Almost A Spinster (3 page)

As if on cue, the parlor door opened to reveal her butler a second time. “Lord Stanton.”

Wesley came around the man and Jane’s breath caught at his handsomeness. And when he smiled, that cocky little half-grin that stirred some hidden part of herself, her breath went to nonexistent. Why was she having such powerful reactions?

“Good afternoon,” she managed to croak, salvaging some vestige of her manners. As her butler exited, she tried to smile. “My father is not home at present and my mother is indisposed… a headache.”

She frowned. That wasn’t entirely true. Her mother was actually abed bemoaning Jane’s humiliation the night before. And her father was at White’s, hiding from the guilt he felt whenever he stepped foot in the house and saw the damage his gambling had done. Not that the guilt stopped him. No doubt he was filling his name in on the wager ledgers even as they spoke.

“I’m sorry to hear your mother is not well, but I am not here to see either of them, and you know that.” The corner of Wesley’s mouth tilted into a smile.

She bobbed out a nod and motioned to the settee across from her own chair. Wesley took it and she couldn’t not help but notice the way he filled the chair, dwarfing it… along with everything else in the room. His presence was as large as his tall, muscular frame.

“I assume you have considered my offer of a false courtship,” he said as he cast a careful glance at the partly open doorway.

She nodded. “Yes. It is all I have thought about since I left the ball last night.”

“And what is your decision?” His casual drawl said he didn’t have any emotion about her choice one way or the other, but his sharp glance in her direction told her otherwise.

Jane staggered to her feet, breaking the eye contact that so confused her. She walked to the window, staring down at the gardens which had once been so well-tended, but now were as wild as her emotions.

“Everything you said to me last night made perfect sense,” she began. “To regain David’s interest or to make myself attractive to the men of the
ton
who are not in need of a wife with a large dowry, I must bring attention to myself.”

She winced at the thought. It was utterly humiliating that she had to force the affections of a man she once thought loved her. Or that she had to put herself on display like a peacock in order to make some other man accept her with all her family’s problems.

She glanced over her shoulder to find Wesley watching her. Thank God there was no pity in his stare. She didn’t think she could take that. She’d seen enough of it from the rest of Society, along with catty glee, last night at the ball.

Drawing a breath, she continued, “And a courtship with you would certainly bring me attention. But…” she trailed off, unsure what to say.

“But?” Wes got to his feet, taking a few long strides in her direction. “What makes you hesitate?”

She bit her lip. How was she to explain that sudden, unexplained emotion had reared its head? That she feared it. Feared the way Wesley looked at her and the fact that when she was with him, she hardly thought of David at all. Feared losing his friendship if she could not control these reactions.

But if she said those things, he would surely laugh at her. He wasn’t looking for an authentic courtship any more than she. And if he was, he would look to a woman with a dowry, without scandal to sully her name.

Not to mention that she loved Wesley’s best friend, even if that hadn’t been in the forefront of her mind in the last twelve hours.

“Is it my reputation?” Wesley took another step and closed the gap separating them completely. “I promise I won’t do anything to make you seem foolish, Jane. While we pretend this connection, I will not make a rake of myself. It would defeat both our purposes.”

She started. Him making a spectacle of her was the furthest thing from her mind. Despite what everyone said of him, she knew he was not capable of that kind of cruelty. Not to her.

“Would that be difficult for you?” she whispered.

He met her stare and for a moment she thought she saw a brief flash of sadness, buried deep.

“Not as difficult as either of us might imagine,” he murmured. Then his seriousness was replaced by his usual good humor. “What do you say, Jane? Will you take this chance with me? Make my grandmother happy in her final days and give yourself a fighting chance in the marriage mart?”

She drew in a sharp breath. There was little choice. If she wanted to marry, if she had any hope of regaining David’s affection… or at the very least, his regret he chose Madeline Reynolds’ purse over her love, she had to do as Wesley proposed.

“Yes,” she whispered, her head dipping down.

“Very good!” Wesley cried with a clap of his hands.

