The Unlikely Lady (Playful Brides #3)(41)

“Goodness me!” she exclaimed, and from the tone of her voice, Jane knew the widow had done it on purpose.

Lucy and Cass hurried over. Derek and Julian and the others were seeing to the boats.

“Mrs. Langford! Are you all right?” Cass asked, genuine concern marring her porcelain features.

“She’s fine,” Jane muttered as Upton waded in to retrieve the woman from the water. He scooped her into his arms and lifted her, then strode onto the grass where he set her down and wrapped his coat around her. “Are you all right? Nothing broken?”

“I don’t th—think so,” Mrs. Langford said in the most false-sounding, sad voice Jane had ever heard. “I’m so clumsy,” the widow added for good measure.

Jane fought the urge to roll her eyes. She ran her fingertips along the top of her book. At least it hadn’t got wet.

“Stay here,” Upton said to Mrs. Langford. “I’ll get a mount from one of the footmen. I’ll take you back to the house on horseback.”

Lucy and Cass fawned over the poor little invalid while Jane went back to reading her book. Udolpho’s mysteries were much more interesting than this charade.

“I do hope the damage is only to your clothing, Mrs. Langford,” Lucy offered.

“And to my pride,” Mrs. Langford said simply, adding a wistful sigh to her list of transgressions.

Ha. Jane kept her nose firmly ensconced in her book.

“We’ll have one of the maids clean your things as soon as you get back to the house and change into new garments,” Cass assured her.

“Thank you so much, Lady Cassandra,” Mrs. Langford said fawningly. “I do so appreciate your assistance.”

“Will you be all right with Garrett taking you back?” Cass asked.

This Jane had to see. She lowered the book and eyed the widow. Mrs. Langford’s eyes grew dark and she looked down, allowing her eyelashes to splay against her cheeks in a display even Jane had to admit was fetching. “Yes. Of course. It’s for the best that Mr. Upton be the one to take me home in my disheveled state.”

What the devil did that mean?

Cass and Lucy exchanged shocked glances.

Mrs. Langford stepped closer to Lucy and Cass, but Jane was still able to hear what she said next. “Because Mr. Upton and I are close. Quite close indeed.”

The book nearly toppled from Jane’s hands. She grabbed for it and righted it just as Upton strode back to them, a horse in tow. “Let’s get you back to the manor house,” he said to Mrs. Langford. He led the widow by the hand and readily helped her onto the mount. From her position in front of Upton, Mrs. Langford gave Jane a smug smile. Jane nudged at her spectacles.

Upton tapped the horse with his heels and the pair took off, leaving Jane, Lucy, and Cass to stare after them, wide-eyed.

Jane let her arm holding the book fall to her side. “Ladies, you don’t suppose all this time we’ve been in the presence of Garrett’s mistress?”





CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

When the gentlemen joined the ladies after dinner that night, Mrs. Langford kept her sultry gaze trained on Upton. Jane couldn’t take any more of the two of them. She’d been a complete fool telling Upton she’d get to the bottom of why Mrs. Langford had come. It had been obvious the entire time! If Jane hadn’t allowed first her dislike of Upton, then her scandalous interaction with him, and finally her suspicion that he was in love with her, to cloud her judgment, she would have seen it from the start. Upton, the cad, had managed to invite his mistress to his friends’ wedding. Even worse, he’d kissed Jane, too. Was the man so overcome with his base instincts he couldn’t limit his sexual appetite to only one woman at a house party? What would Mrs. Langford say if she knew the man keeping her had been kissing another lady in the upstairs drawing room the other night? It was disgusting to contemplate.

Of course, there was no chance Jane would be the one to tell Mrs. Langford about her lover’s defection. Jane would be admitting to being the other woman, and she’d rather die. No. She would keep Upton’s dirty secret.

What nonsense of Lucy to tell her Upton loved her. Utterly ridiculous. How could he possibly be in love with her and invite his mistress to the house party at the same time? Lucy had informed Jane that Upton obviously had decided he’d fallen in love with her after Mrs. Langford’s arrival, but the entire thing was sickening. If this was Upton’s type of love, Jane had no use for it.

The worst part wasn’t realizing what a degenerate the man was. The worst part was knowing she didn’t have the right to be angry. Upton hadn’t known it was her whom he’d kissed. He’d been kissing a stranger during a drunken masquerade ball. He probably hadn’t given it a second thought. How many women did Upton consort with? Regardless, she was through with him. She’d have to suffer his company for the remainder of the house party, but then Jane would make it clear to Lucy that if she wanted to spend time in her cousin’s company, she would do so without Jane.

Surprisingly, Upton made his way directly over to where Jane sat on a settee in the far corner. He’d searched the room when he’d entered as if looking … for her? Mrs. Langford was on the opposite side of the salon, no doubt being catty to Daphne Swift. Poor Daphne, it looked as if the young woman had purposely engaged the widow in conversation.