“My mother is having some friends over, if you would like to join them as well, Lady Stark.”Lady Astrid smiled widely at her.
“No, no.I have my own plans for tomorrow afternoon, but it will be good for Johanna to be with her friends.”
“Very well.”Lady Astrid focused on Johanna again.“I will see you tomorrow.”Nodding her head firmly, Lady Astrid swanned off after Miss Yates and Mei.
Seemingly pleased, Lady Stark led Johanna out of the shop.The footmen who had come in to fetch their boxes followed them and loaded up the carriage while the coachman helped Lady Stark and Johanna inside it.
“How close are you with Lady Astrid?”Lady Stark asked as soon as they were both seated.She had a gaze like a hawk, and Johanna felt very much like a mouse.
“She is a neighbor, of a sort.”Johanna had not seen much of the other lady while they were growing up, though she knew where Blackstone Manor was.
“But you attended her house party.”Lady Stark tapped her lower lip with her fan, obviously thinking.
Johanna was not certain if she was supposed to reply, so she just nodded.She assumed the duke had told his grandmother about how they’d met before… well, before.“It is a good connection.She seemed pleased to see you with me.She’ll know what that means.But you should not tell her the full story.Tell her Matthew sought you out.”
Johanna nodded again.She understood why Lady Stark wanted her to lie.It was the story they would tell thetonas a whole.Although she felt bad about lying to Lady Astrid when the lady had been so kind to her.She’d run into Johanna on a visit home during the Season and had been quite pleasant in conversation.The invitation to her house party had arrived several days later, an unexpected boon.
It did not mean that she could trust Lady Astrid with the scandalous truth of how the duke had found Johanna again.
“Good.That’s settled.”The older woman nodded decisively, and the carriage lurched into motion.“On to Bond Street.”
“Bond Street?”
“Yes, you need hats.And gloves.Reticules.”
More shopping.Johanna wanted to sag in her seat, but she doubted that was how a duchess would behave.Besides, she should be grateful to Lady Stark for taking the time to ensure that Johanna was properly outfitted.Straightening her spine, she rolled her shoulders back, trying to summon some energy.
Watching her, Lady Stark frowned.
“Perhaps something to eat on the way—and you will eat, girl.”She stabbed the end of her fan toward Johanna.“Your family will not be saved by you starving yourself while you are here.”
The guilt that thinking of eating had stirred was not assuaged, but she understood Lady Stark’s point.Johanna nodded meekly.
She would eat.And try not to thinktoohard about her family.They would be here soon enough, and eating soon enough, and it would not do anyone any good if she did not eat until then.
“Good.”Lady Stark nodded again, resting her fan down in her lap, clearly pleased that the world was being sorted to her order.
Johanna could only hope to have that kind of confidence one day.And her energy.She did not look nearly half as tired as Johanna felt, despite her age.If she could keep onward, Johanna could do no less.
ChapterSeven
Matthew
It was several hours into Zachary’s visit when Matthew’s grandmama and bride-to-be finally returned home.He and Zachary had moved from the billiards room, where they’d done the harder conversations about their brides—and, in Zachary’s case, about his former mistress Delilah—to the library for more comforting surrounds and lighter conversation.
Though Matthew supposed most people would not consider Drake’s activities and the mystery of their father’s murders to be lighter conversation.It was more that they were not so emotionally engaged.Truthfully, Matthew was not particularly emotionally engaged in any of the topics, but Zachary certainly was, especially when it came to Delilah.
Not that they got anywhere on any of the topics.
Zachary had no more idea what Drake was up to than Christian and Matthew did.He’d been shocked to hear about the state of the bawdy house they’d followed Drake to, and completely unsurprised that Drake had refused to speak about it when Matthew approached him earlier.
Neither were there any new clues as to the murder of their fathers.They knew the Duke of Clarence’s steward had something to do with it—in revenge for the rape of his niece, a maid in the Clarence household, that left her with child.But the man had fled.Drake had sent investigators after him, but so far, they had not returned with any more information.
The next clue they’d found was in the debts of the Duke of Hereford’s father, a profligate gambler who left his family nearly as poorly off as Johanna’s with his reckless spending.He’d died in massive debt to multiple establishments and noblemen.One of them had invited him to the hunting lodge where he’d died.
Why a man, who was owed such a massive sum of money, would issue such an invitation…
Well, the Earl of Cornwall had lived to tell the tale, but the Duke of Hereford had not.It could have been coincidence, but it needed looking into.