Hyacinth drew in a deep breath. It was as good a place as any to explain herself. She’d never once heard Lachlan raise his voice, but if hedidhave a mind to shout at her, it wasn’t as if he do it in the middle of her grandmother’s entryway. “Lachlan, I—”
She gasped as he backed her up against the door behind her, and moved so close she could see the tiny gold flecks in his eyes. “Where did you disappear to tonight, Hyacinth?”
“Disappear?” She cringed at the telltale croak in her voice. “I didn’t—”
He took her by the shoulders. “Yes, you did. You stayed with your grandmother and Lady Atherton for a while, but by the time I returned from my second dance with Lady Joanna, you were gone.”
“Yes, well no good ever came from dancing with Lady Joanna.”
Oh, no. Dash it, she’d gone and blurted that aloud, like a jealous, sniping shrew. Her eyes went wide as that thought took hold.
Am I jealous, over Lachlan Ramsey?
No, surely not. That is, her belly did leap with joy when she coaxed a smile from his lips, and perhaps once or twice she’d imagined what it might be like to kiss him, but that didn’t prove a blessed thing. She thought of him as a brother, nothing more, and he’d made it clear he regarded her as a sister, so there could be no question of jealousy between them.
No question at all.
That elusive smile of his twitched at the corners of his lips at her unexpected outburst, and a peculiar, fluttering weakness rose from her knees to her belly—
No, no. This wouldn’t do. Her feelings for him weresisterly. No question about that, and it was delightful, really, because hadn’t she always wanted a brother?
His hands tightened on her shoulders. “You didn’t answer my question. Where did you go? I know you weren’t in the ladies’ retiring room, because I sent Isla to look for you there.”
He had?That was…surprising. He took his role as protective brother more seriously than she’d thought. “Yes, all right. It’s nothing so awful. I went and rested in Lady Bagshot’s library for a little while.”
It was a trick she’d learned from Violet, who’d spent a good part of her own season hiding in one library or another. Even now, Violet insisted one could discover a great deal about a person from snooping through their books.
Hyacinth expected this information to soothe Lachlan, but he was frowning down at her, looking anything but soothed. “You went to the library alone? That’s not safe.”
“Not safe? That’s absurd. What place could be safer than a library?”
“You can’t be as naïve as that. Do you think there wasn’t a single rake among all those fine English peers at the ball tonight? What if one of them had followed you? No one knew where you were, and no one would have heard you if you cried out.”
Rakes, stalking young ladies, then leaping upon them in dusty libraries? It sounded a bit far-fetched to Hyacinth. “My grandmother knew where I was—”
“ButIdidn’t know. I had no idea where you were, and Lady Chase had gone off to the supper room by the time I missed you. Anything could have happened to you in that amount of time.”
Hyacinth stared at him in shock. He’d released her shoulders and was pacing from one end of the entryway to the other, his hand gripping his hair in agitation. “I—I’m sorry. I n-never meant to worry you. I suppose I wasn’t th-thinking.”
He stopped in front of her and grasped her shoulders again. “I told you I’d watch over you this season. Did you think I didn’t mean it?”
“No, of course not. I just didn’t think…” she trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence.
I didn’t think you’d notice if I was gone.
That hehadnoticed felt strange, and not in a way she’d ever experienced before. She couldn’t say what the fluttery feeling in her chest meant, but it didn’t feelsisterly.
“Before Lady Huntington left for Buckinghamshire, I promised her I’d take care of you. I made you the same promise. Do you think I’m not a man of my word?”
Hyacinth laid a hand on his arm, appalled to see he looked offended, or worse, hurt. “No, of course I don’t think that. I’m sorry, Lachlan. Truly. I won’t disappear again.”
After a pause he nodded, and then they stood for an endless moment in an awkward silence, until Lachlan released a heavy sigh. “That business with Lady Joanna—what was that about? I could tell you weren’t prepared for her attack.”
She was quiet for a moment, then, “No, but perhaps I should have been. I knew thetonwould punishsomeonefor the scandal. Now I think on it, it makes sense it would be me, as I was the one who made the false accusation. If Lady Joanna hadn’t tormented me, someone else would have.”
“Is Lady Joanna that spiteful with everyone?”
“I won’tquitesay that, but she’s not precisely delightful company, either. She dislikes all the Somersets, but her particular grudge is with Iris.”
