The Viscount Made Me Do It by Diana Quincy

“Have you hired a valet, my lord?” Wright, the butler, asked Griff.

Griff surveyed his father’s bedchamber. His bedchamber now. The wardrobe that had appeared massive to Griff as a boy no longer seemed so. The familiar four-poster bed certainly wasn’t as enormous as in his memory. His eyes locked on the burgundy paisley canopy. “Have you changed the bed coverings?”

“Certainly, my lord. The others were quite old.”

“Of course.” In Griff’s mind, Haven House had frozen in time, unchanged from the moment fourteen years ago when he and his parents departed for a few unexpected days in the country. He inhaled the clean scent of lemon and beeswax and felt the warmth of the late-afternoon sun filtering through the windows.

For years, he’d put off returning to this place where some of his fondest family memories were enshrined. But the house didn’t feel like a mausoleum. To his surprise, it still felt like home. “And no, I don’t have a valet.”

“Would you like me to advertise for one, my lord? In the meantime, I can assign a footman to assist you.”

“Could you send Felix?” he asked, recalling the favorite footman of his youth. “He is available, is he not? I saw him the other afternoon.”

“Certainly, my lord.” He paused. “I did not assemble the staff to greet you upon your official return to Haven House. I thought you might prefer to decide when to address the staff. When you are ready, that is.”

Normally, whenever Griff’s father had returned from the country, the staff would line up in the front hall to greet him. Griff was relieved Wright hadn’t gathered the servants. Just being back at Haven House was overwhelming enough.

“Yes, thank you, and Felix will do nicely,” Griff said. “It will be good to have a familiar face around.”

“You will find, my lord, that there are several members of your staff who remember you with great fondness and are eager to welcome you home.”

It never occurred to Griff that he might be missed by his father’s servants. His staff now. What would it have been like to return home to Haven House directly after the murders? At the time, he’d been drowning in grief and guilt. Maybe being home would have helped. Maybe his sisters would still be in his life.

His gaze caught on the closed door that led to Mama’s adjoining chamber. “And the viscountess’s rooms? Have they also been changed?”

“Yes, my lord. The housekeeper replaced the bed coverings and upholstery.”

He walked over and put his hand on the brass door handle. Pausing, he took a deep breath. Then he turned the knob and pulled open the door to his childhood.

He’d spent a great deal of time in this bedchamber. Playing on the floor while his mother dressed. Cuddling in bed with both of his parents whenever he escaped Nurse in the middle of the night after a bad dream.

Mother’s dressing table was still here. But the lotions and hairbrushes that used to neatly line its mirrored surface were long gone. Griff looked for the stuffed chair by the window. Papa’s chair. It was still there but was covered in a new fabric. One with birds.

“Birds.”

“Indeed, my lord. Mrs. Tanner and I thought it might be an appropriate way to honor the viscountess.”

“Mrs. Tanner? The housekeeper? Is she still here?”

“No, my lord. She left to serve Lady Dorcas several years ago.”

“She works for my sister now?”

“Yes, my lord. Mrs. Tanner said the house was far too quiet after . . .” Wright didn’t finish. He didn’t need to.

Griff opened the wardrobe. It was empty. “My mother’s things?”

“The Ladies Maria, Winifred and Dorcas came a few weeks after . . . the tragedy . . . and they sorted through everything.”

“My sisters were here?”

“Yes, my lord. They took what they wanted and distributed the rest. They were most generous with the staff.”

They hadn’t asked Griff to join them? Because they blame you. He swallowed. Griff couldn’t fault them for wanting nothing to do with him. But Dorcas’s defection stung the most. He was closest to her. They were just four years apart. Maria and Winifred were much older.

“Except for the family jewels,” Wright added. “Naturally, those remain in the family safe. They belong to your future viscountess and to future holders of the title.”

“And my father’s things?” Griff closed the wardrobe door. “Did Maria, Winifred and Dorcas dispose of those as well?”

“No, my lord. Your sisters asked that his lordship’s things be boxed up and put aside for you to dispose of as you saw fit.” Wright cleared his throat. “Naturally, we did not expect you to stay away so long.”

“I’ve clearly been remiss.” Griff had been so wrapped up in his own grief that he hadn’t realized there were people depending upon him. Maybe it was time he stopped disappointing them. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face the butler. “I am here now. And I intend to see to my duties.”

Wright’s eyes lit up. “Very good, my lord.” He bowed and walked toward the door. He paused and turned back to Griff. “If I may say, my lord, how pleased we are to have you back with us at last.”

