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Charlotte looked at her as if she knew she’d been eavesdropping. Her mother simply stared.
“You didn’t tell us Lord Ferrington had a shipping business,” said Sarah to Harriet.
She’d half forgotten. Because she’d thought he was a rootless rogue and then a deceptive earl. Instead of seeing an individual, she’d been far too ready with assumptions. She’d called him a shipping clerk, she remembered. Harriet wondered what else she didn’t know. Well, scads of things, apparently.
Ferrington kindly refrained from saying so.
“What sort of things do you ship?” Sarah asked him.
“A good deal of machinery. My partner, Nathan, is fascinated by power looms and that sort of thing. We trade American timber and ore for innovations, as he puts it.”
“Harriet’s grandfather might be interested… Or, er…” Sarah’s face changed. No doubt she’d remembered Harriet would not be uniting two enterprises with a wedding. Not to mention Harriet’s disinclination to help her grandfather in any way. Sarah reached for a macaroon and bit into it. “Oh, these are delicious,” she added.
***
Jack lost track of the conversation briefly when Harriet sat across from him. Once she was in a room, it was hard to look elsewhere. She offered him only her profile, however, seeming uncomfortable. Where had she gone for the greater part of his visit so far? For that matter, why had she put off his last two attempts to see her? That was worrisome.
He thought he’d done all right with her friends. He had at least not alienated them. At most, they liked him. But now that they were here, it would be next to impossible to catch Harriet on her own.
A servant came to fetch Mrs. Finch about some household problem. The proper amount of time for a morning call had elapsed. When Jack said perhaps he should be going, no one objected. In fact, he was afraid Harriet looked relieved. He rose to go, hoping she might see him out. She made no move. Feeling thoroughly dissatisfied, he made his farewells and walked out.
He was well down the corridor when he realized he’d forgotten to deliver the duchess’s invitation to dinner in a few days’ time. He turned back and was a step away from reentering the parlor when Miss Moran’s voice floated out to him. “I really don’t see why you want to break it off with him, Harriet,” she said.
Jack felt as if someone had thrown a bucket of icy water in his face. He couldn’t move.
“I’ve told you,” Harriet replied.
“He seems…acceptable,” said Miss Deeping.
“Well, but it seemed to me that you both…”
“Sarah! The engagement is a lie.”
Jack surged through the doorway into the parlor. The three young ladies looked startled, none more so than Harriet. “A lie?” he repeated. “What the deuce?”
Harriet stared at him. Her lips parted, but she didn’t speak.
“What do you mean by that?” he demanded. Jack caught movement in the corner of his eye. Miss Moran was plucking at Miss Deeping’s sleeve and pointing to the door. Miss Deeping shook her head. He wished they would go. “Well?”
“I pushed you to offer…” Harriet began.
“Because you’d been compromised.” Jack’s world was falling down around his ears. “But now that your society friends are here, you find I’m not good enough after all. Not polished like your London beaus.”
“No! It’s nothing like that.”
Jack made a slashing gesture. Yet he still couldn’t quite believe it. There had been more than this between them. He was sure of it.
“Grandfather was nagging at Mama,” Harriet began. “He insists…”
“That you marry a nobleman,” said Jack. He’d gathered as much. “And I am a thrice-damned earl. So I fulfill his conditions. Quite nearby, too.” Jack had never been so insulted in his life or so hurt. “He forced you into it.” He waited for her to contradict this.
“No, I…my mother.”
“She wanted it, too,” Jack said. That had been evident. “When I think how you railed at me for being deceptive…”
Still, she just sat there, offering him nothing.
“Well, you need not worry. I declare the engagement ended.”
