Page 78 of Lord Garson's Bride
Stupid fantasies. No doubt even if Jane blinded her out of spite, Morwenna would retain her iron grip on Hugh’s heart.
“Janie, did you hear me?”
She’d drifted off and missed the end of Susan’s tale of a duke dancing with Lucy at Almack’s last night. “I beg your pardon. I wasn’t listening. The evening’s been overwhelming. You know how quiet my life was at Cavell Court.”
“I do indeed.” Susan cast a glance at the empty seats at the table. Hugh and Frederick had gone in search of more champagne, so the two sisters had a moment’s privacy. More was the pity. “You’re not eating very much. Are you expecting a happy event?”
Jane blinked at her sister and bit back the self-pitying retort that she never expected to be happy again. She refused to let that be true, by heaven. “We’re engaged to go to the opera tomorrow night with Charles and Sally Kinglake.”
Susan made an impatient sound. “Don’t be such a goose. Are you going to have a baby? I vow I couldn’t keep down even a morsel, when I was carrying dear Lucy.”
A baby? With everything else that had happened in the last hour, the idea was too momentous for her to consider.
“No, I don’t think so.” She swallowed a surge of nausea, as she looked down at the untouched delicacies on her plate. “We’ve been married little more than a fortnight. It’s too early to tell.”
Susan looked unimpressed. “You might have anticipated your vows.”
“Susan,” Jane protested, genuinely shocked.
Her sister shrugged and reached to transfer the lobster patties from Jane’s plate to hers. “I would have, just to make sure of him. Hugh’s one of those chivalrous types. He’d never abandon you, once he took your cherry.” Her tone sharpened. “Don’t look at me like that. You two haven’t sat around for the last two weeks, doing nothing but hold hands.”
Jane blushed, which she supposed was answer enough.
Susan went on. “I’m so glad we have the chance for a quiet word.”
Here it comes, thought Jane, her bruised heart sinking even lower.
Her sister didn’t disappoint her. “Where on earth did you get that dress? It’s not respectable, Janie. You’re new to London. You don’t want a reputation.”
Didn’t she? She’d been careful all her life, but tonight she’d glimpsed a more adventurous path. “Lady West took me to hermodiste. She seemed to think this gown was in the current mode.”
“That explains it.” Susan glanced around. Jane guessed she was checking if Hugh was within earshot. “Lady West is spoken of as an original. Why, she’s considered quite the bluestocking, and corresponds with all sorts of men on mathematical subjects. Or at least that’s the story.”
Jane frowned. Susan implied Helena was conducting intrigues, where it had been immediately obvious to her that she was madly in love with her husband. “I like her. She and West are good friends of Hugh’s. I won’t hear anything against her.”
This animated defense startled Susan. Usually for the sake of peace, Jane pretended to heed her sister’s advice. “I’m only telling you this for your own good. You’ve started running with a fast crowd, who are likely to lead you astray. They already have. Papa would be appalled to see you dressed like a harlot, with your bosom on show for all the world to see. You put me to the blush, Janie, you really do.”
Jane cast a glance down at her chest. The gown was more dashing than she usually wore but nowhere near unacceptable. As Hugh so unflatteringly remarked, she’d dressed like a blasted nun before she married him. “Susan, why are you trying to spoil my pleasure in my first ball?”
“I…” Susan spluttered, but Jane spoke over her, in a way she never had before.
“You know how humdrum my life has been for the last ten years.”
“Don’t be silly. You loved living in Dorset.”
“No, it suited you to think that.” Jane’s eyes narrowed on her sister. “But don’t you think I regretted missing out on having a season like yours? Don’t you think I longed for company my own age, and new and interesting people to talk to?”
Susan looked increasingly uncomfortable. “You never said anything.”
“What was the point? Someone had to take charge at Cavell Court.” Aware that they were in public, Jane kept her voice low, but the strength of her feelings vibrated through every word. It was fortunate that the noise in the packed room masked this increasingly contentious discussion. “Now I’m married, and I have a wonderful husband, and the chance to do the things I’ve always wanted to. I’m twenty-eight, not sixteen. I won’t be lectured about my clothes, or my friends, or my behavior.”
Susan’s face flushed, and temper flashed in her dark eyes. “I was only trying to help.”
“Well, I appreciate it,” Jane said, without meaning a word. “But you can leave me to make my own way in society.”
Susan glanced past Jane’s shoulder to someone behind her. “You should keep better control of your wife, Hugh, or she’ll bring the whole family into disrepute. This unseemly rag she has on is only the start of it. You mark my words.”
Jane wondered how long he’d been standing there. “Rubbish,” he snapped. “Jane’s a credit to the Norris name, and a credit to me as her husband. Susan, your sister is going to become a power in the world.”
