Page 2 of It Happened in the Highlands
“I’m not feeling well, I’m afraid,” Jo said to the seamstress. “Pray, help me out of this and into my dress again.”
“But, mistress, the modiste wishes to see you in it.”
“I’ll come back in a day or two to finish the fitting,” Jo told her, retrieving a coin from her reticule and putting it into the young woman’s hand.
A few moments later, she slipped through the curtained doorway. Refusing to look in the direction of Lady Nithsdale and her confidante, Jo could not escape hearing the snickers of the two women as she fled.
“Why, there she goes.”
“LadyJosephine.”
She didn’t slow down as she passed a clutch of seamstresses standing around a bolt of scarlet silk, and went out into the front room of the shop. Since childhood Jo had been taught that life was hard enough and that there was no place in it for such malevolence. But these women had grown up in a different school. Lady Nithsdale and her lot had no souls.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
Jo looked up at her mother waiting in the front of the shop with her two younger sisters. She’d promised to show them the dress once the lace was pinned to the sleeves.
“Where is the dress?” Lady Aytoun didn’t wait for an answer. “Something has happened to upset you.”
“Nothing has happened,” Jo lied. “I think the pastries we ate aren’t sitting well. Pray let’s go home and come back another day.”
Millicent’s gaze moved to the doorway into the salon. Jo thought for a moment she’d need to stop her from going in and demanding to know what happened and who was responsible.
“Please, Mother. I’d like to go now.”
“As you wish.”
Lady Aytoun acquiesced, but her dark frown reflected her true feelings as they left the shop. Her family, and now Wynne, wanted to protect her. But Jo couldn’t bear the humiliation of a public confrontation. There could be no victory. She couldn’t change the circumstances of her birth.
Settling into the carriage, Jo took a few steadying breaths to calm herself.
All the gossip amounted to nothing, she told herself for the thousandth time. The past didn’t matter. Wynne had chosen her. He’d asked for her hand in marriage, knowing full well of her parentage. Her future with him didn’t need to include the likes of Lady Nithsdale. She closed her eyes and tried to think only of him. Of their future together, away from London’s ton.
Phoebe and Millie’s chatter was a welcome distraction, and it served to keep Lady Aytoun from asking any more question on their way back home.
By the time their carriage rolled to a stop in front of the mansion facing Hanover Square, Jo had buried the incident at the dress shop deep with all the others. A footman in gold-trimmed livery greeted them as he opened the door. Another servant escorted them up the wide marble steps to the front door.
Inside the mansion’s entrance hall, Jo stopped to remove her gloves and hat, and her gaze was drawn to the semicircular alcove at the far end of the hall where she could hear men’s voices.
“Hugh is back!” Phoebe shouted gleefully, running in that direction with Millie on her heels.
Jo smiled at their mother, feeling the same exuberance as the two younger ones over the arrival of their brother. Only a year apart in age, Hugh and Jo had been inseparable since childhood, until his schooling required that he stay away for much of the year. And now he was serving as a cavalry officer for the king.
“I’m happy to see your upset stomach is already improving.” Her mother smiled, heading toward the open set of doors.
Before Jo could follow, an elderly footman approached with a letter. “While you were out, m’lady, Lieutenant Melfort left this for you.”
“Did he say anything?” she asked.
“Only that he was sorry you weren’t at home to receive him.”
“Thank you,” she said, breaking the seal.
She wanted to see Hugh, but Wynne was not one to write her letters. She wondered if this had anything to do with this coming Thursday. His parents and brother were to join them for dinner.
She paused at the entrance to the alcove. The letter was brief. The lines danced before her eyes, but certain words and phrases came into a sharp focus.
. . .wedding arrangements . . . I foresee a life of misery for both of us . . . we must break off our engagement entirely . . . Ever your servant . . .
