“It’s just a name,” Tristan protested.
“Not when it destroys a reputation,” Ophelia countered.
Eleanor didn’t care for hearing all of this. She didn’t like how it painted Tristan—uncaring, and frankly, villainous. “Did you really?”
Tristan looked at her, and the vulnerability she saw in his face was shocking. Gone was the confident veneer of a gentleman and a scoundrel. This was a little boy who’d been caught out. “I did. It was years ago, and it was bad of me to do so. She always seemed to pick at me, saying mean things, and I didn’t like it. I wanted her to stop, and frankly, her presence was always ‘bad news’ to me, then. I said as much to some friends, and well, it took on a life of its own.”
Ophelia’s eyes skated over to Eleanor’s. “What you don’t realize in the innocence of his telling is who his friends are. Men with power, men with connections.”
“We wereboysat the time.” Tristan protested, throwing his hands up.
“You were old enough to go to war and didn’t manage that, did you? No, you conspired to ruin a girl’s reputation.”
“Like you could ruin Justine. She’s already done it herself,” Tristan scoffed.
Eleanor didn’t like that one bit. “She has never done anything truly ruinous. She speaks her mind, but really only in private company. She laughs when something is funny, is that so wrong?”
“Look at how she dresses, and who she dances with,” Tristan said.
“You know as well as I do that a lady cannot refuse a dance,” Ophelia snapped.
“Justine dresses at the height of fashion. She’s dressing like every other woman in a ballroom,” Eleanor said, feeling rather protective of Justine.
Lady Rascomb came over, her cane topped with a pretty ivory rose. “This looks like a rather heated discussion that might be best held at another time.”
“Tristan is finally coming round to the idea that he may have single-handedly ruined Justine.” Ophelia’s hands crossed over her bosom.
“Oh dear. Not the revelation we hoped for a ballroom.” Lady Rascomb did look properly shocked.
“Not in that way,” Tristan said. “Just by giving her that nickname.”
Understanding dawned on Lady Rascomb’s face, and did Eleanor see some relief as well? “I see. Then a deep apology is in order, dearest. But now, the music is about to start, so we ought to find our partners. Off you go.”
Eleanor tried to erase her troubled look as Tristan wandered off to find Lady Emily. Tristan’s behavior was rather horrible. How could anyone be so callous? And to poor Justine who was so full of life? Could she really be falling for a man who would perpetrate the downfall of a young lady for no other reason than malice?
As Lord Berringbone approached her for the first dance, she gave him a polite smile. It was an honor to have the first dance with the host, and he was indeed signaling his acceptance of her by opening the party with her. She wondered how her parents had managed it.
Her parents were dancing together, this first dance, which was nice to see. Her mother’s health had not always permitted her to go out, and her father was often too busy with work to find the time for social functions.
“Are you enjoying the Ladies’ Alpine Society?” Lord Berringbone asked.
“I am very much, my lord,” she answered, feeling oddly swept up in the moment. Here she was, in the country, dancing with a nobleman. How strange for a girl who spent most of her time down at the docks.
“You seem to have fit in nicely with the other young ladies,” he observed.
“Your sister is very generous with her knowledge and her kindness. She’s an excellent leader. I have no qualms about her expedition.”
“So you’ll be ready to climb Ben Nevis in a month’s time?” He looked down at her, and the kindness she saw there made him more handsome than he’d seemed before.
Before they’d danced, he was so aloof that she hadn’t known what to think of him. He was like a less handsome version of Tristan, who was so near to an English ideal that she didn’t know of a man, living or dead, that could surpass him. But knowing Tristan’s past behavior, and experiencing Lord Berringbone’s kindness, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was indeed the other way around. That the elder brother was the better of the two.
“I believe I will be. I need to keep up the physical conditioning that Ophelia has prescribed, but that shouldn’t be too much trouble. Lord Rascomb is going over the packing lists for everyone. I think I’m most nervous about forgetting something.”
“Understandable. It’s quite an undertaking. You did not mind sleeping out under the stars?”
“The first night I wasn’t sure about it—I thought we’d at least have a tent. But after that, I was too tired to care, or too enamored with the stars to be bothered.” Lord Rascomb explained how heavy a tent was, and how they ought to acclimateto sleeping in the open. They wouldn’t always, but in a safe place like the ruins of Berringbone Hold, they could manage.
Lord Berringbone smiled, increasing his attractiveness once again. “I do enjoy sleeping out under the stars. It feels so freeing, somehow.”
