Chapter 3
The office of the Fletcher-Cain house was one of Hannah’s favorite rooms in the entire world. It was always messy, always just a little too warm, and ever filled with the most wonderful, admirable women she’d ever had the pleasure of imagining.
Today, they were joined by a baby as well, a fat little gurgling thing, wriggling in her mother’s arms while they chatted and picked at cheese and bread.
Hannah was the youngest of the assembled ladies. She was perhaps, to them, more of a protégé than a true friend, but Hannah hoped she would eventually cross that particular threshold. Maybe her year of reckoning would finally do the job.
“It has only been a couple of days,” Millie Murphy was saying as she rocked the baby in her arms. “He may have replied within seconds and you still would not get a letter until week’s end unless he hired a private courier to deliver it to you.”
“Which he should,” Ember Donnelly added, narrowing her eyes over her teacup. “I just don’t understand why you sent a letter if you already see the lad enough to have formed an interest, is all.”
Hannah gave a delicate little cough, knowing she was already reddening, and chose to become fascinated with the wedge of cheddar in her lap.
“Well, that is not always a matter of predictability or ongoing convenience, is it?” Dot Cain put in with a little frown at Ember. “How do you know this boy, Hannah?”
“Oh,” Hannah said, wondering why she had brought this up in the first place. “Oh, we … um, we attended an event together, some time ago.”
“An event?” Dot repeated, turning that little frown onto Hannah. “Surely not something so fleeting? If you only met him once, at a ball or something like it …”
“Maybe she doesn’t mean a ball,” Ember Donnelly said in a voice that had gone much sharper all of a sudden. “Maybe she means a longer event, like a country party. Is that what you mean, a stóirín?”
She knew.
Hannah could see clear as a written signpost that Ember had just realized who Hannah had written that hopeful letter to. She didn’t sound pleased about it, did she?
“If he doesn’t write back—” came a softer voice from the chair that was empty most of the year.
Millie’s sister, Claire, in London for the High Season, leaned forward thoughtfully.
“I think perhaps you ought to just find him and have your conversation. He might not realize that if he takes his time, he will lose his opportunity.”
“Oh, do you think that, Claire?” Ember replied testily, drawing baffled looks from her peers and an apologetic grimace from Hannah. “Is that what you would have done?”
“No, of course not,” Claire answered with a little shrug. “But I am hardly aspirational in this regard.”
It was exactly the right opportunity to distract. “Whatever do you mean?” Hannah asked, both because it was convenient and because she wanted to know. “You are married to Lord Bentley. I daresay I cannot imagine a more aspirational match.”
It made the entire room feel a little odd, the way every woman in it other than Hannah reacted to what she’d just said.
Ember laughed. Dot gave a little cough. Millie openly choked a little. And even Claire giggled and shook her head.
Hannah knew Lord Bentley. She knew him well enough to consider him a friend. He was ever so kind and charming and seemed the most loyal and devoted man. Of course, he was also quite beautiful, but Hannah would have found him just as good a husband even without that.
With it …
She blinked quickly, dispelling any problematic images of the earl that threatened to emerge in her mind’s eye, choosing instead to look around the room in bafflement, until finally, Claire reached forward to squeeze her wrist.
“Freddy was not always the man you know,” she said kindly. “But I am heartened by your perception, sweet girl.”
Hannah nodded, but she was skeptical.
“You read the gossip sheets, don’t you?” Ember said, tilting her head to the side. “Do you really not know about all of that?”
“She wasn’t reading them back then, I daresay,” Dot replied with a titter. “She was all of what? Fifteen? Sixteen, perhaps?”
“Ah,” Millie replied, looking wistful. “It is easy to forget sometimes, how young you are.”
Hannah gave a weak smile. She wished that were true.
When the grandfather clock chimed, alerting them that the hour had progressed into middle afternoon, Millie sighed. “Oh, drat. Is it already two o’clock?”
“Drat,” aped Ember, grinning. “It’s all right, Millie. You can say feck.”
Millie cut her eyes to the other woman. “I’m afraid I’ll have to remain feckless for today.”
“Typical,” Claire tutted, winning laughs from the other women.
Millie gave them all her best mild frown. “In any event, I’m afraid I need to get back home,” she said, switching the infant in her arms from one side to the other. “I’ve family coming in from Aberdeen, and I need to be there to greet them.”
“Oh?” said Ember. “Abe’s family, then? That’ll be a treat.”
Millie nodded. “Hannah, you ought to come for dinner once they’re settled. My sister-in-law is of an age with you and will doubtless be hungry for company and guidance. She has never been to London before.”
