He lifted his cap to run his hands through his corn-colored hair and Lissa was struck by the jagged scar that sliced his scalp, as if someone had taken a sword to his head. Had Jem suffered so badly for his involvement in the letter, which Araminta had used to try to blackmail Sir Aubrey into marriage before she’d burned it?
“Strange coincidence, then, that me sweetheart, Jane, what’s maid to your friend Miss Partington, told me sumfink interesting about a dress wot she says Miss Partington sent to you this afternoon.”
“Well, it seems everyone knows everyone’s business,” Lissa remarked, ready to move on. The fact that she wasn’t going to be wearing the dress after all was hard to take with fortitude. She didn’t need Jem to be crowing over his superior knowledge of her life.
“You can sound haughty, Miss, and I don’t care a scrap. But as there were summat shady going to be taking place tonight, I thought you might jest consider it worth a shilling for me to warn you.”
Lissa’s mouth dropped open. “Are you...” She stopped, horrified. “Is this blackmail?”
“Dunno, Miss. I didn’t reckon you ’ad secrets like that Miss Partington, but if you do, then maybe it’s blackmail, or maybe it’s jest that your friend has plans you don’t know about yet, but that it might be worth two shillings to ’ave forewarning of.” He took a deep breath. “That’s if you gets me meaning.”
“Miss Partington wouldn’t wish me harm.” Lissa tried to sound dignified. “I’ve been too...” She’d been going to say “helpful” before deciding “useful” was a more apt word.
“Well, if that were in the past only you weren’t useful now, I wouldn’t be too confident of her loyalty, miss. There ain’t no loyalty amongst rogues and thieves, I can tell you.”
“How dare you be so insulting?” She felt suddenly angry toward Jem, highly indignant that an inferior would speak like that, though it was true she was mistrustful of her half-sister.
Jem looked at her expectantly. “Well, Miss?”
“I don’t have any money with me,” she said tightly. “And if it’s something I really should know about, then a gentleman would tell me.”
Jem shrugged then gave a half grin. “You’re right, Miss Hazlett. Tell yer wot. I’ll do you a favor and I won’t ask fer no money. Jest don’t wear the green dress and yer’ll be right as rain, no tales told and no one in any tricky situations.”
He offered her a quick bow and strode off, quickly turning the corner and disappearing before Lissa could catch up with him to call him back.
Hurriedly she collected the little girls and walked them home, just as Miss Maria appeared on the stairs dressed in the embroidered green dress, her dark hair elaborately coiffured, her mother’s jewelry adorning her throat.
“Ah, Miss Hazlett, Mama will be glad to see you back.” She sounded very grand and grown up as she tugged at her mauve elbow-length gloves. “She’s cross that you’ve made the girls late for nursery tea. I placated her.”
Offering Lissa an overindulgent smile, she took another step down the stairs. “I was going to wear my oyster sarsnet but this is far superior, don’t you think? I’m sorry you thought it was for you—”
“Miss Maria, you cannot wear that gown tonight.”
Miss Maria sent her a mutinous look before she clearly chose to her ignore her. “Do you not think this could have been made for me? Clearly it was,” she said, airily.
“But it was not, and Miss Maria, I fear there’s trouble brewing. I don’t know what, but I believe it would be unwise if you...insisted on wearing it.”
“Is that a threat?” Miss Maria looked ugly when she was crossed. “Ah, Cosmo, the governess insists I cannot wear this dress to attend Lady Grenville’s soiree. That trouble is brewing, she says.” She gave a simpering laugh as she turned to look over her shoulder at her brother, who had just started down the stairs. “Should I trust her?”
Lissa, who hadn’t exactly expected support, despite Cosmo’s reliance upon her artistic talents, was, nevertheless, taken aback by his vituperative look.
“As much as you should trust a fox to look after your ducklings,” he said in a low voice, passing close enough to hiss in Lissa’s ear, “Mr. Crossing, who has made no mention of the work I delivered until I chanced to meet him in the street, told me he was delighted by the sketch. Delighted!”
His nostrils twitched and Lissa faltered at the vitriol in his voice as he added, “So delighted, there was no suggestion of an added payment for further investigative sketching. For more than a week I’ve tried to contact him. Now, finally, it’s to hear that never was there a happier husband to have received proof that his wife had not been lying to him. Yes, the redheaded gentleman in the picture was apparently his wife’s brother!”
He extended his hand as if he were going to pinch Lissa’s shoulder then drew back at the last minute at the sound of his mother calling to her children, and her footsteps sounding louder in the corridor.
“Maria, there you are, and what a picture you look! Cosmo, are you ready to escort your sister? Miss Hazlett, you should be in the nursery looking after the children.”
Lissa decided it would be futile to reiterate her concern over Miss Maria’s insistence on wearing a gown that was apparently going to cause ructions.
Perhaps Jem had been lying in the hopes of earning a couple of shillings, though Lissa doubted it, and as soon as she reached the schoolroom, she promptly dispatched a note to Ralph, outlining as briefly as she could Jem’s warning.
All evening she worked restlessly at her mending after Clara had put the children to bed. She’d hoped Ralph might respond but he didn’t. When the clock struck eleven she realized he would not.
Despondent, she went to bed.
***