“Thank you, Wright.” Griff surveyed Mama’s chamber. Her presence lingered. He could almost smell her perfume. “It is good to finally be home.” To Griff’s surprise, he meant it. “And, Wright?”

The butler paused. “My lord?”

“Please assemble the staff. I’ll meet them in the front hall in a quarter of an hour.”

Hanna was in the back office at the dispensary examining Baba’s records when the bell over the front door sounded. Her spirits lifted. It must be Griff. He’d stayed away for three days.

“I’ll be right there,” she called out, moving at a fast clip, straightening her bodice and shaking out her skirts. She wasn’t expecting anyone else. Evan was busy seeing patients at his old office.

“I was wondering where—” She stumbled to a halt. Citi and her brothers Rafi and Elias stood in the middle of the dispensary. “Oh, hello.”

“What were you wondering?” Rafi asked.

“I was wondering . . . who it was.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice. “I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“You sounded pretty cheerful,” Rafi observed.

Elias pursed his lips as he took in his surroundings. “This seems like a real clinic.”

“It should,” she responded. “That’s exactly what it is.”

“Very nice.” Rafi hopped onto an examining table. “Did you really learn enough from Baba to be able to fix patients on your own?”

“I apprenticed with Baba for more than a decade, since I was eleven.” Hanna kept her gaze on Citi as the old woman shuffled about the space, taking everything in. “I was by his side for practically every patient.”

Citipassed a hand over the examining table across from the one Rafi sat on. “The whole time Ali was teaching you how to be a bonesetter?”

“Yes.” Hanna leaned her hips against the table next to Rafi. “He said I had a natural talent for it.”

“Your Baba told us you were just playing.” Citi paused to examine the jars and instruments laid out atop the commode table.

“I know.” Hanna crossed her arms over her chest, her nerves taut. “He said we should keep it a secret because you and Mama didn’t approve.”

“But the entire time you were watching and learning.” Citi pulled the top drawer of the commode table open and nodded briefly to herself as she scrutinized the neatly stacked clean linens and bandaging. “You were both lying.”

“Watch out,” Elias murmured as he settled on Hanna’s other side. “She’s going to blow at any moment.” Even as her brothers teased, they’d lined up on either side of Hanna, silently bolstering her.

The muscles across the back of Hanna’s shoulders tightened. She’d never explicitly asked for her family’s blessing to move forward with opening the dispensary. It would be harder for them to object once the clinic was open. She didn’t want to give them the opportunity to forbid it.

It was a gamble. But she’d thought it through. At twenty-six, she was a spinster. Over the years, offers from eligible Arab men had dwindled. Citi and Mama couldn’t seriously expect her to make a decent match at her age. They could focus on marrying off her younger sister, Fiona Kate, while Hanna ran her dispensary.

“Baba was just trying to keep the peace,” Hanna said to Citi.

“And you?” For the first time since entering the dispensary, Citi looked her granddaughter square in the eyes. “What were you doing?”

“At least you’re faster than her,” Rafi said under his breath. “If you decide to run.”

Hanna felt like a hundred fluttering butterflies were trapped inside her chest. “When I was fifteen, Baba allowed me to start treating some of the patients while he supervised. I learned it is my destiny to be a bonesetter.” She winced as she finished the sentence that could truly set Citi off.

A muffled sound of shock came from Elias’s throat. “Now you’ve done it. It’s a good thing she can’t slip off her shoe fast enough to launch it at you.”

They’d spent their childhoods trying to evade Citi’s and Mama’s flying slippers. Both women showed excellent precision when it came to aiming their airborne shoes at whichever child showed disrespect or broke a rule. Adding to the indignity, the offender would then have to return the shoe to its owner and risk getting hit again, only this time at close range.

“In my day, we never had a choice.” Citi settled heavily into a seat in the waiting area. Her voice was wistful. “We had to marry, have children, cook and clean. We never could choose.”

“What is happening?” Rafi muttered. “No projectiles? No cursing?”

Citistared out the bow window. “No one ever asked the binat, us girls, what we wanted.”

“To be fair,” Elias murmured to Hanna, “no one asked you what you wanted. You just took it.”

Citi’s strange mood, reflective rather than condemnatory, unsettled Hanna. This was a side of her grandmother she’d never seen. Feeling less fearful of having a shoe flung in her direction, she crossed over to sit next to her.

