They’d kissed at Vauxhall. Nothing more. They’d shared several kisses, yes, down a dark path, away from the glow of the lanterns. But nothing else. She hadn’t dared! At the time, she’d felt guilty, and she knew she’d been careless to disappear with him like that, but she thought nothing would ever come of it.
But wouldn’t you know … Mama had always told her that gossip was wicked, that words got twisted and innocent people hurt. And Mama had also told her to behave appropriately at all times—that bad decisions always came back to haunt one.
Janice was nearly ill now with horror, humiliation, and fury.
Damn that Finnian Lattimore for still wreaking havoc in their lives!
But she was more furious with herself for ever falling for his false charm.
“Who told you such a thing?” Lady Opal asked her sister.
“Mrs. Barrett, the doctor’s wife who brought you your special possets. She’d just been to London and heard it from one of her dear friends.”
“It can’t be true,” said Lady Opal. “Lady Janice would be married to him if it were.”
“Exactly. Or he’d have been challenged to a duel by her brothers or father,” said Lady Rose. “No decent family would allow such scandal to go unchallenged.”
“But he is gone.” Lady Opal sounded speculative. “Banished, perhaps?”
“Opal. His brother married her sister. It can’t be true.”
Opal chuckled. “You’re right. But it’s the sort of delicious gossip that doesn’t die, does it? Not for years.”
“Not until she marries, most likely.”
“Well, if it’s as widespread as all that, perhaps she never will.”
“That’s the thing. It’s not widespread, and I’m sure it’s because the family is extremely popular. They’re known for their integrity and kindness. Not only that, Lady Janice’s older sister has an impeccable reputation. Anyone passing this gossip on would seriously think twice—and would likely do so only if they consider it imperative.”
“Why would Mrs. Barrett have told you, then? And her friend in London tell her?”
“Mrs. Barrett has a son, an artist with a studio in Mayfair”—that would be Eugene! One of Janice’s favorite beaus!—“who was very interested in Lady Janice. That’s why her friend felt compelled to tell her. And she only found out because her son, too, was considering Lady Janice as a marriage prospect.”
“Oh, dear. Who was this friend?”
“Lady Corcoran.”
Janice put her fingers over her eyes. Lady Corcoran’s son Marcus had been Janice’s most serious beau. She’d never understood why he’d suddenly … disappeared.
Now she knew.
“And Mrs. Barrett told you all this because…?”
“Because she found me crying,” Lady Rose said, “lamenting the fact that I had no suitors. She felt sorry for me, so she told me there was one girl who had it worse and I should think of her whenever I pitied myself—Lady Janice. She told me to keep it close to my chest.”
Dear God. Janice could barely tolerate listening. The pain nearly made her ill.
“I see,” Lady Opal said. “Then there really have been no ill effects. The parents are invited everywhere. Lady Chadwick’s school has a waiting list. And here Lady Janice has been invited to a duke’s house.”
“By his addled grandmother,” her sister reminded her in a wry tone. “It’s going to be dreadfully dull until she departs. Whether the rumor’s true or not, no doubt she’ll be on her best behavior.”
“What a trial for us all, I’m sure,” said Lady Opal. “Yet now I’m quite curious about her.”
“We’ll endure, I suppose,” Lady Rose conceded. “Did you see the men? They’re not looking forward to her stay, either. I don’t think they know that rumor. Or they’d at least have given her the time of day.”
Both women giggled. Not long, but enough that Janice’s breath grew even more shallow.
“She really is like us,” said Lady Rose. “Before.”
“Yes, when we thought we had choices.”
“But we didn’t. We wasted time imagining that we had.”
“And now we have nothing,” said Lady Opal, her voice hollow.
There was another silence.
“Perhaps we should tell her that her luck has nearly run out,” said Lady Rose. “Maybe she could find a man whose mother doesn’t know—”
“We don’t have time to look after her.” Lady Opal was brisk. “We have our own problems. And she has that family. She can always fall back on their support.”
