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‘If it involves us hiding behind this plant pot all night, I can tell you right now that will not work. Freddie watches me like a hawk and has taken to following me around at these affairs like a bad smell unless I am sat with another wallflower pretending to have a good time.’
‘That is the beauty of my brilliant idea.’ His smile was doing outrageous things to her insides. ‘As it involves sitting with the other wallflowers!’ He threw up his hands with a flourish as if he expected applause. ‘All of the other wallflowers!’
She threw up her own palms in confusion. ‘I really do not follow.’ As she dropped them, he caught them both in his and instantly sent her pulse spiralling into chaos.
‘The 1813 Wallflowers’ Club!’ When she still blinked back bewildered, he laughed. ‘Your own idea, Hattie Fitzroy! But you were quite wrong about nobody wanting to become a member! Nobody wanted to join The Reprobates’ until I made it appealing and then everyone wanted to join, which is exactly why I refuse to let just anyone join the Wallflowers’ Club. Its very exclusivity is what will make it so attractive.’
As the unholy trinity of his presence, his smile and his touch was scrambling her wits, she tugged her hands away and folded her arms before she glared down her nose at him. ‘Stop speaking in riddles, Jasper.’
His smug smile suited him too much. ‘Freddie has stipulated that I cannot consort with you alone in public, has he not? So let’s never be alone in public. Let us use his rules and bend them to suit us!’ His excitement was evident and the chandeliers picked out the most distracting amber flecks in his eyes. ‘And in the process, we two hopeless born rescuers can rescue every other wallflower, both male and female, while we are about it!’
He caught her hands again, which while the contact was supremely distracting, at least prevented hers from smoothing his lapels as they wanted to. ‘We form our own exclusive little club in the wallflower chairs made up of all the people society deems not quite good enough or too scandalous to dally with at these affairs, and we show our enjoyment by having a raucous, high old time rather than apologising by trying to blend in. We host our own entertainment within an entertainment and to hell with the rest of them!’
‘That is...um...’ How exactly was she supposed to construct a sentence when his thumbs were tracing lazy circles on her fevered skin? When his laughing eyes and conspiratorial whispers were seducing every fibre of her being?
‘It is genius is what it is, Hattie Fitzroy, utter genius! If I make a point of dancing the odd dance with an outrageous flirt at each entertainment, and flirting with a few others under Freddie’s nose, he’ll also realise I have no inappropriate designs on you!’ She smiled because he was smiling, even though that last comment wounded and the thought of him dancing with shameless flirts while he flirted with them churned the jealous acid in her gut. ‘So go round up the other wallflowers that you know and I shall meet you back at our chairs in fifteen minutes with their male counterparts.’
It actually took him closer to twenty minutes to return herding a handful of similarly ignored gentlemen like sheep. Together with her usual companions in the forgotten chairs, they made an eclectic if motley bunch. Jasper facilitated the introductions between the ladies and the gentlemen—the two poor but plain Misses Bristow, the plump and shy Lady Susannah Hargreaves, the bespeckled bluestocking Miss Winston and the toothy Lady Octavia were now joined by their male equivalents. Lord Marbury had a charming manner but barely stood five feet. Another fellow had an unfortunate stutter. Two weren’t blessed in the looks department at all and the last was so scandalously bankrupt and in debt that everyone knew it. Or as Jasper had whispered to her alone while sending hot shivers down her spine in the process, the ton knew the gent didn’t have a pot to piss in.
Jasper then procured a footman who promptly delivered them all alcoholic beverages, and with a few choice and entertaining stories from their new, self-proclaimed but deprecating host who claimed he was just too scandalous for anyone discerning to want to associate with, the newly formed 1813 Wallflowers’ Club were soon all laughing together. The bond of being excluded from the rest of the festivities and the relief at finally having others to talk to who were in the same boat united them quicker than weeks of acquaintance would normally.
As a consequence, the hours flew by and miraculously, Hattie had a wonderful time despite her brother’s constant staring—or outright glaring.
It took Freddie two hours to venture over, and like an admiral inspecting the fleet, he rocked on his heels beside Jasper and asked, ‘What is going on here then?’ To which a straight-faced Jasper replied with something deadly dull about Miss Winston’s fascinating recent study of the unique flora and fauna of Hyde Park—a topic which she had never once commented upon but nodded sagely alongside her new hero as if she had.
‘Join us, Freddie!’ He had then invited her brother to sit on a chair among them. ‘You might learn something, for I never knew there were so many different species of snail living in London.’
‘I only wish I could.’ Her brother’s eyes had then darted hither and thither searching for an escape. ‘But I fear I am being a bad husband by neglecting Dorothea for so long.’ And with that, he had scurried away but continued to watch the proceedings sporadically from across the ballroom with an expression of bewilderment, clearly in two minds as to whether he had had a lucky escape or had been thoroughly hoodwinked.
Then, their exclusive new club had laughed conspiratorially, and shared stories about the worst aspects of being a wallflower, prompting Hattie to confide in them about Lord Boredom. Which meant when he approached and tried to pick her off for a conversation while Jasper danced with a very pretty young widow, her new friends ran such swift but subtle interference, the unwelcome interloper was squeezed out of their closed ranks until he gave up trying and sloped off with his tail between his pompous legs.
