“Nell.” He unlocked his jaw with an effort. Shouting at Nell only ever made her hysterical, and that wouldn’t help him get the information he needed. “Stop talking nonsense. Min’s neverhad a single trick in her life. If you believe otherwise, you’re an even greater idiot than I’ve always thought. Now stop trying to get my sympathy, for I have none for you. Tell me what on earth has happened here since I left you at Almack’s.”
“It was all Nora!” Nell protested, keen to shift the blame. “I went to see her before bed because she was still in a rage about Lucy spoiling her Almack’s debut by making such a clod of herself. And then she said no doubt it was all part of Lucy’s plan. So I quizzed her on what she meant, and she said Lucy had said she meant to do her very best to catch you, and it was the only reason she accepted the invitation to come here! And that she knew you’d always liked her, and now that she was of age to marry, she meant to use this opportunity to secure you! But of course, it’s your money she really wants, and your title. Lucy Fanshaw, the Countess Orton! Can you imagine?”
Jack stared at her. “You reallyarea greater idiot than I thought. You believed this, did you?”
“At first I was too shocked. I couldn’t believe any girl capable of such gall! But when Nora pointed out how she’d fallen during the dance and begged you to take her away to that little room, it all started to make sense.”
“Where the devil is Nora?” He strode to the door and wrenched it open, meaning to hunt the girl down in her bedroom. But he had no need. Nora stumbled through the open doorway from where she’d been listening outside it.
“Eavesdropping?” Jack didn’t hide his scorn. “Goes well with lying, I suppose.”
“Oh, Jack!” She didn’t bother to get up but knelt at his feet clutching his boots. “I’m s-s-sorry. I didn’t mean it. I was s-s-so angry with Lucy for spoiling everything.”
Nell got up and hurried over. “You mean it wasn’t true?”
“Of course it wasn’t!” snapped Jack.
“But…but…”
“I’m sorry,” Nora sobbed again. “I didn’t want her to be here. I knew Nell meant to hand me off into her care, and I refuse to go around town in company with such…such an odd little dowdy creature. I’d be a laughingstock! And you always ignore me when Lucy is around, Jack. You always did when we were little. And I saw last night that it would be just the same. She gets all your attention and I get none, and it’s not fair. It is my debut, not hers. And she is no one at all!”
“She’s worth a thousand of you, Nora. And I’ve a good mind to pack you off back to Herefordshire and never give you a debut at all.”
“No! Jack! You wouldn’t!”
He was sorely tempted. He was sorely tempted to do a great many things, most of them violent and ungentlemanly. But there was a sick thread of guilt keeping his temper in check. If he’d been in London for Nora’s arrival as Nell had requested… If he hadn’t been distracted by Miss Sedgewick… If he’d taken his duties as head of the family more seriously… Because he’d known, hadn’t he, that Nell wasn’t really up the task. He’d known it ever since she complained to him the first time. But he’d still escaped Almack’s at the first opportunity and gone to drown his sorrows.
He met Nell’s eyes over Nora’s still sobbing figure and saw an echo of a similar guilt.
“Tell me what happened this morning.”
“I… I went to her room before breakfast,” began Nell. “And I told her what Nora had said…”
“And?”
“And she didn’t deny it! She just…”
“Yes?”
“Went very red, then very pale, and said nothing at all. Then she got up and started taking the things from her dressing table,and when I asked what she was doing, she said she was packing. She called for her maid—”
“And you made no effort to stop her?”
“No… I… Believing what I did, I was glad to see her gone!”
“And you told her as much, I suppose?”
Nell’s blush betrayed the truth of that. Good Lord, but that window idea was tempting.
“She was gone within half an hour,” said Nell. “But she has her maid with her. She’s not alone.”
“No! A young woman who has never been to London before? Never been out in society before? And accompanied only by a maid just as clueless as she is!”
Nell flinched but held up her chin. “She’ll have gone to get the stage back to her aunt.”
“If she even knows how! And to do a journey like that alone and unprotected? And don’t mention the maid again, Nell, or I swear I really will throw you out of the window. She was here under our family’s protection, and now she’s been chased out into the world, with no one to look after her… Good God.” The full horror of it swept over him. “I must find her.”
He stepped around Nora and to the door.
