“I really did hope that when that idiot stable lad friend of yours got himself promoted to a groom he would cease lending you horses from his master’s stable!” Because of course Miss P knew about Lottie’s main supplier of borrowed horses just as she seemed to know about everything else. She was either omnipotent or she had a vast network of spies covering the whole of Mayfair. “But did you really have to court further scandal by galloping across Hyde Parkagainthis morning when your dismissal is still so fresh? And in breeches too? Could you not have at least worn a skirt to cover them like you usually do?”
“I forgot.” Lottie winced at that lie, considered crossing her fingersbehind her back, and then gave up. She had known Miss Prentice for seven years so also knew that when the jig was up, it was up. “I didn’t forget. Petticoats always get in the way and I’m sorry. I just… needed to go fast this morning.”
“Why?” Instantly Miss Prentice was concerned. “Is something else wrong, dear?”
“Nothing is wrong…” Miss P stroked Lottie’s arm and the dam holding up all her fraught emotions burst. “Everythingis wrong. The barley crop has failed and thanks to my own rash stupidity and continued lack of decorum, I currently have no wages to send home to help my family through the crisis.”
“Oh dear. Your poor papa.” Miss P squeezed Lottie’s arm in sympathy. “But his misfortune is all the more reason to meet Lady Frinton with all haste. I cannot deny that she is likely to be a horror to work for, but if she hires you, dearest, I hear the wages that she pays are excellent. That said, to set your expectations I must warn you that that is currently a very bigifindeed with all the rumors about you flying about. Lady Frinton is very well informed of all the latest gossip and she is as notoriously picky as she is infamously difficult. But it has to be worth a try.”
Thanks to the allure of excellent wages, Lottie let Miss P drag her across the room but didn’t hold out much hope that she would impress the old dragon who was already eyeing her with distaste. Not when Miss P’s suspicions were right and gossip about her was indeed swirling about the ton, and apparently at a rate of knots too. She’d been asked by three complete strangers here today if she knew which of Miss Prentice’s protégées had been dismissed by Lord Chadwell. She had denied all knowledge of it, of course, but her mentor’s point had been proved. Mayfair was a very small place that was fueled by gossip, and she was not onlytheguilty party, she stood out.
Her latest impropriety wasn’t going to be a stain that was easily removed now that a version of events had leaked their way out of Chadwell House. If one of the scandal sheets printed it then it would go from idle gossip to the gospel truth in a heartbeat. If it did, it would be better allaround if Lottie was miles away when it happened. Miss P did not deserve to suffer because Lottie had, once again, put off worrying about the consequences of her actions.
“Lady Frinton—allow me to introduce you to Miss Charlotte Travers.”
Rather than say “How do you do?” like any normal person, Lady Frinton responded by lifting her quizzing glasses and giving Lottie a thorough, head-to-toe once-over. Only when that was done did she scowl. “Did you grow up in a greenhouse, gal?”
“No, my lady.” She forced herself to smile past her immediately gritted teeth and tried not to take offense at the single most unimaginative insult that had plagued her since childhood. “A farm.”
“Where I presume you slept on a bed of manure alongside the carrots.” The magnified eyes perused her once again as if Lottie were some sort of exhibit in a museum of curiosities. “Because you are unfashionably tall for a female.” Lottie decided there and then she disliked this woman. But as Miss P had stated, beggars could not be choosers and she seriously needed money.
“My father is tall, ma’am. So was my mother.”
“Was?” The magnified eyes narrowed behind the lenses. “Did you kill her coming out?”
“No, ma’am.” As this interview was already going badly, Lottie decided to answer that direct and tactless question with an equally direct answer in the hope it stopped this intensely personal line of questioning stone dead. “Consumption killed her when I was but ten.”
“That is unfortunate for the both of you. A girl needs her mother at that age.” For the briefest of moments, there seemed to be a flicker of humanity in the old dragon’s eyes until they narrowed again. “My acquaintance Mrs. Wilson here”—Lady Frinton jerked her head toward a startled-looking woman who instantly tried to blend into the wallpaper—“lives on the corner of Brick Street and Piccadilly.” A sentence that sent a shiver down Lottie’s spine because the family her longtime accomplice at the stables worked for also lived on Brick Street. “Her bedchamber window overlooks the park and she is convinced that you must be the galwho was recently dismissed from the service of Lord Chadwell for horse theft because she swears blind that she has seen you take a horse out a time or two before.”
