Chapter 8
Eight
The first thing Jack saw when he walked into Miss Sedgewick’s small parlour was Min standing up unsteadily from a sofa, looking extremely embarrassed.
His heart surged in relief as he met her eyes, not knowing whether he wanted to scold her or laugh, but she looked away before he could make up his mind.
Then Sedgewick, irritating, enormously broad-shouldered Sedgewick, at his most irritatingly charming, stepped past him, holding out his hand to the blushing Min and saying, “I promised I’d not fail you, Miss Fanshaw!
Loath as I was to abandon you so hastily on your arrival this morning, you see I have turned my rudeness to good account.
Between us, Lord Orton and I will know exactly what to do. ”
“Fah!” His sister was unimpressed. “We have no need of you gentleman to solve our troubles, Mark. We’ve solved it very easily between ourselves. Miss Fanshaw is to stay with me, as my guest.”
“Stay here!” Jack lingered on the sight of Min’s hand still encased inside Sedgewick’s mammoth paw.
“No… Min… You’re under my family’s protection.
You’re my sister’s guest. Everything is quite alright.
It has all been explained. Come back with me, and my sisters will give you the apology you deserve. ”
Sedgewick finally relinquished her, turning to watch the exchange with interest. Min studied the floor, as though the thinning rug was infinitely fascinating. Past the tumble of brown curls that half hid her face, he saw the scalding red that flooded her cheeks.
“I would rather stay here, please, Jack. Lord Orton.”
Here? No. She was his responsibility, his— “Min!” he protested with a sting of betrayal.
Briefly she lifted her face, glancing at him then Miss Sedgewick. “I have already given my word to stay. And…and I think I will enjoy it. Miss Sedgewick is very kind and has promised to introduce me to some artist friends. And that is something I would very much like.”
Miss Sedgewick laughed at the look Jack gave her.
“I know. I’m shameless. Baiting the girl with a morsel I knew she could never resist. But I like her, my Lord Orton.
Come now, you know I’ll take better care of her than your sister.
I will take her to Somerset House not cloth warehouses, and we’ll look at far more paintings than fabric samples.
Though a little shopping will be unavoidable.
” A smile dancing in her eyes, she drew closer to him and said in an undertone.
“And I will not force her to play nursemaid.”
Jack coloured at having his sister’s nature so easily understood. But Miss Sedgewick had a talent for understanding people. There were no secrets from her. She smiled again, nothing teasing in it this time, only open and entreating. “Trust me, Jack.”
The whisper touched him. It made him pause long enough to study the look in her eyes. Did he? Could he trust Caroline with Min’s wellbeing? Yes, he thought so. Even despite the eclectic company she kept. And if Min truly wanted to stay… He found himself giving a reluctant nod.
“Very well.” He looked back at Min. “But I’m not abandoning you.
” He was beginning to learn from his mistakes.
It was becoming unavoidably clear that greenheaded girls on their London debuts needed far more watching than he’d assumed.
“You’re still my family’s responsibility.
I’ll be there at every ball and outing. You can rely on me to guard you. I’ll not leave you alone.”
He’d meant this to be reassuring, but Min turned pale, for some reason looking horrified at the prospect, before she hid her expression in an acute observation of her gloves.
He was still frowning at this when Miss Sedgewick followed up with an ecstatic clap of her hands.
“Wonderful! This is exactly as I hoped. You’ll positively haunt us here, Lord Orton.
I insist. Treat this house as your own. Come and go at all hours.
We’ll not dare to step foot outside without the strength of your escort. ”
This was said in her usual bantering tone, and, as usual, Jack wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t laughing at him.
But the picture she painted was appealing enough.
To be so often in Caroline’s company? He liked that idea very much.
Was that why she proposed it? Could she…
could she perhaps have an ulterior motive for making Min her guest?
Jack glanced at her but still saw only laughter in her eyes.
Whatever the lady’s sentiments, it seemed her brother’s hopes were in line with Jack’s because he smiled at the pair of them, a merchant pleased with the day’s takings.
“Yes, you have my invitation too, though you hardly need it.” He looked back at Min.
“And I’m more than happy to offer my own services as escort, Miss Fanshaw.
It would be a pleasure to accompany you. ”
Jack had never realised how greasy his smile was.
If Min had been rich or beautiful, he would’ve begun to suspect the man’s motives.