“That’s true,” said Lady Rose quietly.
And they both departed.
* * *
Janice took a deep, slow breath.
No wonder.
No wonder her three serious beaus had disappeared one by one. Her good reputation was clinging by a thread. All it would take was one indiscretion …
Say, with a groom?
She swallowed hard, stunned by the sudden knowledge that she’d been in such a precarious social position for a long time and had never known it. The situation would be laughable if it weren’t also so damnably serious.
All she had that was her own was her good character. Everything else came to her from either Mama or Daddy or both: her wealth, education, appearance, and even talents.
Yes, she was bookish and tended to be shy and unable to command a room the way Marcia and Mama always had. But Janice had managed to have a perfectly acceptable social life, until—
Now that she thought about it, everything had gone distinctly downhill after Finn had left. She’d gone to Ballybrook for the summer, but when she’d returned to London in the autumn things had changed. Something had to have been said by someone … likely by Finn himself before he was banished.
And in the process, as gossip tends to do, Marcia’s torrid history with him and Janice’s flirtatious one had become as entangled as Daddy’s rose vines and grown into one sad story with Janice as the unfortunate subject.
She’d never tell her sister that her painful, long-ago indiscretion had now become, in a way, Janice’s. Marcia would be devastated. So would Duncan, her husband. And God forbid that Mama and Daddy ever found out, either.
Janice would never tell them. Everyone was so happy now. Things had worked out for Marcia in the best possible way. Janice prayed the rumor would wither away and die. Surely it would eventually.
About Ladies Opal and Rose … Janice didn’t even care that they’d spoken so carelessly about her. She was glad not to be in their unenviable position. No wonder they were a bit cruel. To be all alone in the world … the very idea made Janice shudder.
Yet they’d said she was similar to them, too.
That observation gave her pause. What if Mama and Daddy really were embarrassed by her persistent failure to secure a husband? Panic began to creep up on her when she thought back to that morning’s breakfast, which seemed an eternity ago now.
“But Mama, I’ll miss your birthday ball,” she’d said. “Hundreds of people come.”
Mama had flung out her hand. “Oh, that old thing.” As if the fete in her honor were nothing special.
“And Gregory and Pippa’s visit,” Janice had added. “I don’t want to miss that. They’ll have Bertie.”
“You’ll see them next time,” Mama had replied in that serene way she had.
“But you’ll have so many dinner parties in their honor.” Janice loved Mama’s dinner parties. “Think of all the august personages I’ll miss. Why, the King might come to wish Gregory and Pippa well.”
“Even if he did,” Daddy said, “you’ve seen His Majesty before.”
“You need to go to the country,” Mama told her.
Daddy nodded vigorously.
And an hour later, they’d practically pushed her into the coach.
When it sprang forward, she’d looked back and waved. Mama’s face had lost that steely resolve. Her entire slender body exuded relief as she waved madly at Janice. Daddy
stood with one arm around Mama’s shoulders, a satisfied smile on his face.
Now Janice had to wonder as she stared at the stark tree line outside the window if Mama and Daddy might never have believed she could win the duke’s notice. However, they might have enjoyed having her absent for a while.…
Her face was extremely hot when she stood. She was angry at herself for not seeing all the possible reasons she was here at Halsey House. But even more, she was humiliated—by that rumor, yes, but just as much by the idea that she might be an encumbrance to her family.
Dear God, if they were ashamed of her—
And now here she was … not wanted at Halsey House, either.
She belonged nowhere.
She and the two spinster sisters Opal and Rose were alike.
Well, she would have to change that. She wouldn’t continue allowing people to look right through her, to push her, to pull her hither and yon, to treat her as if she didn’t matter.
She’d carve out her own place in the world.
Deep inside her, something began to glow hot and bright: a need to prove herself, that was what it was. Maybe it was the ambition the dowager had noticed.
Unleashed.
