Page 58 of Hazard a Guest
“Oh, good,” said Ember, leaning back in the tub and allowing Merryn to start her oils. “What is it, then?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t come to bed last night,” said Hannah, flopping onto the vanity stool in a huff, her skirt billowing up around her like a dust cloud. “You must have been worried sick.”
Ember blinked at her, allowing only a single second to pass by before she agreed. “I certainly was! Where the devil were you?”
“The tables ran late, but then my father was approached by a gentleman.” Hannah hesitated, flashing her teeth. “About me.”
“Oh!” said Merryn. “A suitor?”
“Of a sort,” said Hannah with a queasy droop of her lips. “Not the respectable sort, I’m afraid. He wanted to contract me to … to …” She trailed off, her eyes flicking back to Ember with a realization. “Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that you weren’t, that you shouldn’t …”
Ember flung a hand out of the water, flapping away the unnecessary concern. “Who approached your father?” she demanded, a furious heat rising into her throat that had nothing to do with the bath. “What was his name? What did he look like?”
Hannah’s eyes widened. “Oh, I don’t think you should—”
“I just want to speak with him,” Ember snapped, unwilling to hear the protest.
“Miss Donnelly,” breathed Merryn with what sounded like approval.
“I don’t know who it was, just who itwasn’t,” Hannah exclaimed, gripping either side of the tufted cushion under her like she might shoot into the open air if she didn’t hold herself down.
“Who it … who it wasn’t?” Ember repeated, raising a brow.
Hannah reddened. “I just mean it wasn’t anyone we know. Anyone we … or I … I just mean it wasn’t anyone specific. Papa wouldn’t say!”
Ember narrowed her eyes. “You mean it wasn’t Mr. Beck?”
“Or anyone else we know!” Hannah insisted, gone shrill.
“I could inquire …” Merryn whispered low enough to not be overheard as she worked a knot loose in Ember’s hair.
Ember opened her mouth, though she wasn’t sure which girl she wanted to answer or how, and was blessed with yet another interruption, a brisk knock at the door, drawing the eyes of all three women toward the threshold.
“Yes?!” Ember demanded. “Who is it?”
“Royal mail,” the voice called. “Care of Miss Ember Donnelly?”
“Leave it outside the door,” she snapped. “I’m naked.”
“Oh,” came the muffled voice of the mail carrier, and then again, softer, “oh!”
And then, perhaps as a relief, a medley of giggles from Ember herself and her two comrades-in-arms on this side of the door.
CHAPTER 20
Joe had tolerated a few rounds of circular conversation with Freddy after Ember’s departure this morning. They had consisted of approximately the same three lines:
“So this is about your father? Feeling like he is being forgotten?”
“What? No. He was a nasty old codger.”
“Then you don’t approve of Dom Raul?”
“I like Dom Raul.”
“Then this is about losing your mother?”
“No! But she was only ever married to my father.”