“Of course!” Hannah said, already standing and looking about for her reticule herself. “I would be delighted. I am afraid I also must be off, however. I’ve promised my mother I will begin my work at the clinic today, and I’m already late.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Ember Donnelly announced, coming to her feet so suddenly, it made Dot jump. “I just happen to have business in that direction. Isn’t that funny?”
Hannah gave her a tired look.
She hadn’t said which direction it was in.
Still, she let Ember follow her out the door and participated in saying their farewells to Millie as though nothing at all was amiss.
They managed to clear the first block between Bloomsbury and Covent Garden in silence. Hannah wondered, for a brief, foolish moment, if perhaps she had been mistaken and they could continue along without speaking all the way to Clerkenwell.
She glanced at Ember, trying to gauge the likelihood of that, which unfortunately did exactly the opposite.
“Still?” Ember exploded, as though she’d been waiting for an opening. “It’s been two years!”
“I … whatever do you mean?” Hannah attempted to deflect, reddening immediately.
“Listen here, you randy wee goblin, I am onto you!” Ember continued, her voice kicking up an octave. “I always was! Remember?”
Hannah grimaced. “I remember.”
“I bet you do,” Ember grumbled. “You know I work with the man now? You know we share a business? Why would you not come to me before you sent off a missive like that?”
“I didn’t think you would … um …”
“Approve?!” she said, stopping and gripping Hannah by her shoulders, forcing her to turn and face her. “You didn’t think to even ask?”
“Well, you didn’t approve before,” Hannah said weakly.
“I didn’t approve of you slithering out of our room and into his bed when you were barely more than a child,” Ember corrected. “I stand by that.”
“Shh!” Hannah exclaimed, her hands coming up as though to cover Ember’s mouth or perhaps shove the words back inside. “I didn’t do that! You haven’t told him—”
“Of course not, you little idiot.” Ember sighed, looking somehow reassured by this exchange. “Do you even remember what I told you about the whole sneaking-out business, back then?”
“Oh, um,” Hannah said uncertainly. “Not … to?”
Ember sighed again, shaking her head with a little smile. “I said not yet. I said to be sure of what you wanted. Ach, you are going to be the death of me.”
Ember dropped her hands, jerking her head toward their path on the sidewalk, and began to walk again, leaving Hannah to process the command and scramble up after her.
“I suppose you think you are sure now,” Ember continued, mild and casual, as though continuing a conversation about dinner plans. “But you haven’t seen him in all that time. I’m not sure you’ve ever even spoken to him.”
“I have,” she said quickly. “Not for long, but I have spoken to him.”
“Have you, then?” Ember said. “What did he say?”
“Not terribly much,” Hannah admitted.
“Ah, well, that’s good, then,” Ember said, and then laughed at Hannah’s expression. “It’s a start. You’re not going to like this, but I’m going to say it again. Not yet. Not until you actually have gotten to know him, at least a bit.”
“That is all I want,” Hannah retorted, her cheeks flaming. “It’s all I ever wanted!”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s the whole of what you ever wanted,” Ember said with a smirk. “You thought he was beautiful. He punched a man for you. I’m not saying good marriages haven’t been built on less, but, Hannah …”
“It wasn’t only that!” she snapped, her gloved hands flying up to try to smooth the mortification off her face, as though her fingers could push it back under the pale layer of her skin.
“He was so … his voice, you know? The way he moves. How careful he was during the games I notarized. He was fascinating, Ember, and so different from all the other men there.”
“Aye, well, different I’ll hand you,” Ember said with a little sigh. “He’s not from wealth. I suppose you guessed that?”
“I … hadn’t thought about it,” Hannah confessed, giving up and letting her fingers droop down to her jaw. “But I wish to ask him everything. Or simply to sit in thrall while he speaks and feel grateful that he turns those dark eyes upon me.”
Ember blinked several times. “All right, let’s put a few of those horses back in the stable for now,” she said. “No man deserves that level of devotion.”
“Well, if he doesn’t answer me, it won’t matter at all, will it?” Hannah shot back, knowing damn well she was pouting. “And he might not.”
Ember chuckled. “If he doesn’t, it’s because he’s still paralyzed at his desk from the shock of getting a letter from you. His interest isn’t in question, a stóirín.”
Hannah was the one who stopped this time. Hannah was the one who reached out and physically turned the other woman around.
“What?” she said sharply. “What?!”
Ember just grinned at her, pulled her hands gently away, and tugged her back onto the path. “Oh, you still have so much to learn, don’t you? It’s all right. I’m here to teach you.”
“Then teach me!” Hannah said, eyes wide. “Go on!”
“We’ll have to do that later,” Ember said happily. “You mustn’t be late to the clinic.”
“You’re a wicked woman, Ember Donnelly,” Hannah muttered.
“Aye, I am,” she confirmed. “Very lucky for you, isn’t it?”