“I didn’t— It wasn’t—” Demeroven starts, meeting Bobby’s eyes, breathless and seemingly horrified. But he doesn’t manage an apology. Then again, neither does Bobby.
After a charged, truly dreadful moment, Demeroven cuts his eyes away from Bobby’s. He stumbles back and picks up the shuttlecock. “Point,” he rasps out, hitting it forcefully across the net.
Neither Bobby nor Gwen makes any move to rally and it glides over them to land in the back third of their court.
Demeroven fiddles with his jacket buttons, glancing among them. “I’ll, ah, see you later, ladies. Please give my apologies to Lady Steton. I’ve... work to do. Excuse me.”
He drops his racket and walks around Beth, almost jogging out of the garden.
“Bobby, are you—” Beth starts.
“I’m fine,” Bobby says automatically, offering Beth and then Gwen a tight, forced smile. “I’ll go get a drink, cool off.”
“Right,” Gwen says. “Bring some back for us, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Bobby says, stumbling off toward the drinks, his hands curling into fists at his side.
He came to this tea planning to help Demeroven become more at ease. And instead, it feels like he’s been punched in the chest. All he wanted to do was help—to find somethingin common, to maybe be something other than uncomfortable acquaintances together—but how can he, if that’s Demeroven’s opinion of Bobby’s father—of Bobby’s family?
And how could he just let the prick... say that? He didn’t defend himself, or his father—he just let Demeroven walk away, again. Not only does it seem like he’s going to fail Uncle Dashiell, and Beth, but he’s failing Albie too, and his father’s memory, for whatever that’s worth.
Chapter Six
James
“She isn’t that bad,” MissBertram insists, glaring at Lady Gwen as they sit smushed on the opposite carriage bench. They’re both in simple work dresses with aprons, ready for a shift at the Foundling Hospital.
James, fidgeting in his stiff suit, isn’t entirely sure how he ended up escorting them today, nor how he got roped into speaking with the head physician, Dr.Holting, for the Medical Act standing committee. Now he’s trapped in his carriage with his cousin and her stepsister, who have been having a row that he’s desperately been trying to follow since he picked them up. Neither has made any comment about his abrupt retreat from the Steton tea at the top of the week, not that there’s been a break in the argument to do so.
“My apologies—please, remind me, what is the situation with Lady Ashmond?” James asks, wanting to make at least some effort to add to the conversation. Both women turn to look at him, their frustration cascading around the carriage. “If... you don’t mind explaining.”
“Lady Ashmond is the former wife of Lord Ashmond,” MissBertram says, nudging Lady Gwen before she can get a word out. “They divorced six months ago.”
“And she’s your supervisor at the hospital?” James asks,glancing between them. You could cut the tension with a knife, though he doesn’t totally understand why.
“She oversees all the volunteers, yes,” MissBertram says stiffly.
“And keeps coming by to see how Beth is every single time,” Lady Gwen adds. “Hovering.”
“Which is kind of her, given I’m the reason she got divorced in the first place,” MissBertram exclaims.
“Beg pardon?” James asks. How could his cousin—sweet, calm, lovely MissBertram—have broken up a marriage?
“Lord Montson is Lady Ashmond’s son,” Lady Gwen says slowly, as if he isn’t actually listening.
“Right,” he says. “I know, but I don’t under—”
MissBertram sighs. “Ending my engagement to Lord Montson rather precipitated Lady Ashmond filing for a divorce,” she explains.
“Ah,” he says, struggling to follow. “Well, um, it’s nice that she’s being polite, I suppose, then? Is she otherwise a good manager?”
Lady Gwen opens her mouth and MissBertram elbows her. “Surprisingly, yes. She’s very dedicated to the work and seems to enjoy it. Perhaps over time we shall get to know her better.”
“I don’t see why we should even bot—”
“Do shut it, would you?” MissBertram says, looking over at Lady Gwen, who glowers back before staring moodily out the window.
They ride in an uncomfortable silence for a while. James had heard rumors of Miss Bertram’s rather abrupt refusal to marry Lord Montson, just a day before the wedding. Everything about the previous season confuses him, and no one seems to want to discuss it directly—the engagement between Miss Bertram and Lord Montson, his stepfather’s handling of Lady Havenfort’smarriage settlement before James came of age, the way in which James, and his stepfather by proxy, took ownership of the Demeroven townhouse—it’s all a little hazy.
