Chapter
Thirteen
“Ithink it’s best if I return to Melrose House today.”
There, she’d said it.
As expected, three heads swung toward her as the words left her mouth, and Sarah dropped her fork with a clatter. Hattie sat quietly, the eggs she’d been pushing around her plate for the last half hour in front of her, her hands folded neatly in her lap and waited for a storm of protests to break over her head like a thundercloud.
That Margaret, Sarah and Lady Fosberrywouldprotest went without saying.
Margaret would remind her it had been her idea to come to London in the first place, and that they’d risked rather a lot to carry out her plan. Sarah, who was no coward, and had never been one to give way in a battle would insist they face the gossipingtonhead on, and as for Lady Fosberry…
She’d be the most disappointed of all except for Hattie herself, who was so ashamed of her own cowardice she couldn’t meet her ladyship’s eyes.
It was a bitter pill indeed to have made it so far and overcome so much only to scurry back to Kent with her tail betweenher legs, but surely they weren’t surprised? They must see that after the fiasco at Lady Dumfries’s ball last night there was no question of her remaining in London.
The moments ticked silently by, one after the next until at last, Lady Fosberry patted her lips with her serviette. “You don’t wish to see the Elgin Marbles today?”
“The Elgin Marbles.” Lord Egerton had stumbled into the ballroom last night with a river of blood gushing from his mouth, most of thetonhad labeled Cass a villain and Hattie a shameless liar, and if that weren’t enough, Lord Egerton had forever destroyed the joy she’d taken in her lovely Prussian blue gown.
Her first and last ballgown, and it was ruined, just as her hopes were.
All this, and Lady Fosberry was concerned about the Elgin Marbles.
“Yes, dearest.” Lady Fosberry gave her a bright smile. “You did say you wanted to see them, did you not?”
“The Horticultural Society’s lectures haven’t ended yet, either.” Margaret set her fork down beside her half-eaten plate of toast. “Indeed, they’ve scarcely begun. Sir Joseph Banks’s Kew Gardens lecture is tomorrow, and I know you wish to hear it.”
“It’s bound to be a fascinating account, and it may well be his last public lecture,” Lady Fosberry added. “It would be a great pity for you to miss it, Hattie.”
Sir Joseph, the Elgin Marbles…it was all pure nonsense. “Are we still acting as if we came to London for the lectures?”
Margaret frowned. “What do you mean? Of course we came for the?—”
“No, we didn’t, Margaret, and you know it as well as I do. I came to London to see Cass, and you came in hopes of meeting Lord Hayward again.”
Margaret stared at her, open-mouthed, her cheeks turning scarlet.
Dash it, she shouldn’t have said that, or at least she might have said it with a bit more kindness. She’d made an utter mess of things from the moment she set foot in London, and now she’d hurt Margaret’s feelings, as well.
But surely there was no point in pretending any longer?
“I beg your pardon, Margaret.” She pushed her plate aside with a sigh. It wasn’t as if she could choke down a single morsel of food, not with her stomach still in knots from the events of last night. “That was unkind of me.”
She dropped her gaze to her plate as another heavy silence fell over the table, and it might have gone on for the whole of eternity if Sarah hadn’t broken it by delicately clearing her throat. “I don’t care one whit for either the lectures or the Elgin Marbles. I came to London to see if Alice Weatherby was telling the truth about theton’s shocking scandals.”
Lady Fosberry chuckled. “Of course you did, dearest, and who can blame you? Those who haven’t witnessed theton’s disgraceful antics can hardly credit a word of the gossip until they see it for themselves.”
“Well, I daresay you have your answer, Sarah.” Despite her misery, a reluctant smile twitched at Hattie’s lips. “It turns out Alice was telling the truth.”
“Alice is a dear, sweet thing, if a touch featherbrained.” Margaret smiled at Sarah to take the sting from her words before she turned her attention back to Hattie. “Are you certain you want to return to Kent now, after we’ve come so far? I don’t deny last night’s ball was a bit trying, but we?—”
“Trying?” A soiled pair of gloves or a misplaced book weretrying. “My dear Margaret, last night’s ball was an utter disaster.”
The whispers and stares when she’d returned to the ballroom after such a prolonged absence, Lady Laetitia’s mockinglaughter and Lady Tremblay’s gloating expression were the stuff of nightmares.
But none of that compared to the expression on Cass’s face when he burst onto the terrace and found her out there alone with Lord Egerton. It had been the single worst moment of her life.
