“You heard that too? Jack…Jack mentioned it. Does everyone know?”
“It seems so. It certainly explains the morning we had. And I’m extremely popular because of it. I’ve had three callers in the time you were gone, all of them sniffing for confirmation of it. And a sight of your fair face.”
“Fair!” She swiped angry hands over her eyes. Irritation was a handy tool to stem her tears. “How money blinds everyone! And it’s not even true. My aunt is more likely to leave her fortune to her dog than me.”
Miss Sedgewick laughed. “She seems like someone I’d like to meet.” Then she got up and retrieved a handkerchief from Lucy’s dressing table, handing it to her as she sat back down. “But is this confusion why you’re so upset? These rumours come and go, you know. The scrutiny may be unpleasant for some time, but if there’s no truth in it, it’ll eventually deflate—like one of Blanchard’s balloons when the hot air goes out.”
Lucy knotted the handkerchief in her fingers. “Jack did not seem to think so.”
“Ah, how did I guess Jack would be at the bottom of this.”
“He seemed to think I was in grave danger. That every fortune hunter in town would be beating down our door.”
“Yes, he’s right.”
Lucy glanced up and saw her sympathetic smile.
“Perhaps notquitebeating down the door,” Miss Sedgewick amended, “but he’s right that you’ll attract a great deal of attention, and often from gentlemen whose motives may be…dubious.”
“Yes, they will want to marry me for my money. I understand that much. But Jack made it seem like I would be entirely defenceless.”
“Determined men can be…impertinent.”
“He said I was naïve!”
“Ah.”
“And helpless!”
“Oh dear.”
“And ignorant!”
Miss Sedgewick winced. “I see.”
“He made it clear that he thinks me a complete idiot! He said he would notpermit—permit!—certain people to talk to me, as though I cannot look after myself. And what right does he have? He is not my father, or my brother, or my…or my anything at all. He is nothing but a boy I used to know. And he still acts exactly like a boy! He said it would befunto be engaged—”
“To bewhat?”
“Engaged! He thinks it would be a great prank! ‘Imagine the look on everyone’s faces,’ he said, ‘little Minnow engaged to the great Jack Orton.How everyone would laugh!’And they would—because look at me! And he said he would buy my trousseau and dress me up, just as if I’m a little doll. That’s all it is to him. Another childish game. And I am just a child to him. When I am not!”
“Oh dear,” said Miss Sedgewick, again gingerly patting Lucy’s shoulder.
But Lucy, already embarrassed by her outburst and by a very awkward recollection, swiftly wiped her face.
“He did not meanreallyengaged,” she hastily reassured her hostess. “It was only to be a ruse, to protect me. I know he…and you…and I should not have spoken so harshly of him. Forgive me.”
Miss Sedgewick only smiled. “No, no! Abuse him freely! I do it often enough. Even to his face. Though it doesn’t seem to do the trick.”
Lucy, a sharp, complicated feeling in her chest and a hot prickling all over her skin, said nothing and focused all her attention on the damp, tortured handkerchief she held.
“He doesn’t love me, you know,” said Miss Sedgewick.
Startled, she looked up.
Miss Sedgewick smiled softly and continued, “He thinks he does. But he doesn’t really.”
“He…he doesn’t?”
