What could it hurt… Hazel
CHAPTER 14
Lillian and Juliana felt horribly conspicuous sitting in the middle of Eden’s Bluebells club. For one thing, no one was speaking. For another, the sisters were surrounded by seasoned young women. And if that wasn’t intimidating enough, their eyes seemed to be glued to the newcomers. All of this was occurring under the pretense of sipping their tepid tea.
Eden had exhausted the usual topics of conversation: the modest and the weather. With current fashions and the daily temperature out of the way, the two sisters did not know what else they could possibly add to these ladies’ lives.
Lilly had just decided to fake a headache so that they could escape when the raven-haired girl from the sofa spoke up.
“Why don’t we just ask them? What could it hurt?” the woman speaking had been introduced to them as Lady Hazel Warner.
Her outward appearance was thus: her black hair lustrous, her thick brows winged over icy blue eyes, and her rosy lips quick to tip into a smile. She was lovely to look at, by far the most beautiful of the group.
Eden’s eyes grew as round as saucers, the color draining from her face. Quickly she shook her head against whatever Lady Hazel had been suggesting. The lady introduced to them as Lady Sophia Mangrove groaned aloud before setting her tea cup to the side. She seemed to be preparing for something.
The young woman sitting next to Lady Hazel, a mere slip of a girl, nodded in agreement. Her wispy brown hair bounced with the movement. She had been introduced as Miss Eva Johansen. Although she did not hold a title, she was a great granddaughter of the Earl of Wentz.
Lady Beatrice Loveless, the eldest of the ladies, smiled at the sisters. It would seem that she was not choosing a side to whatever nonverbal argument the Bluebells were having.
Lilly couldn’t take it any longer, “I do wish you would just ask whatever it is that Lady Hazel and Miss Johansen want to ask.”
Eden shot them a venomous look, “It is easy to speak up when the conversation does not directly apply to oneself. I find it very interesting that we are not interrogating Lord Moberly’s sisters, Eva, or that we are not speaking with Lord Shore’s mother, Hazel.”
Eva flushed scarlet, “As if any of us are interested in Daniel Moberly.”
Lady Hazel smirked, her blue eyes flashing. “You are welcome to gather all the intelligence you would like on Lord Shore. I’d appreciate the knowledge that is given me.”
Juliana raised her hand to stop the argument before it escalated any further.
“If I am reading this correctly, and truly you have not made this easy, ladies… Am I to believe that one of you is interested in our brother?” Lilly asked.
Sophie smiled wryly, “You are correct.”
“And Lady Hazel is interested in Lord Shore?” Juliana inquired.
Hazel grinned unrepentantly, “I’d like to have his interest, and a whole lot more than that, if I am being honest.”
Sophie’s lips twitched, “You are also correct.”
Juliana went on, “And it was not Miss Johansen, who seems most decidedly to not have an interest in Lord Moberly?”
Eva blushed to the roots of her hair, “I don’t know where you would have gotten that impression. I do not care for him one way or the other.”
Sophie shook her head in amusement, “You are three for three, my dear.”
“So that leaves Eden and Lady Beatrice. Are they interested in anyone?” Lilly asked innocently.
“You are too bloody good at this,” Eden muttered.
Lady Beatrice grinned at the young sisters. “While I find your brother to be handsome in the extreme, and a most charming dancing companion, I do not have a romantic interest in him.”
The sisters rounded on Eden, who threw up her hands, “Fine, yes, it is me. Are you happy? I feel horribly strange and tingly when he is about. It is most embarrassing, and I cannot believe that my fellow Bluebells would out me in such a manner, but there is it.”
The sisters squealed in delight.
“We were hoping beyond hope that you would come to care for Phillip. There is no one we’d like better for a sister,” Lilly gushed.
While Juliana added, “It is all true. We will tell you whatever you wish to know. Granted we haven’t spent a great deal of time with him in years, he is still our brother. Surely, something we say could be of a help to you.”
Eden was mortified, “Please keep this conversation in strict confidence. I would simply die if it ever got back to him.”
The sisters nodded in agreement.
Lilly grinned, “Of course! Besides, he would be impossible to live with if he knew that you had a tendre for him. He is already vain enough as it is. The less he knows about things - the better. That is how mother always handles him, and I’ve heard Joseph say that she handles him better than anyone.”
