“Eleanor.” Jie crouched beside me. “You don’t look right. We should get you home.”
“No, no.” I waved the comment aside. “I’m a mess... and I’ve lost my parasol. I haven’t the slightest idea where I put it. Mama will kill me, and we can’t spare the money to buy another.” I huffed a dramatic sigh. I felt a bit like I had at Allison’s birthday party, when I had drunk too much champagne. Blurry.
“Eleanor.” Jie scooted closer. “Stay awake.”
“Just a little nap,” I insisted.
My eyes fluttered shut, and I let my body slump. Right before I wandered into sleep, someone caught me. I hoped it was Daniel.
When I awoke, I found myself layered beneath blankets. It was my bed, my bedroom, though I couldn’t think how I’d gotten there.
My tongue felt fat and dry, like an overcooked slab of sausage. I kicked away the covers. They were soaked through with my sweat, and my nightgown clung to my skin.
Amber light shone through my window. Evening. My head hurt, and I wiggled my fingers and toes experimentally. My muscles felt as if someone had pummeled them.
I’d been electrocuted. That’s what Daniel had said. I shuddered. Bad enough the Spirit-Hunters had battled a spirit, but then they’d had to bring an unconscious lady home.
Merciful heavens, had they met Mama?
The door flew open, and the dragon herself sailed in. She settled on the edge of my bed, her face severe and her nostrils flaring. “Well, dear, no more Women’s Pavilion for you.”
“Huh?” I propped myself onto my elbows. These were not the first words I’d expected.
“I will not have my only daughter working and then fainting from the heat.”
The heat. A clever explanation.
Mama lifted her chin. A queen declaring her law. “It is utterly unacceptable for a lady of high society to lose consciousness in front of such crowds.”
“It’s not the Women’s Pavilion that made me overheat,” I muttered, “but all the petticoats—”
“Do not blame your clothes.” Her eyes thinned. “You have put yourself in a very improper position, and it will require the utmost delicacy to mend.” She sighed dramatically. “To be brought home by such ilk.”
“Wh-what do you mean? By what ilk?”
“A young man carried you home, Eleanor. A filthy young man. Do you realize the talk that could come from this?”
It must have been Daniel who had brought me home, for Joseph could never be called “filthy”. Good. I don’t want Joseph tarnishing his reputation with swooning girls. Daniel, at least, has no reputation to tarnish.
Mama rose and began pacing. Her feet pounded a slow rhythm that echoed miserably in my aching skull. I fell back onto the bed and draped an arm over my eyes.
“But he helped me,” I argued wearily. “Why would the gossip be anything but grateful?”
Mama clucked, a sound filled with condescension. “Naive little girl. Working-class men have one intention and one intention only. They want you for this.” She waved to my body and raised a single eyebrow.
“That’s not true.” I heaved myself back up. As if any man would want me for that. Even if I were a beauty like Allison, I still knew Daniel wouldn’t want me in that way (and for some reason that rankled me). He would never treat me as if I were... as if I were a camel.
“How can you think that, Mama? You don’t even know the boy.”
She paused midstride. “Do you know him?” Her voice was low, and her eyes gleamed with predatory awareness.
I flicked my gaze right and stared at the stripes on my wallpaper. “No, of course not.”
Mama didn’t reply, and I wondered if she suspected. But then she sniffed, and I knew my secret was safe.
“So... this young man,” I said, trying to sound casual. “How did you repay him?”
Mama flicked her wrist. “Jeremy dealt with him. I could not invite him into the house.”
“What?” My breath quickened, a combination of shame and anger growing in my chest. “You were rude to the man who rescued me, and I’m forbidden to attend the Exhibition?”
“Exactly.” She gave me a withering glare.
“I promised to work there,” I said through grinding teeth. A tense fire had begun to burn in my shoulders.
Her mouth tightened. “Are you arguing with me, Eleanor? This is most unlike you.”
I clenched the moist cotton of my nightgown. I could conjure a thousand reasons to argue, but none I could speak to Mama. Breathe, Eleanor, breathe. Raising her suspicions would not serve me well.
I heaved my breath out in a single, long exhale. All my fury shot out with it, and I deflated back onto the bed.