Page 42 of Love and Other Disasters

Ruby shot out of her chair, muttering to herself as she went to look out the nearest window. “He could have asked me to be his wife. I would have said yes to him.”

Sophie winced. Ruby desperately wanted to be married and had been jealous that Sophie had attracted the interest of one of her gentleman friends.

Persephone begged Lord Jasper to open up the pianoforte for her, and he got up to assist her to the instrument, casting Sophie a questioning look as he went away.

Sophie caught the older woman’s eye. “You should not talk about suitors in front of Lord Jasper. He could hardly care.”

“Why not? Every young man needs a little push to see what’s right in front of them,” Madam teased. “It would ease my heart to know you were admired.”

“Not by him.”

“And why not him? Is he the heartless rake you described in your letters or the man you’re starting to feel something for? The tone of your last letter to reach me was a great deal cooler toward him than the heated looks exchanged between you today suggest. You are nervous around him.”

Sophie swallowed a lump in her throat at the very distressing idea that the madam might be right. But she should feel nothing for a rake or her employer’s brother. Lord Jasper had until recently despised her. But if anything more should happen between them, it would only lead to disappointment and shame. She was courting enough scandal as it was simply by offering her aid.

When the tea came, they talked of the roads the ladies had traveled, the sights they’d seen, and then the madam requested to be shown to her room so she might rest before dinner. Lord Jasper offered his arm and led her away to the stairs. The other ladies elected to remain behind with Sophie and when it was clear he wasn’t returning, the ladies crowded around her.

“She tires easily nowadays,” Ruby whispered. “Lord Nash warned that prolonged travel was ill advised. We couldn’t bear to let her journey all this way alone.”

“She mentioned no illness to me,” Sophie said, worrying her lip. “Lord Nash hasn’t mentioned it either.”

“She probably told him not to tell you,” Persephone grumbled. “There are some requests that ought to have been ignored. Madam hides it well, but she’s a little worse every day.”

Sophie put her hand to her throat in shock. Madam Clover was the closest thing to a mother she’d ever known. It pained her to realize she might lose her. And because her letters had not been delivered, she’d come to find out if Sophie was all right, and that might have been the worst thing for her health. “I appreciate you all coming with her,” Sophie said. “If I had known, I might have already returned to London.”

“Your silence has worried her no end, but we’re glad you’re all right,” Eleanor promised. “She just decided to come and nothing could stop her.”

“The sight of you so well and the prospect of making money cheered her right up today though. We haven’t enjoyed an orgy since you left us. If madam agrees to it, the others will be so jealous that they’re not sent for.”

Sophie laughed. “I’m sure there will be others.”

Ruby pulled Sophie to her feet and hooked arms with her. “Will you be joining in the fun this time?”

Eleanor took up Sophie’s other arm. “She’ll need the loan of a better dress first.”

“No one will care what a governess wears,” she explained to them both as she was pulled from the drawing room and up the main staircase.

“We do. And your hair! Something must be done about that monstrosity at the back of your head,” Eleanor chided. “Do you not even have a maid’s help?”

“No.”

“Well, you’ll dress properly for dinner tonight,” Persephone insisted. “We must show Lord Jasper the jewel hiding right under his nose. We can tell you like him more than you want him to realize. Your blushes said it all.”

“Persephone don’t say such things. I’m just the governess,” she reminded them, stopping on the landing. “I have children to look after.”

“And who looks after you?” The ladies all smiled. “That handsome gentleman hardly noticed us. Couldn’t keep his eyes off you, though.”

Sophie blushed fiercely and shook her head in denial.

“Don’t pretend you don’t see it and probably have all along,” Eleanor said, taking up her hand. “You’re a lovely young woman with needs not being met. I knew it was a mistake to allow that starch-shirted physician to take you away from us for a respectable position.”

“And now we’ve met his brother, we know exactly why you don’t complain loudly enough anymore. You were made for more than this. We shall ensure Lord Jasper understands what a treasure you really are before the day is through.”

Ruby stopped talking abruptly, and her smile grew wider. “My dear, Lord Jasper. Just the man we were talking about.”

“Oh?” he replied, approaching the women.

“Sophie must come to dinner with us. Tell her she can be excused from her dull duties as governess for the evening for a night of fun and frivolity.”