He just chuckled, clearly unintimidated by his grandmother’s ire.
Turning back to look down the stairs at Johanna, he held out his hand.
“Come, my lady, I’ll show you to your room.”
“You will not!”Lady Stark swatted him again and caused Johanna to stay in her place, swaying slightly since she had almost stepped forward.“Affianced or no, there will be no pre-wedding dallying under my roof.”
“Technically, it is my roof.”
“Get yourself to your own bed, and I will see to Lady Johanna,” she concluded, ignoring his statement about the ownership of the house as thoroughly as he’d ignored the proprieties.Turning to look down the stairs, she smiled encouragingly at Johanna.“Come, my dear.There’s a room just down the hall from me that you can use this evening, and tomorrow we’ll have one prepared for you to use until your wedding.”
“We’ll be getting married by special license as soon as her family arrives,” St.Albans said, striding away at a fast clip, though he somehow managed to look as though he was not running away from his grandmother.
Her eyes, which were bright blue, widened with fury as her nostrils flared.Johanna had been on her way up the stairs, following the lady’s directions, but now she hung back.
Lady Stark closed her eyes, and her chest heaved beneath her dressing gown as she took a deep breath.
“I cannot murder the boy; his heir is a complete addlepate,” she muttered to herself before opening her eyes again.
Johanna watched her mutely, still perched halfway up the stairs, still wondering if she should flee while she had the chance.But where would she flee to?St.Albans had promised to take care of her family.By the looks of the house and his grandmother’s attire, he could well afford it.
And his grandmother seemed more outraged about the lack of a proper wedding than she was about Johanna’s unexpected and disheveled appearance.Things could be far worse, even if her soon-to-be husband had just left her alone with his rather formidable grandmother.
Lady Stark turned her gaze to Johanna, and it swept over her with a calculating eye.
“LadyJohanna?”she asked, as if to be sure.Johanna could not blame her, considering her current attire, her lack of chaperone, and the late hour at which St.Albans had brought her to the house.
She steeled herself and nodded.“My brother is the Earl of Falmouth.”
Swift calculations ran through the woman’s eyes.She might be older, but she was sharp, and she recognized the name.Johanna could only imagine what other information she might remember about the family, but she was far too exhausted to care at this point.
If the woman kicked her out of the house, she would stay on the stoop until her family arrived, then she would figure out what to do.Though St.Albans had seemed very intent on marrying her.
“Come on then,” Lady Stark said, turning.“Let’s get you settled.Tomorrow, I want the full story.”
Johanna was not sure she could give it.Hopefully, St.Albans would be awake tomorrow to make whatever explanation he desired, and Johanna could follow his lead.
That or she would wake up in the boarding house Mr.Blash had put her in and discover this had all been a very vivid dream.At this point, she was not sure which would be odder.
Matthew
The sharp rapping on Matthew’s bedroom door just as he finished readying himself for bed made him sigh.He’d hoped that leaving Lady Johanna to his grandmama’s auspices would distract her, but apparently not.His grandmama wanted an explanation.
“That will be all, Reedy, thank you,” he said to his valet.“Let my grandmother in on your way out.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Reedy said with a bow.Reed-thin, with light-brown hair, he lived up to his name.He was a very good valet for Matthew, adaptable and able to keep up with whatever wild starts Matthew had.They’d been together ever since Matthew had fired his previous valet, who had been his father’s spy.Reedy was loyal to Matthew and no one else.
Grandmama swept into Matthew’s bedroom like a gale wind and came to a halt in the middle, hands on her hips.Her glare could have wilted an entire field of crop.
“What did you do?”she demanded to know.“Where did you find that poor girl?”
“I saved her from a fate worse than death,” Matthew replied, grinning, pleased to be able to defend himself so nimbly.Grandmama’s eyes narrowed, and he quickly gave her an accounting of what had happened.He did leave out that he’d been following Drake, saying only that he’d been tailing a friend.
“She had better say the same thing tomorrow,” Grandmama said, though much of her displeasure had dropped away.Something was still bothering her, though, he could tell.At least she no longer looked as though she wanted to whack him.It also did not seem as though she had definitively decided against it either.
While she didn’t have nearly the strength of his father, her stinging slaps against his arm had always bothered him far more than his father’s harsh punishments.Grandmama was rarely displeased with him, while his father always was.
“She will,” Matthew reassured her.“I think she must have been quite desperate.We’ll see the state of her family when they arrive, but I cannot imagine anything but pure desperation driving her to such acts.She was very quiet and very proper at Blackstone Manor.”
