Page 68 of The Recluse of Wolfeton House (Ladies of Devon 4)

Chapter 23

Hattie swirled the cream into her tea, lifting the spoon and letting the liquid drip back into the cup. She lowered it again, and the spoon clanked against the fine porcelain as she stirred it further, mesmerized by the tiny ripples in the cup. It had been nearly a week since the meeting with Bentley in the barn, and she had been unable to think of much else since. He hadn’t responded to the letter she had left in the lightning tree. She hoped he had gone to visit his mother as he had claimed, and not simply chosen to ignore Hattie.

But the events of the last meeting they’d had left a confusion within her, an uneasiness that she hadn’t been able to shake. She needed to see him again, to make certain they were still friends. She heartily regretted turning to humor during such a vulnerable moment, but Bentley had implied feelings for her, and she’d panicked. She should have been kinder in her response, not made a jest about foxes.

“Hattie, have you gone mad?”

“Hmm?” she asked, looking up at four sets of eyes blinking back at her. She returned to the present, her thoughts drifting away from Bentley and back to the Fremonts’ drawing room and the friends gathered around her. Amelia and Charles Fremont sat on the couch beside her, while Giulia and Nick Pepper were comfortably ensconced across from them.

What had they been speaking of? Oh, yes. The assemblies.

Giulia cradled her babe in a blanket, a smirk on her lips. “Or is there a different reason you’ve chosen to attend a Melbury event?”

“Melbury?” her husband asked, his blond eyebrows lifting. “Why would you want to go there?”

“For the assemblies,” Amelia said, settling close to her husband’s side. “She merely wants to dance. We shan’t begrudge her that.”

“We can have a dance,” Charles said kindly. “You need not soil yourself by going to Melbury for it.”

Hattie sipped her tea, fighting the smile on her lips. “You sound like my father.”

“Rightfully so,” Nick said, scoffing. “Melbury cheated at the cricket match. You were there, Miss Green. I’m surprised you are willing to overlook the event.”

“And they stole our horses,” Charles put in, bringing his teacup to his lips. “That was only a few months ago now. Have you so easily forgotten?”

“I should think your father would be adamantly opposed to you attending any function within Melbury’s boundaries,” Nick agreed.

Giulia reached over and gripped Nick’s hand. “It is only a dance, gentlemen. One which I propose we all attend.”

The men groaned good-naturedly.

“Indeed,” Amelia said. “We cannot send Hattie into Melbury unprotected.”

“I should think not,” Nick said with feeling.

Hattie swallowed the remainder of her tea. “You needn’t come if you don’t wish to. My brother shall accompany me, rest assured. It is Lucy who wishes to go, after all. I am not being thrown to the wolves.”

There was a general murmur of assent in the room. She did share her friends’ opinions, but she couldn’t very well refuse Lucy the assemblies. Not after learning that coming to Devon to visit was such a chore for the woman, the company here so thin.

“Fear not,” Giulia said. “We shall come.”

“Indeed, we will,” Charles agreed, “but Amelia will not dance.”

Quiet settled over them. Giulia looked up sharply, her knowing eyes falling to Amelia’s hand resting on her stomach. “Do you have something to share with us?”

The smile which spread over Amelia’s lips brightened her face. “Charles and I are going to become parents.”

Charles’s broad grin displayed how excited he was, and Hattie was happy for them.

Amelia’s face grew apologetic. “It is still early days, but I’m not sure I could stomach the motion of dancing yet.”

“But you will still attend?” Giulia asked.

“Of course.”

Relief poured through Hattie. If she had to go to the assemblies in Melbury to appease her sister-in-law, at least she would have her supportive friends by her side. She was particularly grateful to have their husbands to claim as dance partners, for she was not in the mood to flirt. From the moment Bentley’s fingers brushed her cheek, Hattie’s body had erupted with the desire to kiss the man, and it overcame her with such a powerful force that it frightened her.

She couldn’t very well throw herself onto him when he was in such a vulnerable state. She had only embraced him because his story had broken her heart, and she had been able to see from the pain in his eyes how his own soul was tormented and broken in kind. He’d needed to go to his mother, to see to his stepfather and put the past behind him in order to heal.

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