
“You’re as bad as she is!” Miss Williams leapt to her feet. “She’ll marry me off to some old man just to be rid of me, and you’ll all stand by and watch.” With that, she fled the room, leaving Jane to slump on the divan in defeat.
Was I that dramatic when I was younger?Della wondered. She could vaguely remember sobbing into her pillow for three days when the first gentleman she’d fancied proposed to Miss O’Hara, though she’d been sixteen at the time. Hannah was already twentysomething, if memory served. Shouldn’t she have grown out of this stage?
“I feel badly for her,” Jane confessed, unprompted, “but what amI supposed to do? Her mother is determined to see her married and thinks gambling will ruin her prospects.”
“Your uncle used to think the same thing about you,” Della reminded her friend. “And we didn’t let that stop us. Would it do any harm to let her attend for one night?”
It wasn’t only a sense of feminine solidarity that moved Della to speak in the girl’s defense. She recalled Lord Ashton’s comment that she would wear herself out, followed by Annabelle’s accusation that the problem was a lack of trust. Though she hadn’t wanted to admit it when they were united against her, shewastired. And Miss Williams seemed a more reliable choice than Annabelle. If she was serious in her offer to do anything, they could always find a task for willing hands.
It would finally give Della the chance to have a night off now and then for indecent liaisons or even—dare she hope—to make some real progress on her book.
“I can’t afford a row with Mrs. Williams right now.” Jane was massaging her temples again. She looked as though she had a headache. “She already thinks my house is too messy because we only have one maid, and that my baby is colicky because I didn’t hire a wet nurse. I don’t want to be accused of corrupting her only daughter as well.”
Della took a long sip of her tea to prevent herself from saying something uncharitable about Jane’s mother-in-law. Once her temper had cooled, she managed a more diplomatic suggestion. “Perhaps the elder Mrs. Williams would like to go back to her country house and leave her daughter here alone?”
That would solve everything, wouldn’t it?
“I don’t think she’s in any hurry to go back home. If anything, she might like to stay with Hannah to help her set up her own household, if she succeeds in finding her a husband this year. She’s a bitoverprotective.” After a moment, the strain on Jane’s face eased. “I shouldn’t criticize. She trulymeanswell. It’s just that she has such a narrow view of what a woman’s life should be. It can be…suffocating. Particularly for Hannah.”
“What if I took her out to show her the town once in a while?” Della suggested, struck by inspiration. At Jane’s look, she added, “Not to the club, of course. But I’ve been meaning to visit a few attractions for a project I’m working on, and it might give the poor girl a respite from matchmaking if I bring her with me. You could come along and we’ll make an outing of it!”
“Oh, yes, Eli said you were planning to write a guidebook to London?” Though she was good enough not to say anything critical, Jane’s eyebrows nevertheless conveyed a measure of doubt. “When did that happen?”
“It’s a recent endeavor. Remember that gentleman author we talked about, the Viscount Ashton? I couldn’t persuade him to put our club in his book, so I decided to write my own and now he’s helping me.”
Jane blinked. “You do manage to make the most unexpected things happen.”
“You know I like a little variety to my days,” Della returned. “In any event, I’d love to get your opinion on my opening chapters if you have the time for it.” She rummaged through her reticule, looking for the notes she’d brought, just in case. “We couldn’t agree on the introduction. Lord Ashton wants to write it himself, to bridge the two volumes together, but I’m not persuaded he understands the best tone—”
A knock at the door interrupted them before she could finish explaining. The elder Mrs. Williams crept in, an apologetic smile on her face and a fussing child in her arms. “I’m sorry to interrupt your call, girls, but I think this one is hungry again.”