“Who is Joseph?” Sophie enquired.
The sisters answered in unison, “Our butler.”
“Your butler gives his opinion on his betters?” Lady Beatrice looked enthralled.
“I don’t know if I would say that about Joseph. He is a delight. More like family to us. For example, I don’t know if I could say Phillip is better than Joseph,” Juliana looked to be considering.
“She means because he is in service,” Lilly corrected her. “But Joseph isn’t really in service. I mean, he is, but he isn’t.”
Lady Hazel laughed shaking her head in bewilderment, “Because that makes perfect sense.”
Juliana wrinkled her nose, “What my sister is trying to say is that Joseph is special to us. Mother has a bit of a thing for him, I think.”
“Jules!” Lilly giggled covering her face, “I can’t believe you said that!”
“But he’s your butler?” Eva looked thoroughly confused.
“You know that it’s true!” Juliana’s mischievous eyes glistened with mirth, and the sisters both dissolved into laughter. The other bluebells looked on in both amusement and horror.
“I honestly do not think it matters one iota. Also, you all know the rules: what is discussed at a Bluebells’ meeting is sacred and not to be repeated to anyone ever. Now, back to the matter at hand,” Sophie interjected kindly. “We are straying off the course, ladies.”
“Oh yes,” Lilly brightened, “Phillip! Well, it is a rather long tale, but I do think it will shed some light on him. When we were younger, Phillip spent a lot of time with us in the country.”
Juliana nodded wistfully, “He would take us riding and on picnics, all sorts of fun adventures. Always laughing and teasing us out of our sulks or ill humors.”
“But something happened between our parents. Mother locked herself away in her room; she was distraught. Phillip tried for many months to bring her out of it. But whatever had happened between our parents had crushed our mother’s spirit. Phillip went to London and confronted father. They got into a huge argument, and he enlisted the next day. Bought his colors and was fighting on the continent before we even knew what was happening.”
Juliana took her older sister’s hand when it started to tremble. “We missed him terribly. When he was still around, it wasn’t so hard for us that mother was emotionally fragile and father was absent.”
Lilly nodded, tears brightening her eyes, “It had seemed as if we were abandoned. Mother was there, but she wasn’t there. Then we got the news that father had passed. We thought for sure that he would come home and things would be put to rights. But the funeral came and went, and he continued fighting.”
Sophie’s tender heart was breaking for the girls. “I am so sorry.”
Juliana smiled at her, “We had each other - some do even not have that much.”
Lilly squeezed her sister’s hand, “Then, suddenly, he came back. But Phillip wasn’t the same as he had been before. He seemed to be less genuine, more aloof. He said he preferred living in town. We started hearing rumors of his escapades, each more dangerous and ill-thought than the last.”
“Mother received a letter from a friend of Phillip’s. Lady Mangrove, I believe it was from your husband, the Baron. It seemed to snap mother out of whatever funk she had been in. She told us to pack up - we were leaving for London. I thought she’d gone around the bend,” Juliana scrunched her nose.
“And here we are,” Lilly motioned around her. “Mother is more like herself than we have seen her in years.”
“But what is most surprising,” Juliana added, “that day we went for ices at Gunter’s, Phillip was the brother I thought had long gone away. You must understand, Eden, whatever is going on between you and him, it is good for him. He needs you.”
Lilly agreed, “You have been a godsend for our family.”
Eden shook her head in dismay, “I haven’t done anything. I don’t even think he likes me half of the time.”
Sophie snorted, “He liked you well enough at the ball.”
Eden flushed fiercely, “The ball is not up for discussion.”
The sisters looked entranced, but Eden firmly refused to elaborate further.
“Either way, Eden,” Lilly said kindly, “We like you, and we want things to work out between you and Phillip. If we can be of any help, please do not hesitate to ask.”
Sophie smiled, “This has been a most productive meeting. Ladies, I would like to propose that Lady Juliana and Lady Lillian join us next week. I feel it is beneficial to have someone working on the inside.”
Lilly giggled, “I feel like a spy.”
Eden groaned, “This is all going to blow up in my face, isn’t it?”
“Nonsense,” Eva assured her.
“Of course not,” Beatrice added.
“Absolutely,” Sophie winked at them when they turned to her aghast. “I am only funning. Of course, it will all turn out right.”
Eden hoped that, for once, Sophie was right.