Whatever Hyacinth might feel about Lady Joanna, she was far too polite to fail to make the introductions. “Mr. Ramsay, may I present Lady Joanna Claire? Mr. Ramsey is recently arrived in London from Scotland.”
Lady Joanna dipped into a graceful curtsey. “I daresay you didn’t receivequitethe welcome you expected when you arrived, Mr. Ramsey. May I take it from your being here tonight you aren’t, after all, a murderer?”
Lachlan stared at her.Christ. That was plain enough. He was tempted to tell Lady Joanna she could take his presence however she liked, but any rudeness on his part would reflect on them all, so instead he forced a tight smile. “You may.”
This short reply was just on the edge of incivility, but Lady Joanna shrugged it off. “But Miss Somerset doesn’t defend you, sir. I do hope she doesn’t mean to imply with her silence that you have, in fact, committed a murder?”
Hyacinth paled, and sucked in a quick breath. “No. Not at all. I, ah…made an unfortunate mistake the other evening.”
Lady Joanna’s eyes narrowed. “Pity you should have said such a thing in front of all of London then, isn’t it? One would think, Miss Somerset, you’d be certain before you made such a grave accusation.”
Hyacinth’s fingertips dug into his arm, and she had that stunned, frozen look of a fox who realizes it’s been cornered, right before the hounds tear it to shreds.
She didn’t offer a word in her own defense.
“It was a misunderstanding, nothing more,” Lachlan said evenly. “Anyone else might have made the same mistake. Even you, Lady Joanna.”
“Oh, I doubt it.” Lady Joanna tittered. “But you’re very kind to defend Miss Somerset, Mr. Ramsay. For as long as I’ve known her, Miss Somerset has been rather a slave to overactive nerves. A bit of a frenzied imagination, I think.” She tapped Hyacinth’s arm playfully with her fan, as if they were the best of friends. “I’ve never seen it cross into outright hysteria as it did the other evening, though. Are you quite well, Miss Somerset? You look a bit peaked, even now.”
“Very well, yes.” But Hyacinth’s voice was faint, and her gaze was darting around the ballroom, as if she were looking for an escape.
“I’m vastly relieved to hear it. You’re so pale. I thought you might be on the verge of a swoon.Anotherone, that is.”
Lachlan’s jaw went hard. Lady Joanna put him in mind of a lazy, malicious cat, taking one swipe after another at a nervous mouse, toying mercilessly with it before ending it with a single deadly slice of its sharp claws.
With a little effort, even the most timid mouse could sink a tooth into its tormentor, but he could see by Hyacinth’s blank expression she’d already retreated into herself. She held her tongue, and like all cats, Lady Joanna grew bored of her game when her prey ceased to squirm. “Is that your sister, dancing with Lord Sydney?” she asked, turning back to Lachlan.
“It is.”
“Yes, I thought so. And that must be your brother, on the other side of the ballroom, with Lady Chase and Lady Atherton. My goodness, Mr. Ramsey. If you were an affectionate brother, you’d save him from such an awful fate as that.”
Lachlan gave her a cold look. “You’re aware Lady Chase is Miss Somerset’s grandmother?”
“Oh, I’m aware, and of course Lady Chase is excessively diverting, but surely your brother would rather dance than stand about chatting with old ladies and wallflowers.” She let out a tinkling, brittle laugh that made Lachlan think of glass shattering. “Do call him over, Mr. Ramsey. Oh, and look, here are my dear friends Miss Barton and Miss Tilbury, so anxious to meet you and your brother.”
The two simpering misses who’d joined Lady Joanna batted their eyelashes at him, but aside from brief nods in her direction, they both ignored Hyacinth. Before long, it became clear to Lachlan that Lady Joanna and her gaggle of dim-witted friends were intentionally excluding her.
The longer it went on, the more furious Lachlan grew. A few more gentlemen and ladies joined them, but they took their cue from Lady Joanna as well, and after a few shallow bows and cool smiles, they also dismissed Hyacinth, chatting and laughing with each other as if she weren’t there.
Lady Joanna kept him engaged with an endless stream of blather, but at last Lachlan managed to free himself for long enough to take Hyacinth’s arm and draw her aside. “What the devil is going on?”
“Nothing. That is, it’s all right. Just take me back to Lady Chase, won’t you?” She didn’t meet his eyes, and her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment and misery.
“Hyacinth, tell me why they’re being so rude to you.”
She glanced fearfully back at the knot of people behind them, which was growing larger by the second. “I can’t explain it all now, but Lady Joanna bears a grudge against Iris for some business that happened last season. It seems she’s decided to vent her ire on me in Iris’s stead.”
“Then we’ll both return to Lady Chase at once, and stay there.”
He drew her arm through his elbow and tried to lead her away, but she dug her heels in to stop him. “No! Listen to me, Lachlan. Lady Joanna is the belle of the season, and her friends—they’re the most fashionable young aristocrats of theton. All of Isla’s best prospects move in Lady Joanna’s set, including Lord Sydney. You can’t afford to alienate them. Just take me to Lady Chase and fetch Ciaran to come back here with you.”
Lachlan didn’t give a bloody damn who they were. “No. I won’t just abandon you—”
“Please, Lachlan. I…I prefer it, really.” Her blue eyes were pleading. “I d-don’t want…I-I c-can’t stay here another moment.”
Lachlan ran an agitated hand through his hair. Damn it, he didn’t like this, but she looked frantic, her stammer had returned, and she was growing more agitated by the moment. “It’s all right. I’ll take you back to Lady Chase, if you wish.”
“T-thank you.” She was trembling as he escorted her across the ballroom to her grandmother. He laid his hand over hers, and even through their gloves, he could feel the iciness of her skin.