Janice was ready to crack the metaphorical whip Isobel had mentioned.
To become a questionable guest.
To dangle after a duke!
If she could become the next Duchess of Halsey, Mama and Daddy would be so proud. Her brothers Peter and Robert and her sister Cynthia would look at her over the breakfast table in a new, respectful light. Marcia, Gregory, and their spouses would also be impressed. And Janice’s friends and acquaintances would cock their heads and say, I never knew she had it in her. She’s the bookworm, after all. The middle sister whom no one noticed. The one who carried the shadow of a nasty rumor around with her like a ball and chain.
But she did. She did have it in her!
The dowager had been right. If Janice let this opportunity to gain the Duke of Halsey’s notice pass her by, she was a fool. As Mama had said, if Janice had to fall in love, it might as well be with a duke.
And if he’d heard of the rumor?
Well, she’d simply have to rise above it. She’d act as a duchess-to-be would. Whoever applied the secret would win him—
“… no matter what she looks like,” according to the dowager. “No matter how big a dowry she has, or whether she’s even from a good family. None of those things will matter.”
Not even a nasty rumor.
She’d do it, Janice decided as she marched over to a looking glass and crossed her arms. “No,” she practiced aloud. “Absolutely not.”
Hm-m-m. She’d better try again. It wasn’t quite believable enough.
And she knew why. It was because Luke Callahan’s admonishing face swam before her eyes. The duke was dangerous. That was what the groom had said repeatedly. She must beware.
But she thought upon what would become of her if she lost her good name, her family’s support, and her ability to choose her destiny.
Now those were dangers she never wanted to encounter.
One duke who came with a warning from a source she wasn’t sure she could trust yet? Or one life that went nowhere, that drifted aimlessly and desperately until she faded away?
Janice knew which risk she’d take her chances on.
“No, I tell you.” Her eyes glittered with resolve. “No.”
That was better.
She headed downstairs to the red drawing room, prepared for battle.
Chapter Nine
Everything was different now. Janice was different. Other than Ladies Opal and Rose, which of the occupants of the drawing room—none of whom apparently wanted Janice there—knew the rumor about her and Finn? Who believed it? Who didn’t?
It was such an overwhelming question, she actually couldn’t care. What could she do about it anyway? The ugly tittle-tattle, it seemed, had unlocked a place in her that had always feared the worst—that she wouldn’t be liked, that she wasn’t good enough.
She still couldn’t believe that unbeknownst to her, she’d been the victim of gossip. Of a spurious story.
Yet she’d survived, thanks to her family’s good name.
And she’d continue surviving—but now it would be because she took an active role in her own future.
In the corner by the fire, a lovely woman, no more than twenty-five, sat quietly stitching. She wore a modest pale lavender muslin gown and matching lavender paisley shawl, the colors of light mourning. But the garments couldn’t disguise the luxuriousness of her hair—a rich walnut hue—or her beautiful cream-and-rose complexion.
The other members of the house party were gathered in their usual spots around the low table.
The men stood when Janice arrived.
“I trust you’ve settled in?” There was nothing beyond politeness in the duke’s question.
“Yes, very well, thanks,” she told him.
The lady by the fire directed an endearing smile Janice’s way. She had bright, intelligent eyes, and Janice immediately got the feeling that at least she wanted her there.
Halsey introduced them. “This is Mrs. Friday, a widow, former schoolteacher, and your new chaperone. She recently moved in with her sister, whose husband is one of our farmers.”
“Thank you for coming to stay,” Janice told her, “and I’m so sorry for your loss.” She couldn’t imagine how Mrs. Friday was feeling.
“It’s been a little over a year now.” Mrs. Friday smiled a sweet half smile. “And I’m glad to be here, if only to get some peace. My sister has three young boys. It’s a happy household but a loud one.”
“I hope your sister can do without you.” Janice smiled back. “I have three brothers, so I know what havoc they can wreak.”
