Page 55 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
Lord Hackwell chuckled. “Yes, well, the next residents will have some work to do on these details.” Hackwell spurred his horse and went after Mr. Gibson.
“We’d best follow, I suppose,” Paulette said. But when she looked back, Thomas was not moving. The boy had been sullen all morning.
She caught his eye and pulled a face at him. “What’s wrong with you today?”
His mouth turned down further.
“You didn’t want to come, did you?”
“I wanted to see Jenny, and they wouldn’t let me.”
“Jenny…” The hair on her neck prickled. She turned Moonglow around and moved him closer. “Jenny?”
Her breath caught.The valet was below stairs and the coast was clear.
She’d sent Jenny down to the laundry.
She reached out for Thomas, and Moonglow shied.
“Damn it,” she cried, grasping handfuls of mane to keep from toppling.
Thomas reached for her reins and held Moonglow steady while she righted herself, face burning.
When she looked, the boy’s mood had shifted.
“Well, I’m new to this,” she said, and he grunted like a twelve-year-old scoundrel. She took a deep breath. “Jenny was the one attacked by Agruen’s valet.”
“Yes,” he said.
“And no one would tell me. But everyone else knows, or will know before the day is out.”
He bit his lip. “They’ll send her away.”
“No, Lady Hackwell won’t do that, will she?”
“For her own good, the nursery maid said. They’ll find her a new place far away, else she’ll always be that girl who spread her legs.”
“What?” Paulette exclaimed.
He shrugged. “Every rank swell as visits will be bothering her. It’s not fair.”
No, it wasn’t. But much in life wasn’t, and didn’t she know it. And if Jenny found herself carrying a child…egad, it would make the poor girl’s life even harder.
“Your brother will not be so cruel as to send her away,” she said.
Only, she didn’t know that to be true, did she? Lord Hackwell seemed kind, but he might think sending the girl away was kinder.
“And Mr. Gibson will make sure she’s looked after,” she said.
The boy shook his head. “He’ll be in India.”
“India?”
“Yes. I’m not supposed to know, but I heard Steven whispering about it.”
Mr. Gibson was leaving for India. He might as well be disappearing from the face of the earth.
Moonglow chose that moment to explore some vegetation. “Blast it, Thomas. Help me here. And do not worry about Jenny. She is coming with me.”