“I never intended to lie or be disrespectful. I got caught up in it. I took to bonesetting from the very beginning. I was good at it. It made me proud to excel at a craft that helps people.”

“A girl should get married. She is incomplete without a husband and children.”

“This is my dream,” Hanna said. “Girls deserve to have dreams, too, don’t they? And to try to make them real. What were your dreams?” It had never occurred to Hanna to ask before.

“Indari, Citi, I don’t know.” The old woman released a long breath. “I don’t remember. No one expected girls to have dreams back then, so we didn’t bother.”

Love for her grandmother swelled in Hanna’s chest. “I just want to be a bonesetter.” Hanna put her hand over Citi’s vulnerable-looking, veiny hand. “I’m very good at it. Baba said so all of the time. You understand, don’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter if I understand.” Citi’s gaze met hers. “Just wait until your mother finds out.”

“My lord, you have a visitor.”

Griff barely heard the butler. He was too immersed in the past, having spent two days going through his father’s things, rediscovering the person Griff hadn’t had the chance to know as a grown man. Wright had saved everything. More than a dozen cravats, several pairs of gloves, the dark evening clothes and wool day tailcoats. And Father’s fob.

Father never left home without the distinct gold-and-silver timepiece attached to a deep burgundy ribbon. Countless times, he pulled the timepiece from his fob pocket at his waistband to stare at while waiting for Mother at the bottom of the stairs.

“It is quarter past, Caroline,” he would call up to her. “We were meant to be there by now.” Mama tended to run late. She used to tease Father for always insisting they arrive unfashionably early.

Wright cleared his throat. “My lord.”

Griff tore his attention away from Father’s watch. “Yes?”

“You have a visitor.”

“I do? Who even knows I’m here?”

“Everyone in Mayfair, my lord.”

“What? How?”

“News travels like a speeding carriage among the ton.”

“You are saying that the entire city knows I’ve taken up residence at Haven House?”

“I believe that would be an accurate assessment of the situation, my lord.”

“Who is it? Who’s here?”

“Lady Winters is calling.”

“Who the devil is Lady Winters?”

“My lord will perhaps remember her as Lady Selina.”

Griff stiffened. “Selina is here?” His past was catching up with him all at once.

“Would you like me to tell her that you are not at home to visitors?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.” He came to his feet. “Where did you put her?”

“She is in the front parlor at the moment, my lord.”

Selina would laugh if he chose to greet her in such a formal room. “I’ll see her in the upstairs sitting room.” Just like before.

“Very good, my lord. Shall I have tea brought in or”—he paused meaningfully—“an entire tea tray?”

Griff tried to decode the butler’s intent. “Which do you advise?”

“It depends upon how long you wish the visit to last. Tea alone with a single plate of biscuits is generally more expeditious. If you take my meaning.”

“I do, indeed.” He hadn’t seen Selina in fourteen years. Maybe she’d become a termagant. Although he couldn’t imagine that. Still. “Perhaps we should err on the side of expedition. Just to be safe.”

“Very good, my lord. Tea and biscuits it is.”

A few minutes later, Griff joined Selina in the family sitting room. She immediately approached, a huge smile wreathing her face. With her golden hair and noble features, his childhood partner in crime had grown into a handsome woman.

“Tommy,” she said.

“Selina.” He took both of her hands in his and kissed her soft cheek. She smelled of expensive perfumes and hair rinses. Like a grown woman rather than the scruffy tomboy he remembered. “How good it is to see you.” And he meant it. Rather than dredging up the worst memories, as he’d feared, Selina’s presence recalled happier times.

“It has been entirely too long.” She held his hands apart as she assessed him. “Look at you. Mama always said you’d grow up to be handsome.”

“Did she?” Their mothers had been the best of friends. “And what did you say?”

She released his hands. “I was a bit more skeptical.”

He snorted. “I see you haven’t changed. How is your mother?”

“As industrious as ever. She’s the one who told me you’d finally opened Haven House.”

A footman came in with the tea and set it out under Wright’s watchful gaze. As soon as they were alone again, Selina burst out laughing.

“Just tea and biscuits? Planning to be rid of me quickly, are you?”

His cheeks warmed. “Is that a common practice in the ton that I am unaware of?”

“No, it was Lady Caroline’s way. She and Mama used to giggle about it.”

“Really? My mother used to offer lesser refreshments to callers she wanted to be quickly rid of? I had no idea.”

“You were a boy. Boys don’t notice such things.” She paused. Her expression growing more serious. “How are you? Truly?”

