He leaned his head closer to hers. “We knew this might happen.”
“I know,” she murmured without moving her lips, eyes on the young faces. “I thought… I thought the generosity of the offer might appeal.”
“They are young,” he said. “Generosity is not yet a language they understand.”
Her jaw flexed, a tiny movement. “You are uncharitable.”
“I am precise.”
“I am going to go get some refreshments.” Iris stormed off, and Blaise knew she was upset because of her failed plan.
He decided to go after her when someone spoke behind him.
“Your Grace,” a sharp, youthful voice cut through and stopped him.
Blaise turned. A dark-haired girl in rose-pink trailed slightly behind one of the groups.
“Yes?” he asked mildly.
“Oh, I was only wondering…” She toyed with her fan and glanced at her companion with exaggerated mischief. “Whether Lady Hentley will remain at Hentley once your nephew marries. It must be… strange, sharing a house with a gentleman to whom one is not related.”
“Lady Hentley has been mistress of that house for seven years. She has more right to its management than I, who have known it for seven weeks,” Blaise responded coldly.
“Oh, but it is quite scandalous, actually.”
The words hung in the air.
Several ladies listened in and whispered around him. One of the mothers raised her brows, then looked away with delicate haste, as if caught staring at a street accident.
Blood surged hot behind Blaise’s eyes. The girl’s gaze flicked behind him, and Blaise spun around to find Iris holding a glass of wine in her shaky hand.
“Iris—”
“Excuse me,” she said as she dropped a curtsy to the little group. “I find I am in need of some privacy.”
Before he could catch her hand again, she had turned and slipped through the crowd, a pale, contained figure moving with too much speed towards the wide doors of Knoxford House.
Blaise watched her back for a heartbeat. Then he turned to the girl.
“Miss,” he said in the tone he rarely used outside business, “if you wish to entertain yourself with gossip, I suggest you attend to matters that are true and that concernyou. On the current evidence, you will need all your energies to secure a husband who can tolerate your tongue.”
She went white, then red. Her friend stared, completely dumbstruck. A murmur swept through the garden; he knew he had overstepped some rule about chastising young ladies in public, but he found he did not give a damn.
Blaise bowed briefly to the circle. “If you will excuse me.”
He left them and went after Iris, but was shortly stopped by her sister.
“What has happened to my sister?” Lady Margaret asked with her hands placed firmly on her hips.
Blaise cleared his throat. “Lady Margaret, I am sorting this out and currently searching for your sister myself. She will be fine. Now, if you will excuse me, I wish to continue to look for her and bring her to you.”
She frowned at him before allowing him to leave. Blaise wasted no time as he headed to the house.
Where would she go?
She must be away from the noise and witnesses.
“Iris?” he called out her name as he searched every hallway and opened every door.
