“Ah, my dear. There you are. Lady Atherton was just telling me…” Lady Chase’s voice faded as she got a close look at her granddaughter’s face. “Hyacinth? Are you unwell?”
“N-no. Just fatigued, Grandmother. Mr. Ramsey was kind enough to escort me back to you to rest. I see Isla’s found a partner, and Lady Joanna has asked for an introduction to Ciaran. It’s all going very well, I think.” She managed a wan smile. “Mr. Ramsey, won’t you introduce Ciaran to your new friends?”
Friends?They were no friends of his. “I don’t want—”
“Go on, Mr. Ramsey.” Lady Chase waved him off. “The dance is over, and Lord Sydney is leading your sister off the floor. He’s an earl, you know, and it looks like he admires her. You must go and make his acquaintance at once.”
Lady Atherton was staring curiously at him, and they’d attracted the attention of Ciaran’s wallflowers, as well. Lachlan had no choice but to bow, and lead his brother off to meet Lady Joanna’s fashionable set of featherbrains and peahens.
The evening dragged on endlessly, but never more so than when Lachlan was obliged to invite Lady Joanna to dance. Ciaran was charming to everyone, but much to Miss Tilbury’s and Miss Barton’s disappointment, he danced only with those ladies who’d been obliged to sit out. Isla danced every dance, and was singled out for Lord Sydney’s exclusive and admiring attention.
Hyacinth didn’t dance again. Not even with Lachlan or Ciaran, though they both pressed her to. No other gentleman asked her. All three of the Ramseys made a point of returning to her side throughout the ball, but no one else approached her in her solitary corner.
Then, she disappeared entirely.
Lachlan searched the ballroom for her, and had Isla check the ladies’ retiring room, but they didn’t see Hyacinth again until the end of the evening, when Lady Chase appeared with her hand tucked into her granddaughter’s arm, and informed them she’d called for the carriage to take them all home.
Hyacinth hadn’t needed any columns. She’d found another place to hide.
Chapter Eleven
Hyacinth knew how to disappear. She’d had many years of practice.
But when she crept back into Lady Bagshot’s ballroom at the end of the evening and saw Lachlan Ramsey’s scowl when he caught sight of her, she knew she was about to face a reckoning. When he gruffly informed her he’d sent Isla and Ciaran ahead in Lady Atherton’s carriage, she realized it was coming sooner rather than later.
Good Lord, he looked grim. She’d rather face a dozen Lady Joannas than that black scowl.
“Where is my grandmother?” She tried to suppress a shiver as he settled her wrap around her, and his big fingers brushed her shoulders. “Surely she didn’t leave the ball without me?” Her grandmother could hardly be persuaded to leave aroomwithout her, much less Lady Bagshot’s ball.
“She’s in the carriage, waiting for us. She’s fatigued. I tried to send her with Lady Atherton, but she refused.” His tone was clipped.
Hyacinth let out a relieved breath. She wouldn’t be alone with him for the drive home, then. There was one witness, at least.
But when Lachlan handed her into the carriage, Hyacinth found her one witness half-asleep, the green feathers in her turban fluttering wildly with each nod of her head. By the time they drew away from the curb, Lady Chase was snoring contentedly.
Lachlan looked anything but content. His jaw was hard, his mouth tight. He’d crossed one long leg over the other and thrown a massive arm across the back of the seat, but his casual posture didn’t reassure Hyacinth.
This was not the man who’d led her so carefully through the waltz this evening—the man who’d made her laugh with his stories about his boyhood with his brother. No, right now he looked more like the man who’d used that same brother’s face as his punching bag on a dark night in an Aylesbury inn-yard.
Hyacinth squirmed in her seat. Goodness, this was awful. Not just because he looked angry. That is, hedidlook angry, but he also looked…
Troubled. Disappointed, even.
Well, that made two of them, but then she was so accustomed to that vague, niggling discontent whenever she went into company, she hardly even noticed it anymore.
Except tonight. Tonight, she noticed it.
It had been a long time since she’d had anyone in her life to disappoint. Her family had long since accepted her shortcomings as simply the way she was, and she had, too, but now…
Was ithisdisappointment in her that hurt the most, or her disappointment in herself?
A chill washed over her, and Hyacinth gathered her heavy wrap tighter around her neck. She turned to look out the window so she wouldn’t have to see the disillusionment on Lachlan’s face, but despite her efforts, her gaze was drawn back to him again and again, until she could stand it no longer. “Mr. Ramsey, I believe I owe you an explanation for my—”
He silenced her with a single shake of his head. He didn’t say a word for the rest of the ride to Bedford Square, but he never took his eyes off her. When the carriage rolled up in front of the entryway, he opened the door without waiting for the driver, descended, and held out his hand to her.
Hyacinth hesitated, but his eyebrows shot up in challenge, as if he were perfectly willing to throw her over his shoulder and carry her to…well, she didn’t know where he’d carry her, but it didn’t seem wise to find out.
She laid her fingers in his gloved palm and let him help her from the carriage. He closed the door quietly behind her, then led her by the hand through the front door and into the entryway.
