The carriage had vanished, presumably around to the stables, by the time they reached the house.But Lily’s plans to change her muddy walking garments were foiled when their host stuck his head out of the library.He was an easy-going kind of man and Tabitha was annoyed to see him looking positively harassed.
“Ah, there you are!”he said.“Do come in and greet our visitor.”
“If he has been complaining about our absence to poor Sir Peter...”Tabitha muttered, metaphorically rolling up her sleeves.
“He won’t for long,” Lily said mischievously, swapping Nat Meade’s arm for Jack’s.
“You are a minx,” Jack murmured.
“So Tabbie tells me.”
Tabitha sailed first into the library.“I’m so sorry, Sir Peter, we—” She broke off, startled to be confronted not by Cousin Ralph, but by a complete stranger.
He looked her up and down expressionlessly and made the slightest, haughtiest bow.
Behind her, Jack said blankly, “Uncle Hazlett.”
At that, the rest of the world ceased to exist for the visitor.Lord Hazlett strode forward, grasping Jack hard by the shoulders.“My dear boy!”He peered anxiously into his face.“Are you well?No!You are running a fever!”
Carily would have loved this, Tabitha reflected.Jack, clearly, did not, but just as she had imagined, he was patient with his uncle.
“No, sir, I have merely been walking in the sunshine.I am in perfect health and hope you are too?”
Hazlett blinked, as though the idea of anyone else’s health mattering was preposterous.“I?Certainly, only anxious beyond—”
Jack cut him off, which Tabitha suspected was another first, although he spoke soothingly and with perfect civility.“There is absolutely no need for anxiety, sir, as I wrote to you.What a very pleasant surprise to see you here.But where are my manners?Allow me to make introductions.My lady, this is my uncle, Lord Hazlett.”
Only good manners allowed his lordship to turn civilly to the rest of the company.He bowed again to Tabitha, this time with rather more respect, gathering she was a lady of rank.
“Uncle, this the Dowager Countess of Sark, her stepdaughter Lady Lily Lisle, and Lieutenant Meade, who is on leave from the Peninsular army.”
Lord Hazlett, who had begun to look outraged as Tabitha was introduced, suddenly smoothed his brow and smiled with delight.“Lady Lily!I have heard a great deal about you.A pleasure to make your acquaintance.And you, sir, how do you do?”
“You must excuse us in all our mud,” Jack said mildly.“We walked down to the river, Hawthorn—you have some lovely scenery here, and excellent land, too, by the look of it.Uncle, why don’t you come up to my room and we can talk?”
As he ushered his eager uncle out of the door, he met Tabitha’s gaze for the merest instant.His eyebrow twitched once, but it was enough to maintain the fragile connection between them.
Please don’t let him fall back beneath Hazlett’s thumb...All his life he had striven to cause his guardians least worry and unhappiness.It would be a difficult habit to break.Tabitha loved Jack’s kindness, but was he really hard enough to move beyond that to the happiness of all?Particularly his own.
It was Lily who voiced the other main fear.“Something tells me Lord Hazlett is as set on this match as Cousin Ralph.We must prevent their alliance at all costs.”
“What match?”Lieutenant Meade demanded, staring at her.
***
MEANWHILE, ANOTHERsurprise awaited Jack in his bedchamber, where his old Oxford trunk stood open in the middle of the floor, and his old valet, Fox, shuffled toward him with tears in his eyes.
“Oh, thank God!Your grace lives!”
“Of course, my grace lives.I am perfectly hale and hearty.Very glad to see you, Fox, and the spare shirts and coats will be most useful.”He patted the old man’s shoulder, then left him to his pottering while he led his uncle to the two chairs positioned by the window.
“I’ll own, Isbourne, I went into another blind panic when you wrote that you were coming here on your way home.The Hawthorns have a wild set about them, and you’re not up to snuff, you know.”
“Well, it is fun learning to be so.”
“I hope you don’t play cards for money?”Uncle Hazlett said anxiously.“And I’m sure you have not informed Lady Hawthorn’s cook of your dietary requirements.”
“Of course I haven’t!I have already inflicted myself on her household uninvited, and to be frank, I have no dietary requirements.”