“I am well.” It was the truth. His shoulder wasn’t the only thing that was healing. “I regret not coming home sooner.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I thought the house would be full of ghosts. Instead I find it’s full of pleasant memories.”

“I was hesitant to visit. I feared you might blame me.”

“That’s ridiculous. You did nothing wrong.”

One of her eyebrows shot up. “We both know that is not true. But I don’t regret it.”

“Neither do I.” Looking at her, he felt a rush of fondness. Selina had been in his life for as long as he could remember. “You honored me.”

“You paid the price.”

“One of us had to.”

“I’m sorry it had to be you. I should have been braver.”

“Nonsense. That would have been disastrous.” He took her hand and led her to the sofa. “Let’s not dwell on the past.”

Her eyes twinkled. “Parts of it were quite memorable.”

“I remember.” He felt himself blushing. “I was there.”

She laughed, and he squeezed her hand. All of the years they’d spent apart vanished, leaving the comfortable familiarity. Selina was still her old self. And by some miracle, Griff was beginning to feel like himself again, too.

“Let’s have our limited ration of tea and biscuits while you catch me up on everything.”

She settled next to him on the sofa. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. How have you been? Is your husband good to you?”

“He was.”

“Was?”

“Yes, I am quite unattached at the moment. I am a widow.”

Hanna stared up at the vision coming down the grand staircase on Griff’s arm.

She was blonde, fair-skinned and very finely dressed. Obviously a lady. Griff’s face shone as he chatted intimately with the woman, their heads tilted together. His hand covered the lady’s where it rested on his arm. They were so wrapped up in each other they didn’t take immediate notice of Hanna and Rafi standing in the front hall.

The scene before her hit Hanna like a punch to the belly. This regal woman explained why Griff had been absent for several days. What a fool Hanna was to worry about him. He’d obviously been otherwise occupied.

She regretted cajoling her brother into accompanying her to Cavendish Square under the guise of returning the necklace. Griff lived in the finest section of London’s finest neighborhood. He was as elite as one could be without being actual royalty. It was a reminder she and Griff lived in two different worlds that might collide but could never blend.

The grandness of the house was intimidating enough. Not to mention the impossibly distinguished butler who’d stared down his nose at them when they’d asked to see Griff.

I shall see if his lordship is receiving. From his imperious tone, it was obvious the stuffy man expected the answer to be a resounding no. And now, seeing this lady on Griff’s arm—

“Zay il umar,” Rafi murmured as he stared up at the woman. “She’s beautiful like the moon.”

When Griff finally spotted them, delight sparkled in his eyes. “Han—Miss Zaydan. This is certainly an afternoon for unexpected pleasures.”

Hanna didn’t know exactly what that meant, but she didn’t like the way it sounded. One didn’t need to be a genius to surmise what the two of them might have been up to. The butler, who’d started up the stairs, halted.

“My apologies, Lord Griffin. This young woman insisted upon seeing you.” The words dripped with disdain. “I was just coming to inquire.”

“Do not concern yourself, Wright. Miss Zaydan is most welcome here.”

“Very good, my lord,” the butler said dubiously before discreetly fading into a nearby corner.

Griff’s eyes crinkled at the corners. Her stomach fluttered. Griff was not a naturally warm man, but his smile ignited a furnace inside her. Griff’s gaze cooled when it settled on Rafi. “I’m afraid I haven’t had the pleasure.”

“This is my brother. Rafi.”

“Ah.” Griff perked up. “How do you do?”

“Well enough,” Rafi answered.

Griff and the lady joined Hanna and Rafi in the front hall. “Allow me to present Lady Winters.”

“My pleasure,” Rafi said, his eyes wide. Hanna resisted the urge to elbow him hard in the side. The woman wasn’t that stunning. Except that she rather was. She wore a cheerful chintz gown topped by a stylish pelisse and hat. In her drab muslin dress, Hanna felt like a dowdy washerwoman next to Lady Winters.

“How do you do?” the woman said with a friendly tilt of her chin.

“This is Miss Zaydan,” Griff told her. “She fixed a shoulder injury that plagued me for two years.”

“Is that so?” Lady Winters regarded Hanna with interest. “Are you a healer of some sort?”

Hanna put her shoulders back. “I am a bonesetter.”

“A bonesetter?” Lady Winters’s delicate amber brows lifted. “How intriguing.”

“The finest one in all of London,” Griff added.

“I confess to not knowing a great deal about bonesetters,” Lady Winters remarked. “How were you able to help his lordship?”

