“Wait!” Joanna put a hand to her spinning head. “You are coming, too?”
Lottie looked pained. “Well, of course I am, darling! I am hardly going to arrange all this for you and then stay behind, am I?”
“And you are suggesting that we take Max on a voyage to the North Pole?” Jo said faintly. “And your butler and maid?”
“We shall need servants,” Lottie said calmly, “or how shall we manage? And Max would pine if you left him behind in London and anyway, he already has a fur coat of his own, though perhaps we could get him bootees in case his paws stick to the ice.”
“But why on earth would you wish to go to Spitsbergen?” Joanna asked. “I am told,” she added dryly, “that it is the most vastly uncomfortable place in the world.”
“Oh, utterly disagreeable, I am sure,” Lottie said, “but what a marvelous adventure, Jo darling! I have always wanted to travel but did not have the excuse before. We shall set a new fashion!”
Joanna looked at her suspiciously. There had to be more than mere boredom to prompt Lottie into leaving behind her home comforts-although it did seem she was intent on taking most of them with her. Could James Devlin be the draw? Lottie did seem surprisingly deep in his confidence.
“What on earth will Mr. Cummings think?” Joanna asked. “I cannot believe he would be happy to see his wife vanish off to the Arctic for months on end.”
“Oh, Mr. Cummings will give me no trouble,” Lottie said airily. “He has no use for me here other than to spend his money and I might as well do that in a good cause. I will not let luscious Lord Grant best you, Jo darling. He needs to be taught a lesson.” She selected another bonbon from the silver dish. “Not that I understand this frightful desire of yours to claim David’s little bastard for your own and lumber yourself with a child, of all things! It seems extraordinary to me.”
“Please, Lottie,” Joanna said. “It is hardly Nina’s fault that David fathered her out of wedlock and please don’t refer to her as though she were some sort of freakish pet I am adopting.”
Lottie was completely uncrushed. It was one of the odd but endearing things about her friend, Joanna thought, that she was utterly irrepressible. “Oh, very well,” Lottie said, shrugging. “I will not call her David’s by-blow if you do not like it, but you must allow that it is most odd in you to wish to take her up.”
Her bright, inquisitive gaze was resting on Joanna’s face and for a moment Joanna hesitated on the edge of disclosure. Then she drew back. With Merryn she might have confided her dreams and desires of motherhood and how the need for a child had devoured her with a sudden and unexpected passion. But Lottie. She and Lottie had never had a friendship of any depth. Lottie was kind and generous, but she was also staggeringly indiscreet and utterly incapable of faithfulness, let alone keeping a secret. Joanna knew that there would be enough gossip about David’s scandalous legacy without Lottie contributing to the on dit.
“David asked me to take care of Nina,” she temporized a little awkwardly, knowing that whilst it was true it was not the reason.
“Well, I know, darling,” Lottie said, insensitive as always to any undercurrents, “but David is dead. He could ask all manner of things of you and you need not comply. You could just leave the brat in Spitsbergen and forget about her. I would. Think of the whispers of scandal when everyone hears what is afoot.” She frowned. “You are the darling of society, but I wonder if even you can carry this off, my love. Your cousin John Hagan will not care for it—”
Joanna made an impatient gesture. “I cannot bear that man! Do you think I shall be swayed by his opinion?”
“Maybe not,” Lottie said shrewdly, “but he has influence. And sometimes I think you forget that he owns the house in Half Moon Street. If he chose, he could make matters very difficult for you, Jo darling. And you are alone and unprotected, with very little money.”
“I earn several thousand pounds a year!” Joanna protested, “and there is my jointure and the legacy …”
“I know,” Lottie said, munching. “As I said, very little money. Not enough to keep me in hats!” She looked her friend over with a critical eye. “It is a wonder you are so stylish on such a pittance.”
Joanna was silent. She knew there was a grain of truth in what Lottie was saying. Sometimes she forgot just how precarious her place in society was. The ton had embraced her, but it could break her, too.
When she had first heard of Nina Ware’s existence she had not for a moment considered leaving the child to her fate. Both her head and her heart recoiled at the thought. It was impossible. Alex might embrace his guardianship of Nina only out of a sense of responsibility but she was acting out of both integrity and love. Yet she also knew that David was asking far more of her than that she should simply take on his illegitimate child. He was exacting a high price from her. He was asking her to defend his child against the prejudice and cruelty of a society that would brand Nina a bastard without a place in the world. If Joanna took on that challenge she knew she might be condemned and cast out. The ton loved its favorites but it was a fickle mistress and could tear down as easily as it made. And her position was already insecure. She had no home other than the house in Half Moon Street, which she had almost forgotten belonged to John Hagan since David’s death. Hagan had graciously allowed her to stay in it, but now that she had rejected his marriage proposal, would he be so generous in the future? And then there was fact that she had no income other than her legacy and the money she earned from her commissions. If no one chose to employ her on her return, if society froze her out, she would be ruined.
She shivered at the prospect and tried to push it from her mind, concentrating instead on the little girl, orphaned and alone in a monastery far away. Once again her heart cried out for someone to love and she felt her resolve stiffen to rescue Nina Ware and bring her home, no matter the odds against her.
“I shall be with you on our trip to chaperone you and give you my consequence,” Lottie said comfortingly, ignoring the fact that she was at best flighty and at worst utterly unreliable. She did not wait for Joanna’s response. Her butterfly mind had already skipped ahead. “I wonder if Merryn would like to accompany us on our journey. It might be good for her. We could bring her out of herself and introduce her to some young officers. She spends far too much time moping about.”
“She is quiet,” Joanna said. “I realize that you do not understand the concept, Lottie, but truly, Merryn is happy as she is.”
“But she cannot stay here!” Lottie said, rather as though Merryn was a waif and stray. “She has no friends and nowhere to live. And we must be gone soon if we are to make the expedition this summer.”
“I will ask Merryn what she wishes to do,” Joanna said. “In the meantime there is the practical problem of chartering the ship.”
“And the question of clothes,” Lottie reminded her.
“Of course. But the ship is probably more important.”
“Darling, how can anything be more important than what to wear?” Lottie lay back on the sofa, raised her feet in the air and admired the scarlet slippers peeping out from beneath the hem of her gown. “I wonder whether Mr. Jackman could design me a fashionable overshoe for use in the snow.”
“You will have to wear boots,” Joanna said.
“Darling, only if they look elegant! I want none of those great clumping creations that the poor people wear!” Lottie reached again for the bonbon dish and smiled, a smile like a contented cat. “Anyway, you need not worry about the ship. Captain Purchase will be thrilled that you wish to charter the Sea Witch and keep him out of jail! And even better, he and Devlin may sail us there, or whatever the correct terminology is! I will send a message to Dev directly.”
Alex Grant, Joanna