Mrs. Friday laughed. “She’ll do well, I promise you. The boys assure me they’ll take fine care of her.”
They both grinned at that.
With some hope in her heart that she might have acquired a friend as well as a chaperone, Janice took a seat next to Miss Branson. When the duke’s male friends sat down again, Janice didn’t even attempt to guess what they were thinking, although Lady Rose’s earlier insistence that they wanted her gone, too, gave her reason to tilt her chin up a fraction of an inch more than usual.
“Good evening,” she told the company.
They had no idea what they were in for. But as resolute as she was to proceed as she’d planned, fear over what she was about to do made her severely mute.
The Duke of Halsey was an excellent conversationalist. Lord Yarrow and Lord Rowntree made the occasional bland remark, reinforcing her impression that they weren’t very distinguished themselves, and the questionable women—Lady Opal, Lady Rose, and Miss Branson—interjected fairly amusing comments as well.
But the duke steered the topics and set the tone. Janice stayed quiet, murmuring only a few words of agreement.
But she would have to change that. Now. She took a deep, quiet breath and in the back of her mind hoped that Mrs. Friday, at least, would be happy with what she was about to say.
“Your Grace”—she noticed that Mrs. Friday looked up from her stitching with a warm smile of encouragement—“I enjoyed meeting your grandmother very much. In fact, rather than leave when the roads clear and my carriage wheel is fixed, I’ve decided to stay the full month as she requested I do in the letter, as long as Mrs. Friday can spare the additional time away from her sister.”
“Of course I can.” Mrs. Friday’s enthusiasm was touching.
The duke hesitated only a fraction of a second. “Oh, but that won’t be necessary, Lady Janice. You’re very kind, but we have plenty of people in the household to provide my grandmother company.”
“Oh? According to Her Grace’s nurse, no one but you has been to visit her, Your Grace.” Janice looked round at the other guests. “Since some of you have been here at least several weeks, I made the assumption that you’d have done so by now had you intended to.”<
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There was a brief pause.
“I’ll be happy to go see her,” said Miss Branson. “I like old ladies. I simply forgot about her. I never see her, for God’s sake.”
Janice was tempted to smile. She did enjoy Miss Branson’s over-the-top speech.
“We’re only following doctor’s orders,” the duke said on the heels of Miss Branson’s colorful remark. “My grandmother needs peace and solace. But perhaps the occasional visit won’t be untoward.”
“I’ll go,” said Lady Opal. “I’m sure we’ll find something to talk about.”
“We’ll all go together, shall we?” Lady Rose spoke as if she, her sister, and Miss Brandon would be entering a tiger’s lair rather than an elderly woman’s bedchamber.
“Damn tootin’,” said Miss Branson.
Lady Opal nodded vigorously in assent.
Janice wished she could be happier about their enthusiasm, but she saw, of course, that this was their way of helping her leave the house party and return to London while they maintained guilt-free consciences.
“I’m sure your grandmother would enjoy seeing Lords Rowntree and Yarrow as well.” Janice looked at them expectantly.
Lord Rowntree cleared his throat. “I-I’ll be happy to visit Her Grace.”
“As will I,” said Lord Yarrow.
“Wonderful.” She couldn’t help smiling at the two men, who looked stonily back at her. “All these visitors will do her good.”
“True, my lady,” said the duke. “Which means that when the roads clear, you may return to your family with no worries about Granny.”
Janice didn’t know if she should laugh or cry at how blatant His Grace was being about wanting to be rid of her, but she decided she’d find greater satisfaction in focusing on her new plan instead: making him want her to stay.
“No, Your Grace,” she said lightly but firmly. “But thank you for your thoughtful offer. I intend to follow through on my promise to the dowager and stay the entire month.”
Janice gazed at him without blinking and smiled graciously, as she’d been taught by Mama to do. For a few seconds, the only thing she heard was the snap of a log in the fireplace and the ticking of the clock on the mantel.
Say Yes to the Duke Page 8
