“Mrs. Zebodar, I am on a public street with a driver and a footman close by. I am in front of my sister’s home. And I am a grown woman. Either you will go inside and leave the earl and I to have a private word, or I shall get into his carriage with him for a private ride.”
Jasper nearly clapped at her gumption. The chaperone’s eyes had grown exceedingly wider and her mouth had dropped open. She closed it with a clack of her teeth. Looking from him to her charge, her nostrils flared.
“I will wash my hands of you, Miss Sudbury. If you wish to be alone with a libertine, so be it, but I shall no longer be held responsible.”
Thus, instead of going inside, Mrs. Zebodar marched off down one side of Hanover Square.
“Will she be all right?” Jasper asked, thinking to send Rigley to accompany her.
“She’ll be fine,” Julia said. “She lives in the next street and knows everyone in every house between here and there. Regardless, I cannot let you think the worst. Ifoundthat brooch upon the floor.”
He considered this. “You should have tried to discover its owner or, at the least, turned it into our host. It doesn’t really matter how you acquired it. It seems you intended to keep it.”
She hung her head and looked adorable. Moreover, some of his anger flitted away, knowing she hadn’t gone prowling around Wellesley or his wife’s or even his mistress’s bedchambers.
“I won’t always be there to protect you,” he said finally, thinking about what was really bothering him.
“No,” she countered with her usual spirit, “sometimes you’re there to make a chop into a stew and get in my way.”
In a flash, Jasper wanted to roar and tear his hair out.
“May I suggest you hurry inside before I thrash some sense into you,” he all but growled, “and I’ll start with my palm across your pert backside.”
She paled in the light of a Hanover Square oil lamp. But she seemed to get the message, for she nodded and turned to go. Then he remembered something. Much as it pained him to think of not seeing her around Town, the notion of her being tucked away safely in Chislehurst appealed to him.
“If I do not encounter you again before you leave, I wish you a pleasant Twelvetide in Chislehurst.”
“Our plans have changed,” Julia said, “my sister and I are going to Lady Macroun’s house party. It’s in Great Oakley.”
“I know where it is,” he said. “And I forbid you to go!”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Lord M__’s Grosvenor Square home had two visitors from opposite ends of the social stratum. One can only imagine what trouble he is in with both.”
-The Morning Sun
