Page 41 of Love and Other Disasters

“No. No. You know me. I’m not given to false praise of anyone.” He extended his arm to the older woman. “If you will allow me, madam?”

“I certainly will, my lord. I have dreamed of a good rest and long talk for hours,” Madam Clover said. “Carriage travel rarely agrees with me.”

“I understand completely and for that reason alone, you must stay with us a few days to recover from the ordeal,” Jasper suggested as the pair disappeared through the doorway ahead of Sophie. What response he might have received from Madam Clover could not be heard because Persephone caught Sophie’s arm and held her back.

“We could all agree to a lie down with the handsome bachelor like that, too,” she whispered to Sophie. “Lud, Sophie, I thought you said he was horrible?”

She had not described Jasper’s looks in her letters, but the way he’d acted toward her. From the very start had been horrible.

Ruby giggled. “I think he’s perfect for any of our beds.”

Sophie winced inwardly but managed a smile as they hurried inside, past the butler, and headed straight toward Jasper. It became clear immediately that he was flattered by their attention and remarkable beauty. Sophie had quite forgotten how forward her friends could be sometimes when there was an unattached man anywhere in their vicinity. She felt the stab of exclusion as flirting began in earnest between them all. Lord Jasper lapped it all up as his due, and of course he could. But would Sophie be minding the children alone tonight while Jasper was entertained by her bolder friends?

She took a seat close beside the madam, and took up her hand, still unable to believe the madam come all this way to check on her. “I’m so happy to see you, madam.”

Madam Clover cupped her cheek gently. “You’re too good a woman to simply forget, and as I was telling Lord Jasper just now, I was worried about not having received any correspondence from this part of the world.”

It was odd that her most recent letters had not been delivered, and she looked across at Jasper, who frowned, too.

“Lord Jasper has assured me all is well here, but that Lord Nash is away for the summer,” madam continued.

“Yes, that is true. He is traveling with the duke,” she said.

Madam Clover pursed her lips. “A pity, for I had hoped to have a long conversation with him.”

Sophie grasped her hands together in her lap. Madam Clover and Lord Nash had been acquainted long before Sophie had ever met him. He had, occasionally, tended the ill and injured at the pleasure house—before, during, and after her time there. “Is everyone well at the garden?”

“Yes, yes indeed. We ladies are in the best of health.”

“It’s so odd you’re here when I have just sent a letter to you about a matter of business.” Telling Madam Clover now, in person, would speed up the discussion. Sophie glanced at Jasper, and he offered her a subtle nod.

“Business?” Madam glanced at Jasper, who merely smiled. “We’ll, I’m doubly glad I’m here now. You’ve a head for business, my dear, and it has always been to my benefit to hear you out.”

“Thank you,” Sophie murmured.

“Would you excuse me a moment,” Jasper asked. Sophie watched Lord Jasper step away to confer with the butler at the door. She had expected him to be involved in all the discussions, but perhaps his absence was for the best.

Sophie told Madam Clover her idea, and Lord Jasper’s intentions for the future, and by the end she could tell Madam was clearly intrigued.

“Tea shall be delivered shortly,” Jasper said as he returned to sit nearby. “Now, Mrs. Radcliffe, perhaps now the initial pleasure of your friend’s arrival has subsided, you’d do me the honor of performing the proper introductions to these remarkably pretty acquaintances of yours.”

Sophie managed the introduction but cringed inside as the flattery between Lord Jasper and the ladies escalated. She adjusted the collar of her plain gown a little self-consciously and turned to Madam Clover, “How have you really been?”

“I am very well enough, and the business thrives. Mr. Peters sends his warmest regards,” she said. “He’s asked more than once if you’re happy buried in the countryside and longs for your return to our society.”

Lord Jasper, done with his flirting for now, took a seat close to Sophie and the madam. “Who is this Peters character?”

“A neighbor in London. Quite handsome in his own way, rich and still terribly alone, especially without our Sophie to smile at each evening.” Madam grinned at Sophie’s discomfort. “I think he might have called on you here if I’d told him where you’d gone.”

Lord Jasper sat forward a little more. “Why wouldn’t you tell him? There’s no shame in Sophie being a governess to my brother’s children.”

Sophie brushed her skirts smooth while watching Lord Jasper from under her lashes as the madam answered.

“I did not tell him more because Sophie did not favor him,” Madam Clover murmured, patting her hand.

“Soph is too particular,” Ruby exclaimed. “He would have married her!”

Madam Clover shushed Ruby. “Enough. Sophie decided against him, and that’s all there is to it.”