Sedgewick was not a natural gallant, and the only women he eagerly pursued were the kind who responded well to an open purse.
What interest he might have in Min, having already revealed he was no fan of her appearance, Jack couldn’t fathom.
“But you have your duties at Horse Guards, dear Mark,” his sister reminded him.
“We couldn’t expect you to abandon us for that.
And what are we to do if you need to go on parade or stand guard or perform whatever other extremely important duties you have?
You know you’re always being called away at the most awkward times. ”
As she knew as well as Jack that he frequently invented pressing military obligations whenever he wished to excuse himself from tedious social engagements, Jack laughed, until Miss Sedgewick turned to him with a grin and added, “Whereas Lord Orton here has nothing better to do. He is forever at leisure.”
He met this sally with a wry smile. “True enough, Miss Sedgewick.” Then, holding her eye, “And I can’t think of any obligation more pleasant.”
“Well, then!” she said briskly, looking around the group. “We will all four of us be very good friends. And for three of us, Miss Fanshaw’s pleasure shall be our guiding light.”
They all turned to look at Min, who had sunk once more to the sofa, her hands clutched on her lap.
“Oh. It is…it is very kind. But I’m sure it isn’t necessary.”
Jack chuckled and sat down beside her, observing to the other two, “Miss Fanshaw is not used to such regard. I think we overwhelm her.”
Miss Sedgewick smiled warmly. “She’ll grow used to it.
And now we’ll give her some respite. I must speak to my housekeeper to arrange Miss Fanshaw’s accommodation.
And you, brother, are due at Horse Guards within the hour, are you not?
See. I didn’t lie when I spoke of your awkwardly timed duties!
We must leave Miss Fanshaw to your care momentarily, Lord Orton.
Entertain her for me, will you? I’ll send up some more tea. ”
The siblings quit the room, the sister with a smile, the brother reluctantly but with a very smart bow.
It seemed suddenly quiet without them, the room very still.
Jack leant one elbow on the sofa’s low back and stretched out his legs, his leather boots creaking faintly as he crossed them at the ankle.
He glanced at Min sitting stiffly by his side, hands clutched in her lap, and momentarily wondered what to say.
“You gave me a rare fright this morning,” was what he settled on.
A carriage rattled past in the street below. Min kept her focus on her hands, not moving a muscle. If she even breathed, he couldn’t detect it.
“I am sorry.”
“Min…” God dammit, she’d turned stiff and cold as porcelain again. It was almost as bad as the curtsy last night. If she’d look at him, if she’d only smile… Her jaw was a soft curve. He could crook a finger there and turn it toward him, but she’d only shy away. And anyway…he oughtn’t.
He pulled his gloves off, finger by finger, irritable. It was hot for March. He could have spent the morning riding. He could have been out somewhere with air in his lungs and the freedom to gallop.
“Thank God Miss Sedgewick found you.”
“Yes, I am…very grateful to her.”
“And you truly want to stay here?”
“She has been most kind. And I…I understand why you esteem her.”
He shot her a look, not realising his sentiments had been so obvious. Had Miss Sedgewick told her? Surely not. The idea of the two women discussing him made him distinctly uncomfortable.
He made a vague noise, a non-committal, “Mm,” and tapped the gloves he held in his left hand against his knee. “I spoke to my sisters. I know what happened and—”
“It isn’t true!”
Finally she came to life, turning toward him with wide eyes and a cherry-pink flush.
“I… I…do not wish to call Eleanor dishonest, she must have been confused, but it isn’t true.
” She held his look for a long, brave moment, silver bright as sun on water.
Then she subsided, sitting straight once more, shoulders dropping as she turned all her focus to those ugly, overlarge gloves. “I promise, Jack. It isn’t true.”
She looked so forlorn he had to laugh. “I know it isn’t, you goose.”
But she only looked more stricken.
“Is that what you’re worried about? That someone might believe it?
Min, really, how could you possibly think so?
Any idiot who knows us would know there’s never been anything like that between us.
And my sisters, who are both idiots and people who know us well, ought to be the last people to suspect it.
Call Nora a liar, Min, because she is one, much as it pains me to say it. ”
She scarcely looked less troubled, rubbing one gloved hand with the thumb of her other, closer to wringing them than massaging.
“And Nora knows you…you…”
But she couldn’t seem to finish that sentence.