Page 2 of The Devil to Pay

“Yes, that’s me.”

Tilly took hold of his hand, her warm little fingers curling around his much larger and much colder ones. “Come inside. It’s teatime.”

“Oh, excellent. I’m glad someone around here has some manners,” he added, shooting Pip a defiant grin as the little girl led him indoors.

Briggs’ eyes widened slightly as he looked between Tilly and the earl, but he was far too well trained to betray himself by showing the shock he was undoubtedly experiencing.

“If you go downstairs, you’ll find my housekeeper, she’ll show you where to go,” Pip told Briggs, though he hardly sounded enthusiastic about the idea.

The inside of the house was hardly more encouraging than the outside, but Tilly led them through the gloomy hall and down a corridor, finally arriving in a small parlour. It looked to have been recently decorated and, after a chilly and uncomfortable journey, very welcoming. A fire was blazing in the hearth and Jules sighed with relief.

“Civilisation, at last,” he remarked. “I knew you couldn’t be living in this backwater without some creature comforts.”

Pip snorted. “I ought to throw you out on your ear, you meddling devil. What on earth possessed you to come all the way out here?”

Jules shrugged. “It seemed politic to make myself scarce for a bit and this was the furthest I could reasonably go without looking as if I was running away.”

“But you are running away,” Pip said dryly.

“Well, obviously, but there’s no need to be an arse and illustrate the point.” Jules glared at him, nettled.

“Language,” Pip scolded, meeting his glare with an icy one of his own as Jules belatedly remembered the little girl.

She had let go of his hand and was sitting on the floor, methodically taking the dress off a fabulously outfitted china doll. A soft knock at the door heralded the appearance of a woman Jules supposed must be the child’s nanny.

“You’re back,” she said, disapproval dripping from the words, and looked at Pip as if he’d just crawled out of cheese.

“Yes, a little late, I realise, but Tilly wished to visit the stables before we came home.”

There was an almost apologetic tone to Pip’s voice that staggered Jules, who was too used to Ashburton’s autocratic ways to let it pass without remark.

The nurse, who might have been anywhere from twenty to forty years of age as she stood deep in shadow, gave a sniff of disdain. “Ottilie, viens ma chérie. You must wash your hands before you have your tea, oh, and you’re still wearing your muddy boots. Good heavens. Do come now.”

Obediently, Tilly ran to her nurse, the doll forgotten on the carpet.

“Jules is here,” she said, pointing to him as she went.

The nurse cast a scathing glance at Jules and looked away again. “How nice,” she replied, with more insincerity than Jules could credit, before bearing Tilly away.

“Well, she’s charming,” Jules replied with a bark of laughter. “No wonder you’re terrified of her.

Pip rolled his eyes. “She loathes me,” he said with a sigh. “Not that I can blame her. I rather loathe myself.”

“Oh, she sees you as a vile seducer of innocents, I suppose?”

Pip shrugged. “Something of the sort.”

“Who is the girl’s mother?”

With a look that might have shrivelled a man with less audacity than Jules, Pip went to the tantalus set out on a side table and poured them both a drink. “You are a pain in the arse, Jules. When will you learn to keep your nose out of other people’s affairs?”

“When their affairs become less interesting than mine,” Jules replied, accepting the drink. “So, who was it?”

Pip glared at him, but with resignation this time. He knew better than to think Jules would give up and leave him be.

“Jenny,” he said with a sigh. “And before you ask, no, I didn’t know a bloody thing about it. She made me believe she had another protector in mind, and we parted on good terms. I realise now she’d discovered she was with child. She knew very well what my father would do to me if he found I’d been so damned careless, and she cared enough to protect me, the little pea-wit. She ought to have told me at once and made me face the consequences, it was the least I deserved. The poor darling died not long after the birth but thank God she sent the child to me. I shudder to think what might have become of her else.”

“Bloody hell, Pip. They still don’t know?”