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Chloris caught her slippery kipper, stabbing at it with vigor "Ungrateful creature! To even want to toss your eeds aside with such quick disregard"
Jane clenched her fists at her sides until they grew nuh herher cheeks as she recalled the nities she suffered at Marcus’s hands True, she had barred hie, and only after finding him in her bed with one of the upstairsher even now--a dog forever nipping her heels that she could not outrun
It was one thing to know your husband conducted affairs all over Town, but quite another to be presented with that fact She would forever recall the scorn twisting his face, his grating laughter when she de a fool of her
Banishing hihter His words rang bitterly in her head
I’ll not id body What need do you fill? I already have a son And there are far better woly day far froh cold lips, she declared fir less than circu from the room, she paused briefly at the door to direct Barclay to order a carriage around
Once inside her chamber, the small bedroom she had been banished to when Desmond and Chloris claimed the master bedchambers for the open her array serge day gown frory movements, she dressed herself, sick unto death of black and determined to have no more of it No rateful creature!
With a snort, she yanked the dress into place and turned to inspect herself in the mirror
Don’t tell ives the barest due to the passing of a husband
Patting her hair in place, she frowned at the gray serge Somehow it didn’t look much better than the black bo, she turned fro co of herself… if only in smallthe girls, hesitating when she spied Chloris leaving what had once been Jane’s bedroom A ridiculous confection of feathers and ribbons sat atop Chloris’s head, all the aze fell on Jane "I see you’ve disregarded my wishes"
Jane lifted her chin
"I shall take the matter up with Desmond when he returns fro over her nose
Jane fixed a brittle smile to her face "No doubt you will have to wait That could be soain, you say?" She bit her cheek to keep froed in one of his aberrant pursuits
"Yes," Chloris sniffed "A good entlemen are made at clubs
Des to attain a political appointment in the next year Perhaps Undersecretary of War"
"Indeed," Jane replied with a deliberately vague air, trying not to gri to Bryony’s door, she grasped the knob "I’ll wake the girls and see that they have their drive"
And try to enjoy myself in the process
With a quick nod, she ordered herself to forget, to pretend, if only for one afternoon, that her life did not stretch before her in a long row of tiresome days until Matthew reached his majority
That she did not live the life of a servant ordered about and de to look forward to And even less to look back on
Chapter 8
"Isn’t this… nice?" Seth lanced at his sister beside hi bonnet, Julianne looked like a ray of sunshine--the only light in a gray, sunless day
As he found himself the subject of fascinated stares, countless activities preferable to a carriage ride along Rotten Row crossed his un The wide-eyed, calculating expressions, the heads bent toward one other in rapt discussion
He took special care not to look at any single individual lest they take that as an invitation to strike up a conversation Although he had vowed to begin his wife hunt this day, he was not keen on idle chitchat… especially when everyone they passed examined his scarred face as if it were some speci his gaze froirl beside her and jabbed a pluuess at their conjecture Seth Rutledge, second son, officer, man of little worth was now… somebody A coveted coolden Aurora rose like a fla hours of the night Had wondered, despite his avowals of indifference, what had possessed hio It had been years since a woet away
He should have pursued her, claimed her, possibly even set her up as hisand oddly tender, artless for the courtesans and experienced ladies that attended Fleur’s galas
"Nice doesn’t describe it, Seth" Julianne’s voice pulled hi lanced at his sister She stared straight ahead, eyes elitter of the sun on the Mediterranean And in that e ride, a name-only wife Whatever the cost He owed it to her
"No thanks necessary I’vea bride without your vital assistance?"
"Oh, Seth" She frowned Her eyes stared vacantly into the air beyond his shoulder It was the blankness that got to hi a knife in his heart every time No matter the years that had passed since the accident, he could never evade that particular wound to his heart Could never viehat happened as a mere accident His conscience refused to let him In the same way that his father had
"Only you can knohom you should wed The ansill lie within your heart Not rimaced Such sentimentality His sister was so innocent Untarnished by the world, the ton in particular It was one of the things he lovedhe intended to protect Histhat
"Whom I choose is equally ihed dryly, the sound far too old and wise for her "I fail to see how You are the one "
He opened histhat _she _ motivated his decision to wed