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‘Mrs Mimms believes in furniture everywhere.’ Jasper said this, unoffended as he wandered in. ‘Even if nobody is going to use it, she refuses to concede that I have all that I need in all the rooms that I use.’
‘Why buy a house with eight bedrooms if you only need the two of them? Not that the second bedroom has any furniture in it either. Or even curtains. Or all the many, many things a little girl is going to need. I’ve made him a list but I dare say I shall have to nag him narrow before he gets around to purchasing all of it.’ Mrs Mimms rolled her eyes at Hattie and then stomped out muttering, and he watched her retreat with affection.
‘I think the least said about that dreaded list this morning the better.’ He offered her a sheepish expression as they both knew that had been the catalyst for last night. ‘Although I suppose she makes a valid point about the size of the house but something about this place called to me.’
‘It is a lovely house.’ At least everything she had seen of it so far was.
‘It is.’ He appeared pleased at her compliment. Proud of the home he had created here. ‘It is also within walking distance to The Reprobates’ one way and some unspoilt greenery the other, and blissfully too unfashionable and far enough away from the prying and judgemental eyes of the Mayfair set that I can forget society exists most of the time.’
‘That must be sheer heaven.’ She had always found Mayfair society cloying, precisely because they were every bit as prying and judgemental as he had said, but that sense of otherness had quadrupled since her return to town. As if she no longer fitted within its strict bounds and certainly no longer measured up to their ideal.
‘It is a pleasant walk too.’ Hattie admitted that before she thought about it. ‘Quiet and peaceful once you’ve left Covent Garden behind and hit Bloomsbury. All the garden squares along the way are lovely, empty oases, especially now that the early flowers are in bloom. They are the perfect places to wander aimlessly. I found a particularly pretty one with a duck pond.’
He quirked one dark brow as he lowered himself into a sofa. ‘And you discovered all that from the comfort of your carriage?’
‘I might have alighted the carriage outside the infirmary where I am expected later and made my own way here on foot.’
Those intelligent eyes narrowed. ‘With a maid, I presume?’
Before he gave her a lecture on propriety like her nagging brother, she sidestepped. ‘Doctor Cribbs says that walking is good for my leg and I’ll have you know I walk a good mile a day—sometimes two.’
He wasn’t fooled for a moment by that diversion. ‘Now it makes perfect sense why you came in via the servants’ entrance at the back. You came alone, didn’t you?’
As the housekeeper wasn’t here to do it, Hattie turned her back on him to pour the tea. ‘Well, I could hardly march unchaperoned up the front steps, as bold as brass, to check on you, any more than I could instruct the Avondale coachman to drive me here instead of the infirmary. The prying and judgemental eyes of society are less forgiving of us ladies than they are of you men. You can still swan around within their ranks even with the most shocking reputations whereas we are shunned if ruined. It’s horrendously unfair—especially when all I am guilty of is being a good Samaritan.’
‘By that robust and quick defence, I must also presume that your family have no clue as to your present whereabouts.’
‘What they do not know cannot hurt them. And unless you have a burning desire to face an irrational and incensed Freddie on the duelling field, I suggest you keep this to yourself as well.’ Hattie thrust a cup at him, keen to change the subject when she knew she was technically in the wrong. ‘You still take your tea like treacle, I presume, with milk and two heaped sugars?’
He took it smiling, if a tad bewildered, and she sensed his eyes on her, studying her, as she limped back to the sideboard to fetch the other two cups. It was most disconcerting, but she covered it with bravado because, for reasons she did not understand, she wasn’t ready to leave yet no matter how inappropriate this visit.
‘Here you are, Izzy.’ She passed one down to the little girl sat in the middle of the carpet, then in case he took issue with her feeding his child an adult beverage, she smiled at him unrepentant. ‘It’s nine parts milk, in case you were wondering, so perfectly acceptable for a little girl and I would hate for her to feel left out.’
After working in the infirmary, Hattie was of the firm opinion that the worst thing you could do to a child was alienate them by patronising them or excluding them. ‘And it will help wash the cake down.’ With that, she spun on her heel again to cut some cake, feeling bossy and intrusive but desperate to do something to help regardless.
