Page 75 of A Lady's Guide to Scandal

‘Perhaps we ought to go inside,’ Hinsley said hastily. ‘Rather than hash it all out on the street.’

‘Hash all what out?’ Radcliffe said sharply.

‘Cecily, Sally, what is going on?’ Kitty had caught her sister’s arm and was tugging her into the house. ‘Come in, all of you.’

They fell into the house eagerly, all of them relieved to get out of the gusty air. The two stories were told quite haphazardly, over the top of one another, interspersed with exclamations of shock, as well as Radcliffe and Miss Talbot’s loud demands for explanations that there was no space to give. But little by little, much as one assembles a jigsaw, all present gathered a clear enough picture of how the other party had spent their evening.

‘Cecily!’ Kitty gasped, quite stricken. ‘How could you do such a thing?’

Her sister burst into tears and ran out of the room. Meanwhile Radcliffe had turned on Hinsley furiously.

‘By God, how could you let her do such a thing?’ There was real, fierce anger in his voice. ‘She could have been hurt.’

‘Let her?’ his friend expostulated, bridling in indignation. ‘Good God man, have you ever tried telling her what to do?’

‘It’s my fault,’ Archie confessed miserably. ‘I got quite caught up in it all, a-and Gerry and Ernie and Hinsley all tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t listen. It all got terribly out of hand.’ He looked very young, and very miserable. Radcliffe’s heart went out to him.

‘The fault is mine,’ he said roughly, reaching out to clasp Archie’s shoulder. ‘I should have noticed – I should have been there. And I don’t just mean this year.’

Archie’s face melted, and they embraced.

‘I’m sorry, Archie,’ Radcliffe said, slapping him on the back.

‘I suppose I ought to go home before Mama has a fit,’ Archie said gloomily as he stepped back.

‘Shall I drop him off?’ Hinsley offered, watching them with a smile.

‘No, I will,’ Radcliffe said. He clasped Hinsley’s arm next, gripping it tightly. ‘Thank you, Hinsley. I’ll call on you tomorrow.’

Theirs was a friendship of too long a standing to need more than these simple words. Hinsley squeezed his hand back.

‘Wait for me in the carriage, won’t you?’ Radcliffe said to Archie. ‘I’ll be just a moment.’

Archie and Hinsley left, Hinsley shooting Radcliffe a saucy wink that he studiously ignored. And then it was just Miss Talbot and Radcliffe – Kitty and James – left standing in the dimly lit parlour.

‘What you did tonight, for Archie – you didn’t have to do that,’ he said, as soon as they were alone.

‘Nor did you, for Cecily,’ she retorted hotly. ‘But now we have both embarrassed ourselves by doing things we ought not to have done, perhaps we can get on with the rest of our evenings.’

She was not quite sure what it was she was cross about, and why she was targeting her ire at him of all people – only that she was aware once again of feeling uncomfortably seen by him, aware of that heavy gaze upon her. This gentleman notices, she reminded herself: he doesn’t just see, and she wasn’t sure she could bear it any more.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

‘Well, let me think!’ she said brightly, beginning to take off her cloak with quick ungraceful movements. ‘I am not, as I had planned to be by the end of the evening, engaged to Mr Pemberton. I am not, as I thought I was, a sister kind enough not to disregard Cecily to such a degree that she felt elopement a natural way of getting my attention.’ She tossed the cloak to the side, uncaring of where it fell. ‘I am, however, still in possession of a large quantity of debt and – oh yes – absolutely no closer to solving any of it.’ She was fumbling now with the buttons on her gloves, but her hands were too cold to gain much traction on the silk, and in a fit of rage began to flap them ineffectually in the air. ‘So yes, I’m very well,’ she said.

She continued to struggle with the gloves until her left hand was caught in mid-air by one larger than her own. Motioning for her to hold it still, Radcliffe bent and began calmly to undo the tiny buttons along the inside of her arm. She watched him, wrong-footed. He made quick but careful work of the left glove and pulled gently at the fingertips to loosen it off her hand. It suddenly felt very intimate, though he had not touched her skin once, and despite the chilliness of the room, she felt a rush of warmth. Kitty proffered the other arm automatically when he gestured for her to do so, and stared at his bent head, the furious wind quite taken out of her sails.

It was so like him to startle her like this.

‘I hope you know – I am very grateful for your actions tonight. For what you did for Cecy,’ she said at last, as he was nearing her wrist. The last button was proving tricky, and he frowned over it. She wondered if he might be able to feel the pulse of her heartbeat through the fabric.

‘And I you,’ he said, not looking up. ‘For fetching Archie from that place. It was very brave – braver than any one person has a right to be.’

She blushed, fierily, and hated herself for it.

‘Yes, well,’ she said awkwardly. ‘He did not deserve it.’

He pulled at the right glove now, gently, the slither of silk a whisper over her skin, and then handed the pair of them back to her.