“It is true that when at home,in Kent,I like to ride.” Lottie did cross her fingers behind her back now. “But, alas, I have never had the pleasure of riding here in town.”
“Then there must be another ridiculously tall, golden-haired woman who gallops about at dawn as if the hounds of hell are nipping at her heels.” Lady Frinton pinned her with a glare that called Lottie a liar. “Do you have a twin, gal? Or would you like a second chance to set the record straight? As I’ll warn you that I cannot abide liars.”
As that damning question was the official death knell of this interview, along with any chance the rumors about her now not turning into an outright scandal for the school, there seemed little point in denying it. “I didn’t steal it, more borrowed it so that both I and that neglected Thoroughbred could take some well-needed morning exercise.” She turned immediately to Miss P. “I am sorry, Miss Prentice. I have brought shame on your school and thus, I shall immediately pack my bags and will never darken your door again.”
As Miss P did a wonderful job of acting completely surprised and horrified by that confession, Lady Frinton scoffed. “So now you claim it was more an act of charity than a theft?”
Lottie shrugged, guilty color infusing her cheeks, which she desperately tried to ignore. “A horse like that was born to run and not languish in a stable.”
That was met with stony silence that Lady Frinton stretched several seconds longer than was bearable. “I approve of that honest answer, Miss Travers.” Something akin to mischief danced in those ancient eyes now. “Most especially because I have a soft spot for all things equine and I have always thought Chadwell is far too fat for a Thoroughbred.”
A statement that was too insulting, too outrageous, and far too true forced Lottie to bite back some wholly inappropriate laughter. Laughter which soon died in her throat when the woman skewered her with a glowerthat was much too intuitive. “I do hope that you will indulge me with more honesty, Miss Travers, when I put it to you that I suspect there is more to the tale of your sudden dismissal than thecommongossip suggests?” The emphasis on the word “common” made Lottie wonder if Miss P’s network of spies had nothing on this old dragon’s. “For I smell shenanigans, young lady, and my nose is never wrong.”
She was sorely tempted to answer with the truth but Miss P’s elbow in her ribs urged caution.
“Surely, borrowing a Thoroughbred without permission, no matter what the provocation, would be considered shenanigans enough for any employer to terminate employment?” Lottie made sure to stare the woman straight in the eye.
“Under usual circumstances, most would think so, Miss Travers. But I am not most people and the fact that it isn’t so much Lord Chadwell as his son who currently wants your head on a spike is what makes this so unusual.” The old woman’s lips curled at the mention of Chadwell’s odious heir. “Did that scoundrel take liberties?”
Despite the hard press of Miss P’s elbow in her side, Lottie’s gut told her to be honest. Even if it did mean that she had to kiss goodbye to a much-needed job and remove herself from this school for the foreseeable future. “He attempted to, Lady Frinton—but it did not end well for him.”
Lady Frinton threw her head back and roared with laughter. Her cackles were so loud, they made the other fifty or so wedding guests stop what they were doing to stare. “I like that answer even more, Miss Travers!” Then she turned her attention to Miss Prentice. “She’ll do. Have her packed and waiting outside my house in Grosvenor Square on Thursday. We leave for Scotland promptly at noon.”
ChapterFOUR
“Seeing as we are nearly three weeks out, how would you like to celebrate your birthday, darling?”
Guy almost groaned aloud at his mother’s seemingly casual and overbright question because he knew what was coming next. She always saw his birthday as an excuse for festivities, whereas he hated them, for obvious reasons. Aside from the hideous social interactions that were foisted on him by the woman seated opposite, birthdays for him only reignited bad memories he would prefer to forget. In fact, if he could magically erase the fourteenth of September from the calendar for the rest of his life, he would. Then they wouldn’t have to have this yearly argument.
