Chapter
Five
This was a disaster. An utter and complete disaster.
Hayward had unwittingly unleashed a nest of hornets with his innocent suggestion that Lady Fosberry and her charges attend next week’s ball. It might start with Lady Dumfries, but it wouldn’t end there. Next it would be the promenade, then Gunter’s for pineapple ices, then the theater, and the next he knew, Hattie would be waltzing at Almack’s.
They’d be in it then, and once that happened, there would be no going back. If the Parrish sisters ventured into society, there would be no chance of them ever returning to obscurity again. Thetonwould sink their claws into them, and when they had them, they wouldn’t easily relinquish them.
Every despicable fortune-hunting scoundrel in London would be after their dowries, and the Parrish sisters no better off than lambs awaiting the slaughter.
He had to see Hattie, now. It was well past calling hours, but it couldn’t be helped.
“What the devil is the matter with you now, Windham? Is it the pineapple ices again?” Hayward cast a baffled look at him as they made their way back to Lady Laetitia’s carriage. “You wereunforgivably rude to Melrose’s sisters, and you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
Hayward had no idea how right he was. “I haven’t got time to explain myself now. Make my excuses to Lady Laetitia, would you?”
“Make your…what are you on about, Windham? Where are you going? You can’t simply abandon Lady Laetitia without a word of?—”
“Forgive me, Hayward.” Cass pushed the tray with the melting ices into Hayward’s startled hands. “But I must go at once. I’ve an urgent matter to attend to.”
“Is this about Melrose’s sisters?” Hayward clutched the edges of the tray. The ice cups slid across the slick surface and the melted cream spilled in a sticky rivulet over the edges of the cups. “Please tell me you’re not following them to Lady Fosberry’s.”
Cass said nothing, but Hayward knew him too well to be fooled.
“For God’s sake, Windham, have you lost your wits? It’s far too late to pay a call now! You can’t descend on Lady Fosberry so late in the day. It’s not done. Wait until tomorrow, and I’ll accompany you to?—”
“No. I beg your pardon, Hayward, but this can’t wait.” Lady Dumfries’s ball was in less than a week, and in any case, what he had to say to Hattie was best said in private. “You’ll offer my excuses to Lady Laetitia?”
Hayward hesitated, but at last he gave a reluctant nod. “I don’t see that I have much choice, but?—”
“Good man, Hayward.” Cass gave his friend a grateful thump on the back and turned to go, but Hayward’s voice stopped him.
“A moment, Windham. I’ll make your excuses, but I’ll be awaiting a full explanation for your odd behavior.”
“You’ll get one. I promise it.” He owed Hayward that much, but not a single soul in London could ever find out the entire truth.
Not even Hattie. Especially not Hattie.
It seemed to take a lifetime for him to ride from Berkeley Square to Hampstead Heath. By the time he arrived the shadows were lengthening across the rolling green lawns and the formal gardens of Lady Fosberry’s estate.
How was he going to explain his presence here at this time of day? Lady Fosberry was hardly the stickler for propriety that so many others in London were, but neither was she likely to be pleased to find him on her doorstep at such an hour.
But as he dismounted and made his way toward the door, a flash of movement in the garden to the right of the house caught his eye. It looked like…the flutter of a lady’s skirt hems moving across one of the graveled garden pathways.
A rose-colored skirt hem, if he wasn’t mistaken.
Here was some luck, at last!
“Wait here, Sampson.” He ran his palm down his horse’s silky nose, then looped his reins around one of the iron posts surrounding the rose garden. “I won’t be long. There’s a good boy.”
By the time he turned around Hattie had vanished, having melted into the darkness, but he’d find her.
He stepped onto the pathway, his boots crunching quietly against the stones, and passed into the garden.
The problemwith London was that it was impossible to find space to breathe.
At least, that was one of the problems. The dust and dirt, the noise and crowds of people, the streets choked with carriages and carts and littered with horse droppings were terribly unpleasant as well, but it was the lack of open space that truly appalled her.
