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Chapter Six
‘You still should have fetched me!’ Freddie paced the breakfast room like a furious and stern father while her actual parents sat calmly eating their toast. ‘Have you any idea what would have happened to your reputation if anyone had learnt that you had taken Jasper Beaufort home alone unchaperoned?’
Because he had heard several versions of the same answer already and because he was in no mood to listen, Hattie did not bother replying. Instead, she rolled her eyes at her mother who had accepted her edited explanation of events with the calm reason her brother seemed incapable of. In solidarity, her mother rolled hers back then nudged her father to intervene when it was obvious Papa would much rather read his newspaper than involve himself in the fray. With a resigned sigh he finally tried to pour oil on troubled waters.
‘Your sister did what she thought was most prudent and, under the circumstances, I believe that while her decision was flawed, it was done with Jasper’s best interests at heart. Fetching you would have only drawn more attention to his predicament and thankfully nobody saw her either leave or return to the ball. In fact, none of us even noticed she was gone and would likely still be none the wiser if she hadn’t appraised us of her adventure on the carriage ride home.’
‘She was gone less than an hour, dear,’ added her mother, still oblivious that Hattie had been gone at least two, ‘and she was technically chaperoned at all times—first of all by that nice palace footman who assisted her and then our very own coachman on the short drive to Jasper’s house. She did not even alight the carriage, did you, dear?’
‘Of course, I didn’t,’ said Hattie, while praying she was as convincing a liar as she hoped she was. ‘I deposited him in the capable hands of his housekeeper and returned to the palace.’ Which was the truth, albeit with much omission, because she had left him with his housekeeper after they had both helped him up the stairs to his bed, and all while the Avondale coachman waited outside thanks to the guinea she had promised him if he kept his silence.
‘And what about all the minutes you spent alone with Jasper inside the carriage?’ Freddie’s eyes were bulging now.
‘What about them?’ Hattie glared back defiantly. ‘Are you suggesting that a man who was so inebriated on the back of his grief that he could barely stand had the wherewithal to ravish me on the short drive from St James’s to Russell Square? Are you suggesting that one of your oldest and dearest friends would do such an awful thing to your own sister? Because if you are, it begs the question as to why you would stay friends with such a monster!’
While her brother glared back, searching for an answer which justified his irrationality, Annie decided that was the opportune moment to enter the conversation. ‘I would love to see the state of poor Jasper if he had chanced his arm with Hattie, for she has a ferocious right hook, as you well know, Freddie.’
Then, in case the newcomers to the family did not know the history, she leaned towards Kitty and Dorothea, grinning. ‘Hattie almost broke Freddie’s nose once after he hid in her closet one Christmas Eve and jumped out when she was sleeping, covered in a sheet pretending to be a ghost. He sported two black eyes for a fortnight afterwards and had to suffer everyone laughing at him in church the next morning for being pummelled by a girl six years his junior.’
‘If he carries on, I might have to give him another pasting.’ Hattie clenched her fist and slapped it into her palm then jabbed her finger at her brother. ‘Nobody saw. My precious reputation is intact, you are my brother and not my father, and I saved your friend from an unjust evisceration from the press in his hour of need and that is the end of it!’ She stood, ignoring her brother to address the rest of the breakfast table. ‘Now if you will excuse me, I am due at the infirmary in an hour.’ Which was another lie because she was due there in two, but she couldn’t very well go about her day without checking on Jasper first.
‘Take Evangeline with you, dear,’ said her mother with a pointed glare at her son, ‘for propriety’s sake.’
‘No need.’ Hattie crossed her fingers behind her back and willed the Almighty not to smite her for yet another falsehood. ‘I am meeting Mrs Cribbs, Lady Trenchard and the vicar’s wife there.’ At least she would be in two hours, as they had agreed. ‘And surely three married chaperons are quite enough to protect one flawless reputation from nothing?’
Jasper had no clue exactly how he’d got home last night or quite how he came to wake on his own spinning bed fully clothed this morning. Lurking in the midst of the headache from hell and the worst hangover of his life were vague memories of being force-fed coffee, of the bitter beverage disagreeing with him and making a sudden reappearance and of falling face first into a carriage before being dragged up some stairs.
Yet for all his brandy-soaked fuzziness and the worrying gaps in his memory, he remembered Hattie had been there throughout. Her hand in his. Her arms around him. Her breath caressing his ear as she comforted him. Her fingers brushing his hair as she tucked him into bed and told him to sleep it off. Her promise that she would help him with Izzy and that she would always be there if he needed her.
Always.
Like a safe port in a storm, she had been his rock at his lowest ebb. There was also no doubt he owed her for coming to his aid before he managed to make a total fool of himself in front of the entire ton and the Royal Family because, while he had dealt with every other blow of the worst twenty-four hours of his life, a silly shopping list had sent him over the edge.
When he’d felt well enough to sit up, struggle gingerly into some clothes and slowly make his way downstairs, he had found no trace of his shameful behaviour in any of the morning papers at all. Thanks entirely to Lady Harriet Fitzroy, no one had any clue he had lost his mind as well as the entire contents of his stomach at the Queen’s birthday ball.
It hadn’t been his finest hour.
In fact, he was mortified to have to acknowledge it had been one of his worst and he was thoroughly ashamed of himself for his weakness when he should have been strong for Izzy’s sake. Instead, it had been Hattie who had been the strong one, the sensible one, and he had no earthly clue how to repay her for her kindness.
Just as soon as the blasted room stopped spinning and his stomach stopped lurching he would start by writing her a grovelling letter of apology, and because a letter wasn’t sufficient in itself, he would follow it up with a personal apology the very next time he saw her.
‘Uncle Jasper...’ Izzy poked her head around the study door, her big eyes wide and her bottom lip trembling, clutching her favourite doll. ‘Mrs Mimms said I wasn’t to disturb you because you are sick.’ She edged inside, still a little unsure and intimidated by the unfamiliar surroundings of his house. ‘But I am worried, and I need to know...’ She chewed her lip, blinking back tears.
‘What do you need to know, sweetheart?’
‘Are you going to die on me too, Uncle Jasper?’
‘Of course not!’ He held out his arms and did his best to ignore the wave of nausea as she flung herself into them. Instantly hating himself for scaring her, especially as Mrs Mimms had told him, with one of her scolding looks, that Izzy had had another nightmare last night and instead of being there for her as he should have been, he had drowned his sorrows instead.
‘My sickness was temporary and self-inflicted but I am all better now—see?’ He held her out so she could see for herself and forced a reassuring smile praying he did not appear too green around the gills. ‘I am hale and hearty and not going anywhere.’
Two little hands cupped his cheeks. ‘Do you promise?’
He drew an X on his chest with his finger. ‘Cross my heart. You are stuck with me.’ God help them both. ‘I promise.’
He tugged Izzy on to his lap, wondering if distraction might ease some of her anxiousness even if it did little to ease the pain and confusion of suddenly losing her mother. ‘I’ve had a brilliant idea. Why don’t we go shopping today?’ It was a temporary solution at best, but some fresh air and some new things might put a smile on her face for a moment at least.
‘What are we shopping for?’