“It was a simple procedure,” Hanna said. “The joints in Lord Griffin’s shoulder and arm were out. I put them back in.”

“Miss Zaydan is being modest,” Griff said. “I saw several doctors, and not one of them managed to accomplish what Miss Zaydan did in just a few short weeks.”

“I see that we are disturbing the two of you,” Hanna said, eager to end the awkward encounter. They’d obviously interrupted a private moment. “We shall go.”

Griff took a step toward her. “Don’t leave let.”

Rafi spoke at the same time. “Aren’t you going to give him the necklace? Isn’t that why we’re here?”

“The necklace?” Griff repeated.

“You all must excuse me.” Lady Winters turned to Griff. “I am due at Mama’s. She’ll have my head and yours, too, if I don’t turn up.”

“Is your carriage waiting?”

“No, you’ll recall the house is just four doors down,” Lady Winters said. “I shall walk.”

Griff frowned. “Alone?”

“I would be happy to escort Lady Winters home,” Rafi blurted out so eagerly that Hanna wanted to kick him in the knee.

“There’s no need,” Griff said. “I shall accompany the lady.”

“You stay and settle your business with Miss Zaydan.” Lady Winters’s firm tone did not invite contradiction. “I am happy to accept Mr. Zaydan’s offer of escort. It is a two-minute walk at most.”

Rafi seemed dumbstruck by his sudden good fortune. “It would be my honor.” Hanna had never seen her brother all agog over a woman before. It was beyond aggravating. Usually the girls clamored for Rafi’s attention, rather than the other way around.

Her brother offered Lady Winters his arm. “Shall we?”

“Absolutely.”

They said their farewells, and Lady Winters floated out the door on Rafi’s arm like a princess in a fairy tale.

Mirth danced in Griff’s eyes. “Your brother seems awfully pleased.”

“Deliriously so,” she said sourly. “He completely forgot that he is supposed to be my chaperone.”

Griff laughed out loud. He seemed so carefree. “Selina can have that effect on people.”

“Selina?”

“Lady Winters.”

“I see.” Her toes curled. They certainly were on familiar terms.

Seeing how happy and unburdened Griff looked, no doubt thanks to Selina, made Hanna feel like a complete habla for worrying about him. “I came to see you because I was concerned about you,” she blurted out. “It’s been three days.”

He grinned. “Did you miss me?”

“Certainly not.” She kept her head high, resisting the urge to hide behind the nearest potted plant. “You seemed so eager to go through Papa’s records that I could not help but wonder what became of you.”

“Are you certain you didn’t miss me just a bit?”

How dare he flirt with her when the lady he was obviously courting had just walked out the door? She spun toward the exit. “I’ll wait for my brother outside.”

“No, no.” He rushed to her and put a gentle hand on her arm. His touch burned through her sleeve. “My apologies. Stay. Please. I would like to talk with you.”

“About what?”

“I apologize for my absence. I’ve been settling in. Learning about the viscountcy, my properties. There is a great deal I have neglected.”

Including Lady Winters? “You are under no obligation to explain yourself to me.”

“Nonetheless, I want you to know why I’ve been absent. I didn’t mean to vanish on you.”

“I suppose it is the natural way of things.” She saw with her own eyes what, or who, kept Griff occupied at Haven House. “You’ve returned to the world into which you were born.” One that might as well be a thousand miles from Red Lion Square.

“Your brother said you came to deliver the necklace.” He studied her face. “Why?”

“It is yours.” She withdrew the necklace from her reticule and felt a pang of regret at its loss. Especially knowing it would soon adorn Lady Winters’s long and graceful neck. “Now that you know the necklace belongs to you, you won’t have to purchase one for Lady Winters. You can give her this one.”

He accepted the sapphire. “Why would I give my mother’s necklace to Selina?”

“She is obviously the lady you are courting. Now you can gift the necklace to her. There’s no need for you to purchase another like it.”

The door swung open and Rafi rushed in. The wild-eyed expression on his face suggested he finally realized he’d left his sister unchaperoned in the home of a bachelor. “Hanna, there you are.” He exhaled, obviously relieved. “Are you well?”

“Now you ask?” Hanna retorted, supremely irritated with both men and their fawning infatuation with Lady Winters. “I am ready to go.”

“Wait,” Griff said. “Don’t leave so soon.”

“Our business is concluded. Good afternoon.” Eager to escape, Hanna ushered her brother out the door without a backward look.