Another knock at the door, and Jasper went to open it.
From what she could overhear, her sister was about to storm the stairs, and Julia’s temper started to simmer.
“My hat,” she hissed and smacked it upon her head, before sticking in a pin so hard she grazed her skull.“Ow!”
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes. What’s more, I’ve gone from mortified to blistering angry at her interference.”
With those fighting words, Julia marched past him and the silent butler, who waited just outside the door. She headed downstairs, stomping as she did.
As expected, Sarah wasn’t waiting politely in the drawing room, but was pacing at the foot of the staircase.
“How dare you!” Julia said, preempting anything her sister was about to say.
“How dareI? How dareyou?” Sarah retorted. “Andwhywould you?”
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Julia countered.
“Nor should you. You are supposed to be at Lady Rendon’s gathering for women.”
“I changed my mind. Let me remind you, I am a single woman, unattached, beholden to no one.”
Sarah’s mouth opened, then closed, before she looked past Julia to the man coming down the stairs. Her expression became a mask of anger.
Julia didn’t turn, thinking it better not to make eye contact with the earl.
“Countess,” came Jasper’s smooth tone.
Julia had assumed he would be contrite or, at the very least, embarrassed. Instead, he passed her before coming to a stop directly in front of Sarah as if to welcome her. He didn’t take her hand, though, since he was as likely to be punched if he tried.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your unexpected visit?”
There was a hard edge to his voice, and Julia realized he was as upset at the interruption as she was.
“Lord Marshfield, can you truly be asking me that question,” Sarah spat out each word, “when my sister was here. Alone. With you!”
When Jasper said nothing, she added, “Withouta chaperone.”
He gestured behind him, in Julia’s general direction.
“As you can see, you had no call to rush to her aid. Miss Sudbury is unharmed.”
“Is she?” Sarah snapped. “What about her reputation?”
Julia swallowed, watching the battle unfold.
“Her reputation,” Jasper repeated. “Why, it is as solid and unblemished as ever it was.”
Julia tried to make out if he was insulting her, saying she’d never had a perfect reputation to begin with, or was defending her.
“What’s more,” he continued, “she will have no cause to worry about her respectability unlessyouchoose to tarnish her name.”
“Me?” Sarah took an indignant step back. “I will always protect my sister.”
Julia recalled how she’d intended to follow Lady Daphne’s advice and protect Sarah, but her good sense had gone out the window when Lady Chandron’s strange and threatening missive had arrived.
Turning to Jasper had seemed a good, albeit wanton and self-indulgent, idea. Moreover, she’d never got around to asking him for assistance.
