The Unlikely Lady (Playful Brides #3)(34)

Once again, Cass, the dear, waded into the silence for her. “Jane is a confirmed intellectual. She’s not interested in marriage at all.”

“A pity.” Mrs. Langford pulled a piece of bread from the basket that had made its way to her. She set the slice on her plate. “Marriage can be ever so agreeable, if it’s done with the right partner.” She turned toward Upton and batted her eyelashes. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Upton?”

Upton cleared his throat. “Considering that I am a bachelor, Mrs. Langford, I wouldn’t know.”

Jane hid her smile at his answer behind her wine glass but inside she was simmering. The nerve of that woman. What was Upton about, bringing this odious person into their midst? He couldn’t possibly relish her company, could he? Oh, no. He didn’t … He couldn’t have thought that she was Mrs. Langford last night, could he? A knot formed in Jane’s belly and sat there like a hard, jagged rock. She glanced up to see Upton’s gaze sliding away from her again.

“I’m quite certain marriage is ever so agreeable,” Julian said, a sparkle in his eye as he pulled Cass’s hand up and kissed the back of it. Cass beamed at him.

Derek tightened an arm around Lucy.

Jane found herself fighting back … tears of all things. It wasn’t as if she’d never thought about marriage, never considered it. As a younger woman, she’d been inclined to daydream, to wonder what it would be like to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger, told she was beautiful, fall in love. Those things were not for her. She preferred solitude to parties, books to fripperies. She was plain and dowdy, not fashionable. Nothing like her gorgeous friends Lucy and Cassandra. Jane had never had one suitor. Not one. Not even the hint of one, the whiff of one.

Upton had said she was gorgeous last night. Had he meant it? Or was that what rakes said to all of the ladies they had assignations with in drawing rooms? More than asking her to remove her mask, telling her she was gorgeous had caused her to push him away. He couldn’t mean it. It wasn’t true. She wasn’t gorgeous. The thought that he’d lie to her like that, that any man would lie to a woman like that, had made her go cold inside.

She was plump and plain. Well, perhaps not plump, not any longer, but she’d always be plump in her head. And the plainness, that would never go away. Perhaps with the demimask on her face and the large quantity of alcohol Upton had obviously consumed last night, he’d been momentarily lulled into the belief that he was with a beautiful woman. But nothing about last night had been true. That’s why she hadn’t told Lucy or Cass about it. That’s why she could never let Upton suspect it was her. It wasn’t just the potential embarrassment. It was because it was only a figment of her imagination, or might as well have been.

*

Garrett glanced away every time Miss Lowndes, uh, Jane—he needed to think of her as Jane now that he’d kissed her senseless last night—looked at him. He was beginning to feel conspicuous about it and was certain she’d noticed. Jane was intelligent. She may have already realized it had been him last night. He couldn’t look at her. But he did. Again. As if his eyes were drawn to her. He wanted to see her, really see her. In the past he hadn’t given a passing thought to her looks. She was just Miss Lowndes, Lucy’s friend who drove him a little mad with her know-it-all attitude and penchant for making fun of him.

Now, all he could think about was her luxuriant hair, the smell of her perfume. Lilacs. Why did it have to be lilacs? That little spot just under her chin that tasted so damn sweet. Christ, what had come over him? The urge to snatch off her glasses and pull the pins out of her hair and look upon her face and see the woman he’d been with last night was nearly overpowering. If they were alone, if they weren’t at a table full of people in the open air, he just might do it. What would Miss Lowndes do if he dared?

He tried to concentrate on chewing and swallowing his food. Somehow that had become a difficult task. It was a mad, mad day already. Why was Isabella being so unpleasant to Jane? At first, he suspected Isabella had been as bothered by Jane as he always had been. Jane didn’t back down from a fight and Isabella had got a taste of Jane’s sharp tongue. But he couldn’t help feeling admiration for Jane when she stood up to Isabella. It truly was none of the other woman’s concern why Jane preferred to remain unmarried. He’d always had the same preference, and felt a sort of closeness with her. He needn’t have worried. Jane had promptly snapped back a volley of replies that had surely left Isabella thinking she just might do better to keep from engaging Miss Lowndes in a battle of words in the future.

He’d been in his share of word fights with her, himself, and often came out on the losing end. He smiled to himself and looked at her once more. She turned to speak with Owen Monroe, who happened to be sitting next to her again. She didn’t notice Garrett’s slow perusal of her. Today she was wearing a white gown that did nothing for her considerable assets. It was the type of thing she normally wore. Where in God’s name had she got that blue gown she’d been wearing last night? It had transformed her.

Garrett took a long sip from his wine glass and watched her over its rim. He growled under his breath. Owen Monroe was sitting a bit too close.





CHAPTER NINETEEN

Garrett was sitting alone in the library, reading, with his booted feet propped on an ottoman and crossed at the ankles when Cassandra found him that evening just before dinner. There was to be a dinner and a dance—not a ball, Lucy had insisted, just a dance. Garrett looked forward to neither.