Page 24 of A Lady of Conscience

So, James had returned to London. And on the same day Hannah had refused his proposal. She supposed that was an end to it.

It should be a relief, really. Now she wouldn’t have to see him again. Not until Kate and Charles’s wedding, and that was months away.

But Hannah didn’t feel very relieved. On the contrary. She felt the same lingering sense of regret she’d felt when she had refused him. He must have been badly hurt indeed to have left Bath so quickly.

“You’re not disappointed, are you?” Kate asked.

“Disappointed? Me?” Hannah smiled. “Why should I be?”

“You must know we’ve been teasing James awfully about his reasons for coming to Bath. The truth of it is, I’d hoped he had come to court you.”

Hannah bent her head, adjusting her gloved hands on her reins as Jubilee pranced beneath her. She made no reply.

Kate didn’t require one. “I suppose, all along, it must have been this business with Ivo and Meg that brought James here. He didn’t approve of their attachment initially.”

Hannah had observed that much for herself when she and Charles had visited Beasley Park in January. Then, Meg Burton-Smythe had called unexpectedly during an after-dinner dance. The reception she had received from James and his family had been chilly at best. Understandably so, given the fact that Meg’s father, Sir Frederick Burton-Smythe, and Lord Allendale were enemies of longstanding.

“He must have required further proof of Ivo’s affections,” Kate said. “Once assured, he had no more cause to remain. Nor why would he? James has no great fondness for Bath. He far prefers London. There were rumors last autumn that he might be courting Lady Augusta Newall, daughter of the Marquess of Deane. She’s a paragon, apparently, as well as being highly connected. Perhaps he’s returned to her?” She gave an absent pat to her gelding’s gleaming neck. “Shall we ride back?”

Hannah numbly agreed that they should. The casual revelation that James had recently been pursuing someone else shouldn’t matter to her. She had refused his offer, and there was an end to it. The information stung nonetheless.

A paragon, Kate had called the young lady.

A paragon.

Meanwhile, James had blithely referenced Hannah’s failings even as he was professing his admiration for her. He’d spoken of struggling over his feelings. Of having misgivings.

It hurt far more to recall it than it had hurt in the actual moment. Then, she’d been too stunned to allow the words to properly penetrate. But not now.

She mutely turned Jubilee to follow Ember as Kate guided her gelding back toward town. Their respective grooms followed after them at a distance.

“James thinks only in terms of great alliances,” Kate went on. “As though we Beresfords are pawns on a board, incapable of moving unless it’s to advance some prestigious game.”

Hannah rode up alongside her. The skirts of her close-fitting black wool riding habit fluttered in the breeze that gusted over the hills. “Has he always thought so?”

“He was encouraged in the belief by my great-grandfather. He had always dreamed that the family would regain its reputation. It was his son—my grandfather—who first submerged us in scandal. He was a known highwayman, you know. It’s all rather shocking.”

Hannah listened with unwilling attentiveness. She wished she weren’t so eager to know more, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. “A highwayman? Truly?”

“Oh, yes. He was a dreadful rogue. I never knew him myself. He died abroad, long before my parents married. Local people near Beasley Park still remember him, though. They still talk.”

“One can’t help who one’s ancestors are.”

“That’s what Charles says.”

“Charles knows?”

“I confessed it to him when the two of you visited Beasley. He did not seem troubled to hear it.”

“Does it trouble you?” Hannah asked. “Having a family scandal in your past?”

“Not as much as it does James. Then again, he is the heir. It’s he who must take the family into the future, not I.” Kate flashed Hannah a sudden smile. “I shall soon be a Heywood, shan’t I?”

Hannah smiled in return. “You certainly shall.”

The following day, she bid goodbye to Kate and her parents. The day after that, Ivo and Meg Burton-Smythe departed, along with Meg’s father, Sir Frederick. Hannah was left on her own in Bath with her parents and Charles.

This, it seemed was the real start of her season, not the brief illusion of romance she’d nurtured at the Carletons’ ball. James was gone, probably returned to his pursuit of his London paragon. And Hannah was here, focused on her own future. An imperfect future, to be sure, but one that she hoped would ultimately be perfect for her.