Page 66 of The English Duke
“Maybe I’ll go tell Gran you’ve been wandering around Sedgebrook before dawn. She’ll get it out of you.”
Her stomach lurched at the thought of Josephine waking their grandmother with that kind of news.
“Leave Gran alone, Josephine,” she said, biting back her fear.
Josephine glanced over her shoulder and smiled, the expression one she wouldn’t have shared with the men who admired her. This smile had an edge to it.
“Tell me or I’ll go right now,” she said, turning. “You know I will.”
Josephine was certainly capable of doing exactly that.
For a moment she balanced the thought of revealing where she’d been against Josephine’s threat. Would the truth silence her sister?
She didn’t have a choice, did she?
“The duke, all right? I was with Jordan.”
The attractive pink of Josephine’s cheeks deepened to become a splotchy flush spreading down to her neck. For a moment she didn’t say anything, just stared at Martha.
“You couldn’t have,” Josephine finally said. “He wouldn’t have looked at you.”
Hurt crowded out any fear she felt. Martha took a deep breath and somehow managed a smile.
“If it makes any difference, he didn’t. He was besotted.”
“Was he?” Josephine asked.
She nodded. “I don’t think he even knew it was me.” She sat on the end of the bed, wishing it wasn’t the truth.
“How interesting. Did you seduce him? Did you go to him in hopes he’d make your maidenly dreams come true? How was he? Did that leg of his interfere with his manly charms?”
“I’m not talking about this,” she said, standing and moving past Josephine to the screen in the corner. She wanted to bathe.
“You’re right to want to wash the scent of him off you, Martha.”
She loved Josephine, but there were times—like now—when she didn’t like her much.
After she washed, Martha peered out from behind the screen to find Josephine had left the room. Staring at the closed door, she wondered if her sister had gone to see Gran. Would she tell their grandmother anything? Or would Josephine simply go back to her room and forget everything she’d learned?
That was a foolish wish, wasn’t it? As long as she was wishing, then perhaps Gran would feel well enough to travel a day early and they could leave Sedgebrook.
Please, God, let her go home to Griffin House. Now before anything else happened.
Chapter 19
At dawn, Susan York was abruptly awakened from a perfectly beautiful dream. Her youthful self had been holding hands with the young man she’d loved all her life and the two of them were strolling through a lush and overgrown garden.
The bees were buzzing and she heard the sound of singing, making her wonder who was serenading them. She was turning to say something to the man she loved when her youngest granddaughter grabbed her hand and anointed it with tears.
She blinked up at the ceiling, trying to make sense of what was happening.
Josephine was sobbing, her face buried in the mattress at her side.
“Oh, Gran, I’m so sorry. I made such a mistake.”
What had Josephine done now?
What a pity Josephine couldn’t join her mother in France. Unfortunately, she didn’t hold out much hope for that happening. Her granddaughter was a beautiful girl. Marie was an aging woman who was as vain as Josephine. She suspected the last thing Marie would want around her was youthful competition, even if it was her daughter.