When her father waved and signalled that the family were about to leave, Jasper moved closer to her chair, obviously pleased with himself. ‘I think that went well. Enough that it kept you from hiding out the night in the retiring room or getting sprayed with unwelcome spit.’ When she rolled her eyes at that he nudged her playfully, unaware that the brief contact caused a ripple of goose pimples to bloom on the back of her neck. ‘Admit it, I came up with the perfect solution to your predicament.’
‘It wasn’t the worst way to spend an evening.’ If she ignored how much his one dance with that flirty widow had bothered her.
‘Is that your way of saying, Thank you, Jasper for being my gallant knight in shining armour?’
‘A true knight doesn’t require affirmation of his shining status by reminding the damsel in distress of his efforts on her behalf, and then shamelessly courting compliments.’ She quirked one brow, trying to appear peeved and failing miserably. ‘That is very ungallant of you.’
‘Then I shall make amends by being ungallant all over again at the Earl of Burstead’s ball on Saturday. Shall I meet you in the wallflowers’ chairs around nine for the next club meeting?’
‘Nine suits.’
‘Marvellous...’ Jasper stared at his shoes and kicked an imaginary speck of dust, awkward all of a sudden which was most unlike him. ‘Marvellous...and...um...while we are discussing our calendars...will Izzy and I still see you tomorrow at the duck pond?’ A question which shouldn’t have sent her heart soaring but did.
Neither had mentioned her reckless, improper offer all night, and after he had found a noble way to continue their friendship in public, she hadn’t wanted to bring it up in case it made her appear keen to be more than his friend. ‘I wouldn’t importune you further under all normal circumstances, Hattie, you understand but...’ His smile was a little shy. Boyish. Utterly charming. ‘But Izzy caught wind of it and wants to bring a picnic for us as well as the ducklings...and I confess I am intrigued to meet your tiny tormentor, Jim.’
Her words tripped over themselves in their hurry to get out. ‘We shall be there.’ Or at least Hattie would. Wild horses wouldn’t keep her away now no matter how improper it was. Convincing Jim, however, was a whole different matter. And if by some miracle she did manage to get him to the park, given his explosive temper and tendency to fling about cruel insults willy-nilly, she should probably prewarn Jasper of his character. ‘But I shall apologise in advance if Jim doesn’t behave with the expected courtesies. He is...’
‘Lost and floundering and in dire need of rescuing too.’ He idly rubbed the back of her hand and sent a bolt of longing ricocheting through her system before he noticed what he was doing and snatched it away. ‘If only we knew two hopeless rescuers who could work together to save him from himself? Maybe a double-pronged attack is what is needed to crack your tough nut?’
‘Maybe it w—’
‘Hurry along, Hattie, the carriage is outside.’ Freddie’s command as he marched towards the wallflower chairs brooked no argument. Because the interfering idiot couldn’t help himself, her brother glared at his friend for good measure. ‘Good to see you, Jasper. Why don’t we catch up over billiards soon? At your scandalous club perhaps, seeing as you while away most of every night there?’ The clipped invitation was loaded with unsubtle meaning, and by Jasper’s amused expression he understood that ‘billiards’ was a flimsy code for another lecture. ‘Or at White’s tomorrow afternoon?’
‘Tomorrow is already filled to the gills with ghastly chores, old boy.’ Jasper’s eyes flicked briefly to hers, amusement making those distracting amber flecks dance just for her seeing as she was the ‘ghastly chore’ in question. ‘So is all of next week. Some of us have to work for a living.’
‘Yet you still found the hours to be here.’ Freddie was like a dog with a bone.
‘All work and no play makes Jasper a dull boy. Besides...’ he offered her brother a nonchalant shrug ‘...the club only ever gets busy after these affairs wind down so I am not really needed there, and being seen in public like this is good for business. And you did say that I could converse with Hattie in public, didn’t you? As long as we were in a crowd.’ If he noticed her sentry’s narrowed eyes, he hid it well and slapped him on the back, laughing as if he was purposely teasing his old friend to get a rise out of him. ‘But it has been ages since we last caught up so I’ll find an evening next week and you, me and George can make a night of it. Relive our wild youth and lament the fact we had to grow up.’
‘Splendid.’ Freddie grabbed Hattie’s arm and wound it through his as if he owned her. ‘Goodnight, Jasper.’
‘Goodnight, Freddie.’ Jasper smiled at his friend and then his eyes locked with hers again briefly, an intense glance she felt everywhere, before he bowed politely with mischief in his striking emerald eyes again. ‘Fare thee well, my Lady Harriet.’ A courtly goodbye as if he truly was one of the knights of old, and one, to Hattie’s inexperienced ear, which sounded a great deal like flirting. ‘I would kiss your hand in a friendly, platonic manner as is deemed entirely proper by the rest of society at these sorts of occasions, but fear dear, untrusting Freddie here might misread it and have a fit if I do.’ Then he winked at her, purely to vex Freddie of course, but like a dolt, Hattie almost sighed aloud at that small crumb.
