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Jasper’s smile was stretched. ‘I believe he managed that line almost verbatim.’
‘I hope you told him to go to hell in a handcart verbatim too, as that is precisely what I did when he dared to lecture me this morning! It is beyond me why he feels he has to behave like my father when I have a perfectly good father already. One who treats me like an adult, allows me to make my own choices and who doesn’t fuss and carry on like Freddie does.’
She snatched up the paperweight near her elbow and passed the glass ball from hand to hand agitated, at home here already and completely comfortable in his company after such a short but enlightening reacquaintance.
That that had happened so fast was staggering really. Finding an unlikely friendship after almost a decade of knowing one another was one of fate’s strange and delightful twists. Which made him all the sadder that the friendship had to end in its current form.
‘What infuriates me is that my suddenly holier-than-thou, straw-for-brains brother seems to have forgotten what a shocking scandal he was before he settled down with Dorothea. Either that, or he remembers every moment of his debauchery with the opposite sex with absolute clarity and therefore believes every other man will behave in the same manner to any woman in possession of a pulse.’
‘To be fair to Freddie, I am as much, if not more, of a shocking scandal than he was.’ And any day now was likely to become more of one because he couldn’t hide Izzy for ever, and for her sake he didn’t want to. Being hidden away and always having to apologise for who you were was not the life his little girl deserved, and he owed it to Cora to ensure she grew up proud and confident. Acknowledged by someone and openly protected. Which meant that Hattie’s brother might have a valid point.
When the news broke—and realistically that was a matter of when not if when the capital had prying eyes everywhere—that Cora’s child also bore his surname and lived under his roof, all the worst speculation from the past would be dredged up and embellished as it was shouted from the rooftops. Such infamy might not harm his business—because conversely his wealthy patrons seemed to want him to be every inch the libertine he was painted—but it would harm his social standing. At least in the short term. He’d become a complete social pariah again as far as the ton was concerned.
The kind-hearted and noble Hattie did not deserve to be dragged down with him and, as much as it pained him to have to bow down to Freddie’s logic, as Jasper knew first-hand, scandals were always worse for a woman, even if none of it was her fault.
While people had patted him on the back during his much gossiped about time with Cora, they crossed the road to avoid her. The gossip about her had been vile and cruel, and he shuddered to think how bad it would have got if they had also learned about Izzy. Which was one of the main reasons Cora had had to leave. ‘My reputation is also far worse.’
‘Oh, I know that.’ Hattie waved that glaring truth away as of no consequence. ‘But to be fair to you, it was hardly your fault that you were disinherited and had to open a gentlemen’s club to make ends meet.’ That she knew that wasn’t a surprise when it had been common knowledge for years. ‘And maybe you did run a bit fast and loose when you were younger, but—’ she gestured to the space around them ‘—you’ve become a successful businessman, have made a good home and are determined to raise your child in it when most of the gentlemen of the ton tend to brush their indiscretions under the carpet. From where I am sitting you seem to have grown up in the last few years, and done so with admirable decency.’
‘Time marches on.’
‘It does indeed and with age comes wisdom and all. And while we are about it, why don’t we add all the rest of the wise old sayings which are supposed to make us feel better but never do.’ She scoffed at them all, her temper calming. That was obvious by the way she gently put the paperweight back in its proper place rather than slamming it down with the same force as she had picked it up.
Part of him wanted to believe his mere presence helped soothe her as hers did him. The other part—the more reasoned and measured part—understood he wasn’t being fair in that wish. Just because she had been there in his hour of need did not give him the right to dominate her hours.
She exhaled as she shook her head, exasperation leaking from every pore. ‘I am certainly very different from who I was then too—except in my brother’s eyes. To him, I am worse than the child I was. To him, I have regressed and changed into the human incarnation of little Izzy’s porcelain doll. So fragile, pathetic with my dratted limp, and so suggestible and ignorant of the harsh realities of life that I must be cosseted at every juncture. It is as if he doesn’t know me at all.’
‘I think I said as much verbatim to him.’
‘Thank you.’ Her smile warmed his soul and destroyed it at the same time. ‘But I doubt he listened. He is too wedded to his outrage. Determined to see seduction at every turn. As if you would seduce me now!’ She scoffed at that, her eyes dipping as she shook her head. ‘Me, of all people! How stupid is he to consider such nonsense?’
Jasper couldn’t decide if she discounted any chance of that because of his reputation, his new circumstances, her lack of attraction to him or her own self-consciousness about her ‘dratted’ leg.
‘So what else did the cretin say when he read you the Riot Act?’
‘That I am not to consort with you alone in public ever again.’
She was silent for a moment then her temper surged afresh. ‘How dare he! How dare he! I am a grown woman, nearing the age of majority, and whomever I choose to consort with is no business of his!’
Jasper reached across the table to cover her hand with his, needing to touch her even though he had no right. As always, the innocent contact still reminded him that he was a man. ‘We have become fast friends you and I, yes?’ She stared at their hands for a moment before nodding. ‘Then as your friend, one who cares deeply about your welfare, I have to concede your brother is right. You are a born rescuer to your core, and I adore that about you, but my life is complicated. My reputation has always been precarious to say the least. With Cora gone it has become more so.
‘When the world discovers Isabel, which they will, not everyone will be as forgiving as you have been about her existence, and you will be judged by association. Your faultless morals will be brought into question and mud sticks.’
‘I do not care about that.’
‘Of course you don’t, because you are a hopeless rescuer. But I do.’ He laced his fingers through hers. ‘So I shan’t be importuning you again in public. I will not add fuel to a fire that could burn you to cinders but only scorch me. You have already been through enough pain, Hattie, and I will not be the cause of more.’
She digested this and went to argue, but thankfully, an excited Izzy burst through the door just then.
