The Honourable Fortune Hunter (Scandalous Miss Brightwells 5)

Drawing in a shaky breath, Lizzy rose and allowed herself to be disrobed and then re-dressed by Mabel, all the while feeling like a husk of the girl she’d been before.

“There, don’t yer look a treat.” Mabel stood back and regarded Lizzy with an expression both anxious and reassuring. She patted Lizzy on the back. “Yer’ll be all right, miss. If it’s that Mr Dalgleish yer worryin’ ’bout, then don’t. ‘E’s a nice feller, I reckon. Not as nice as that Mr McAlister, but then, Mr McAlister is already taken.”

“I know.” Lizzy wiped away the wetness on her lashes, but Mabel didn’t seem to notice, as she continued to chatter. “Mr Dalgleish asked afta yer when ‘e recognised me in the corridor last night. Not many fellers are that considerate. An’ yer’ll be away from Mrs ’Odge, if yer marry ’im. Yer’ll like that. An’ yer’ll take me wiv yer, won’t yer, miss? Yer won’t leave me wiv Mrs ‘Odge who’d as like get rid o’ me, anyways.”

“I’ll look after you, Mabel, don’t worry,” Lizzy whispered, passing through the open door the maid had opened.

“An’ Mr Dalgleish will look afta yer. It’ll work out. Yer’ll see.”

It was no surprise that Mrs Hodge’s insistence that Lizzy attend to her immediately was on account of her recent interview with Mr Dalgleish that had ‘caused her some alarm’.

She was seated on a pink and gold striped sofa when Lizzy was ushered into the small private sitting room of the suite the earl and his countess had allocated to her. Clearly, Mrs Hodge’s husband had been held in high esteem by the illustrious family for her to receive treatment like this.

And Mrs Hodge looked like she had taken to her lavish surroundings like Queen Cleopatra. She’d been reading a book of fashion plates with rapt interest, but her expression assumed its usual hard edge the moment Lizzy crossed her vision causing her to look up.

“What do you have to say for yourself, girl?” Lizzy’s custodian demanded, her nostrils flaring as she rested the magazine beside her. “Are you in the habit of taking such risks as to meet with single young men, alone and unchaperoned?”

Lizzy didn’t know what to say. Mrs Hodge was lambasting her? Whatever small kernel of courage she’d managed to cultivate, withered and died. She swallowed nervously. “It was Lady Quamby who suggested we take a walk to the folly,” she whispered. “I didn’t know Mr Dalgleish was waiting there.” She hesitated, frowning through her confusion, before adding, “I…I thought you wanted me to marry him.”

“Indeed I do, but I also want you to conduct yourself with the dignity of your station and not to embarrass me into the bargain.”

“Ma’am, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lizzy said in a small voice. “It wasn’t a…pre-planned, clandestine meeting. And, as I said, Lady Quamby was with me.”

“When you were with Mr Dalgleish?” Mrs Hodge’s bosom rose. “Are you telling me you had her chaperonage the whole time?”

“No, Lady Quamby left and—”

“And you were alone with Mr Dalgleish in a darkened room. Alone and unchaperoned.” It was not a question. Mrs Hodge said it with relish.

“I didn’t meet with him on purpose. I never intended—”

“It makes little difference what you intended, my girl. The fact is that you were observed walking to the folly to meet with him. And now word is all over Quamby House that you behaved like a little trollop. Not only have you dragged your reputation through the mud, you’ve dragged mine along with it.” Mrs Hodge exhaled heavily. “I see no other course than for you to announce your intention to marry the gentleman at tonight’s ball. I understand now that your willingness to entertain the idea has made you impatient. But you were foolish into the bargain. I don’t like to see you rewarded for your behaviour, but sometimes life will do that—reward the most undeserving.”

“But ma’am—”

“No buts, Lizzy. It’s the only way you can continue to hold your head up high; the only way to salvage not only your reputation but mine too.”

“But Mrs Hodge, I’m not sure I want to marry Mr Dalgleish.”

There, she’d said it, and what a relief it was to get those words out. Mrs Hodge couldn’t force Lizzy to marry Harry. And finally, Lizzy had told her so. She exhaled deeply, feeling so much lighter, despite her continued distress, for at last she had announced what she knew beyond a certainty she did not want—marriage to Harry Dalgleish.

When she raised her eyes from the toes of her boots, Mrs Hodge was looking at her as if she were as sinful as Eve in the Garden of Eden.

“Dear lord, Lizzy; I can’t believe what I am hearing with my own ears,” she all but hissed. A faint trembling seemed to make her wobble gently all over, but while her body was soft and weak, her glare was as stony and unyielding as ever. “Are you telling me that you threw yourself into a situation, without heed for anything but your own pleasure, only to withdraw, once satisfied, and declare to all the world that you were just out for a bit of fun? That’s what they’ll think, you know.”

Lizzy shook her head, the panicked feeling she’d felt all afternoon now returning to consume her. “You don’t understand, Mrs Hodge. It wasn’t like that—”

“Ma’am, Mr Dalgleish is 'ere ter see yer.” It was Mabel again, putting her head round the door to announce the gentleman Lizzy least wished to see in all the world.

“Come in, Mr Dalgleish, and what a pleasure to see you. A great deal more of a pleasure than it has been to hear an account of the misdemeanours of this child I’ve been forced to rear since she was still in short skirts. And what kind of loyalty does she repay me with after my years of expense, not to mention the womanly virtues that are so clearly lacking?”

“Now, now, Mrs Hodge, that is harsh; Lizzy has womanly virtues in abundance.” Mr Dalgleish smiled warmly at Lizzy after sending Mrs Hodge a placating glance. “It should be McAlister you’re lambasting on account of his ungentlemanly conduct.” He touched his nose and winced, before saying stoically, “But, are you all right, Lizzy? You seem very discomposed. I hoped to ensure that you were…well, up to the mark and not…” he glanced at Mrs Hodge once more, raising his eyebrows as if to indicate he intended to take a gentle approach and wished her to do the same “in a state of confusion over recent events between us.”

Lizzy gasped. She looked at Mrs Hodge whose beady eyes were trained on her, and then at Harry, who was standing in the centre of the room on the Oriental carpet between both their sofas, smiling in an understanding manner.

Harry clasped his hands, his concern apparent as he went on, “Pray, ask me to leave, Mrs Hodge, if you find my approach too confronting; however, I do want to ensure that Lizzy understands what it is that every young lady must understand when she is on the brink of marriage.”

Lizzy was sure such talk would be considered vulgar and unconscionable in the extreme by Mrs Hodge, so was horrified when that lady simply nodded her head a