“I can promise for myself, but not for my sister,” I said. After our roadside confrontation, Julia would be incandescent if I volunteered her for something, particularly something I knew nothing about.

He gave a small bow. “The promise of your involvement is sufficient enough.”

What did that mean?

“Now, let us find Alvanley,” George said. “I will apprise him of our discussion and his role in it. We will then drink some excellent smuggled claret and await our hostesses’ decision regarding Lady Hester and Miss Grant.”

“And the arrival of Deele,” I said, rising from my seat and joining him at the door.

“Indeed, why else do you think we wait in the dining room? It has a view to that arrival,” George said. I glanced narrowly at him as I passed into the cooler air of the hallway; always the strategist. I wondered what that meant in terms of the favor I had just granted.

“It will be an interesting reunion,” he added, then sighed. “I do hope there is not a surfeit of emotion—it would quite ruin my digestion.”

38

About ten minutes after George and I joined Lord Alvanley in the dining room, we heard voices approaching from the hallway, the discussion lively but inaudible through the thick stone walls.

I took a sip of claret, for courage, and watched the door. George and Alvanley stood near the hearth—behind the dining table, which still held the remains of the dinner we had interrupted—their own intense conversation suspended as they, too, waited for the door to open.

Julia entered first, and the relief on her face was declaration enough: the ladies had agreed to take in Hester and Miss Grant.

“We know what it is like to have the life we wanted forcibly refused by our family,” Lady Eleanor added after announcing the news. She looked fondly at Miss Ponsonby at her side. “It is hard to stand against such intervention. One needs resources and, of course, the help of friends and kind people. However, our support does come with one caveat. We cannot stand in the way of the law. Lord Deele is Lady Hester’s guardian, and if he insists on taking her from this house, I am afraid we cannot stop him.”

“Lord Alvanley and I have the same caveat,” Mr. Brummell said.

Beside him, Alvanley nodded. “However, we will do everything we can to assist up to that point.”

“We understand,” Julia said. “Thank you all, so much.”

The relief of their agreement seemed to pull all the energy from my limbs, my body as heavy as lead.

Julia skirted the table to stand beside me as the ladies joined Brummell and Alvanley at the hearth.