Page 73 of The Muse of Maiden Lane

Stella’s mouth pulled into a swift smile in return.

Daniel stood from his chair. “Who is it?” he demanded.

Stella let the curtain fall. “It’s Mrs. Blunt and her husband.”

“Captain Blunt?” Daniel’s face turned ashen. He was aware of the captain’s black reputation—a reputation inspired as much by rumors of Blunt’s brutal conduct in the Crimea as it was by the fact that he brazenly housed three of his bastard children under his roof at Goldfinch Hall in Yorkshire.

If that wasn’t enough to shock, the circumstances of his scandalous elopement with Julia would surely have done so. Last summer, while Stella and her brother were in Exeter, Captain Blunt had carried an ailing Julia away from her parents’ house in Belgrave Square, stoking rumors that he’d abducted the vulnerable young heiress in order to compromise her and force her into matrimony.

It wasn’t strictly true, not according to Julia. But Stella’s brother and sister-in-law didn’t know that.

Amanda was at once on her feet, the very picture of offended modesty. As a pious young lady, newly wed to a vicar, the very idea of a man of Captain Blunt’s ilk visiting her home was enough to spark her outrage. “What have they come here for?”

Stella strode out of the room to greet her friends, tossing an answer at her disgruntled sister-in-law as she went. “I believe,” she said, “that they’ve come for me.”

Julia retained both Stella’s hands in hers as she drew back from kissing her cheek in greeting. “You didn’t truly believe I’d let you miss Anne’s wedding, did you?”

“I scarcely imagined you would come to fetch me yourself,” Stella said.

“Who else but me? You wouldn’t permit Anne to know of your difficulties. And Evie and Mr. Malik could hardly travel all the way to Derbyshire from London, not with his court dressmaking commissions to think of. Besides,” Julia added in a portentous whisper, “it’s my husband who’s needed here.”

Captain Blunt stood in the entry hall, looking so fearsome that Stella might have swooned herself if Julia hadn’t confided how loving and tender the man was to her. “I shall take full responsibility for Miss Hobhouse’s welfare while we’re in town,” he informed Daniel after the introductions had been dispensed with. “You need have no fear for her reputation.”

Amanda uttered a strangled laugh. “No fear for her reputation, sir? When she’s traveling in company with you?”

Captain Blunt ignored the insult. “I’ve reserved a suite of rooms at Brown’s Hotel,” he said to Daniel. “We’ll be staying a fortnight.”

Julia’s eyes shone. “What a merry time we shall have! Anne will shortly be leaving on her honeymoon, but Evie will be in town. The three of us can ride every day.”

“I can’t ride without Locket,” Stella said. “And I couldn’t leave her for an entire fortnight. Not after—”

Julia silenced Stella with another reassuring squeeze of her hands. “My husband will see she’s brought to London. He has our groom riding Cossack there as we speak. Perhaps if your groom did the same?”

“Turvey can’t ride Locket,” Stella said. “She’s too dangerous for him. He’ll have to lead her by stages. It will take some doing.”

“Jasper?” Julia gave her husband a hopeful look.

“Leave it with me,” Captain Blunt said.

“There, you see?” Julia beamed at Stella. “My husband can solve any problem in our path. All that’s left is for you to pack your things, and then we’ll be off.”

“Not with my sister, you won’t.” Daniel moved in front of the door, barring the way. “I won’t allow it.”

Stella felt a rush of mortification. Must her brother be such a confounded stick in the mud? It was bad enough that he refused to take Stella to London himself, but to insult Julia and Captain Blunt when they were attempting to do so exceeded all limits. “You’re not being very gracious, Daniel,” she said. “Our guests will think you rude.”

As if they didn’t already! Neither Daniel nor his new bride had invited Julia and her husband to sit down or offered them any refreshment. The message was clear. The Blunts weren’t welcome.

“They may think what they like.” Daniel looked to the captain, only a faint flinch betraying that he was in any way intimidated by the man. “I won’t permit my sister to return to London in your company, sir. The scandals surrounding your life, and your recent union, are such that the mere association with you would be enough to taint—”

“Daniel,” Stella interrupted in a mortified whisper. “How can you?”

He shushed her with a violent wave of his hand, his attention still directed on an increasingly stone-faced Captain Blunt. “I don’t seek to give offense, but my sister’s good name is in my keeping. I won’t allow her to go with you under any circumstance.”

Stella stiffened with unexpected anger. It wasn’t just about the inconvenience of accompanying her, was it? It was about control. About forcibly shaping her to be something she wasn’t. Small and quiet. An obedient spinster sister with no thoughts or opinions of her own.

“I am going,” she informed him. “I don’t require your permission.”

“You do,” Daniel returned. “So long as you live under my roof, you will abide by my rules. If you insist on defying me, you needn’t come back.”