His aunt rolled her eyes. “No, you mayn’t. I met Lady Olympia when she was presented at Court. I should know her anywhere, in any event. Yet I hoped against hope my eyes were playing tricks on me today. Silly of me. How I wish your uncle were here. Of all the stupid things you’ve ever done, this beats them all. By miles.”
“Lady Olympia, it appears you are acquainted with Lady Charles Ancaster, my favorite aunt—”
“I disown you, as of this moment.”
“Auntie Julia, don’t be cross. Can’t you see I’m wounded?”
His aunt gave him a look that would have shriveled a better man. Not being a better man, he bore it as he’d borne any number of disapproving looks, though her opinion counted for more than others’ did.
“In fairness, Lady Charles,” said Olympia, “I was the one who did the stupid thing, and the duke has been my knight in—”
“Don’t say that,” he said.
“The duke has been trying to save me from myself. He even tried to make me see reason.”
Aunt Julia studied his companion for a moment. “Hugh tried to make you see reason? My nephew? This great, useless hulk of a fellow? Now that is something I should have liked to witness.”
“I’m not entirely sure she did a stupid thing,” Ripley said. “And when she wouldn’t give it up, of course I went along.”
“That goes without saying,” said his aunt. “Then what? You drove her to violence?” She moved to examine his foot. “Neatly done, Lady Olympia. But had you not considered amputation?”
“Don’t put ideas in her head,” Ripley said. “I’ll need all my limbs to clear up this business. Which I had intended to do this evening. The Fates, however, had other ideas.”
“Fate, indeed. You weren’t looking where you were going.”
“I wasn’t looking to step into a rabbit hole, I agree.” He’d been looking at Lady Olympia in all her finery. So dashing and splendidly feminine—and whistling like a man.
“We were trying to catch a runaway dog who’d deceived us into believing he was properly trained,” Lady Olympia said. “I advised Tewkes to have him taken to the stables. I didn’t like to bring a strange canine into the house when I’m so uncertain about his manners.”
“A runaway bride,” said his aunt. “A runaway dog. An incapacitated nephew. It seems the evening’s conversation won’t be boring. Come, Lady Olympia. You must be longing for a respite from my nephew, not to mention wishing for the sorts of things a lady needs when she finds herself a stranger in a strange place, unsupplied with luggage, servants, or anything else necessary to her comfort.”
“Our departure was hasty,” Ripley said. “We hadn’t time to—”
“Really, Hugh, I’m not completely in my dotage. You needn’t point out the obvious. The servants will make up the bed in your uncle’s study for you. If I catch you trying to climb the stairs, I’ll shoot you.”
She was bearing Lady Olympia away when he remembered. “Where’s my sister got to, by the way?”
“Alice?”
“I’ve only the one, last I heard.”
Aunt Julia shrugged. “She was here for a time, and I was glad to see her, but what is there for her to do in this gloomy place? I sent her with Georgiana to the Drakeleys’ house party. I refer to my youngest daughter,” she explained to Lady Olympia. Turning back to Ripley she said, “Alice won’t be bored there. You know the Drakeley boys adore her.”
“Excessively, I always thought,” he said.
“That is her husband’s problem,” said his aunt. And out she went, taking Lady Olympia with her, and leaving Ripley to wonder why Alice hadn’t gone back to London to her spouse, instead of in the other direction, where her beaux lurked.
After helping Olympia wash off the dust of travel, Lady Charles’s maid, Pickard, had gone in search of something suitable for the guest to wear to dinner. This left the two ladies to enjoy in private the tea Lady Charles had ordered, “as a restorative after your trials.”
Olympia had remembered her as soon as she saw her, but had not expected to be remembered among so many debutantes—from seven years ago, no less. Besides, Lady Charles had always traveled in diplomatic and political circles, whereas Mama and Papa gravitated to the sporting types. Their paths had rarely crossed.
The lady was about Mama’s age and, like Mama, had not lost her looks. There the resemblance ended. Ripley’s aunt was altogether different in manner. She had a fearless air and she was infinitely more organized and orderly. A strong woman, in character and confidence.
And sad, too.
The subdued grey dress would have told the tale, even if one failed to see the sorrow shadowing her hazel eyes.
It was so like Ripley’s lack of consideration, Olympia thought, to bring a stranger here to intrude on the lady’s grief.
“You’ll wonder why I waste my breath scolding my nephew,” Lady Charles said after she’d poured. “But somebody must, and fiercely, even though he won’t heed. Since he had the wits to bring you here, however, one must admit he isn’t entirely bereft of sense. Well, then. You are my first bolter. I did wonder how Ashmont won you over, a sensible girl like you. But there is Alice, wed to that blackguard Blackwood. Did she have the sense to abandon him at the altar? And so you see I am of two minds. I appreciate the feelings that drove you. On the other hand, my dear, this will be rather a muddle to sort out.”
“Yes, I kn-know.” Then, to her dismay, Olympia wept as she’d wanted to do before, in the library.
Lady Charles stood up quickly, and moved to give Olympia’s shoulder a sympathetic squeeze as she said, “Men,” in exactly the tone to make Olympia laugh and sob at the same time, like a complete ninny or hysteric.
Her hostess had hardly sat down again before the ninny-hysteric was telling her story in all its not-making-much sense, although leaving out the parts about naked dukes and more-than-friendly kisses in post chaises.
“Ah, I was not aware that brandy came into it,” said Lady Charles at the end. “That explains a good d-deal.” Her lip trembled, and for a moment, Olympia thought she’d weep, too, perhaps reminded of her own wedding day.
Instead the lady laughed, and heartily, and while she did, the cloud that seemed to hang over her vanished, and the atmosphere lightened and brightened. At that moment Olympia understood, in her heart as well as her head, what made this aunt special to Ripley.
But the laughter subsided too soon, and her hostess said, “The first thing we must do is set your parents’ minds at ease.”
“I should have sent a message myself, but at first all I could think of was getting away. And then I didn’t know what to say. I’ve hardly known my own mind.”
“As I said, the brandy explains a good deal. Then, too, we must keep in mind your traveling companion. Not the type to contribute to clear thinking.” Lady Charles closed her eyes briefly, then, with a sigh, opened them. “Those three. Really. One makes allowances, given their fathers. But my dear, when a man reaches the age of nine and twenty, one would hope for maturity.”