His green eyes lit up with pleasure so pure, it surprised her. She knew he had a great deal of regard for his grandmother, but there seemed to be more to his reaction than that. He seemed to really
care
that Jane had agreed to his plan.

“We have much to prepare,” Wesley continued, dragging her from her thoughts. “We need to make a good show of it, of course. Come out in public at the biggest event of the Season. That would be Lord and Lady Davenport’s ball in two days.”

Jane nodded, numbed. Gone was the emotion that had flashed between them. Now Wesley was all business, plotting out their ruse. Perhaps she had only imagined the pleasure in his reaction, the heat of his stare… or he had used those things as a tool to garner what he desired. If that were true, she would have to be very careful.

He was keeping her in the dark, and she knew from bitter experience that being unaware was dangerous. Her father’s secrets had hurt her family. David’s had hurt her.

“You shall see,” he said with a wink. “For now, I must go so I can start planting the seeds of our courtship.” With a grin, he turned away and left the parlor. “I will see you in two nights.”

Jane opened her mouth to protest, but he was already gone. She sank back into the settee with a sigh. What in the world had she just agreed to? And how could she regain control of her future and her heart?

Chapter Three

It was all too easy.

Wesley settled back in a comfortable chair in the parlor and watched the door. Waiting. Anticipating. By the time this evening was over, the seeds of his ‘courtship’ with Jane would be planted.

And Jane would have a little bit of justice.

The door came open and David Langston stepped into the parlor. David had been his best friend for as long as Wesley could remember, and yet his reaction to seeing him this night was the bristling of the hair on the back of his neck. Where he normally felt an affectionate tolerance for his friend’s sometimes selfish tendencies, this evening an unaccountable anger filled his chest.

Especially when David smiled in that blank way, flipped a lock of blond hair away from his eyes, and said, “Wes! Good to see you. Never got to thank you for your help with Jane last night. That was an awkward situation, but since I didn’t see her sobbing openly, I suppose you saved me.”

Wesley arched a brow as he got to his feet. Drawing a calming breath, he tried to remember all the reasons he liked David. They had been friends since boyhood and David had always included Wes in his family’s activities. He’d been more than willing to allow Wes to turn to his own father for advice since Wesley had none of his own.

Wesley remembered all those thing, and yet resentment still tingled in his veins.

“Is
that
all you have to say?”

His best friend shrugged in surprise as he shut the parlor door behind him. “What else is there?”

Wesley clenched a fist behind his back. “You made Jane look a fool in front of the entire
ton
when you know full well that her family’s reputation could not withstand such a blow. Worse yet, you hurt her.”

He winced as he remembered her tear-streaked face. Her claims that any chance of a future were ruined. And the knowledge that her claim was true if he couldn’t help her. Yet David seemed to feel little remorse as he crossed the room to pour himself a drink.

“Yes, it’s a beastly business, isn’t it?” he said as he bit his lower lip. “I do feel badly. Jane is a wonderful girl. And if I could have, I would have given her what she desired… but surely she had to have known my family’s need for a good match would ultimately keep me from making her any promises.”

Rage bubbled higher, burning Wesley’s throat, blurring his vision. Why was he reacting this way? Nothing his friend said came as any surprise to him. Wesley had always known David to be a selfish creature. He, like so many others of their circle, had never known heartache or hardship. They had been raised in utter privilege. With no rules or boundaries. Wes had never seen the harm in their wild behavior… until now. Until Jane.

“How could she have known, David?” he ground out through clenched teeth. “When she came out in society, you were the first to behave as if her family’s reduced position meant nothing. You never led her to believe anything except that you were serious about your intentions. You let her make public her affection for you. You encouraged her to cut herself off from any other suitor. Are you now saying you never had any intention to make an offer for her?”

He held his breath as he awaited David’s answer. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping for. Perhaps that David really had been placed into a corner by his family’s demands. Perhaps that he loved Jane… because if he didn’t then that meant Jane had wasted her time caring for him.

And that Wesley had wasted
his
time keeping a distance out of respect for a relationship that never really existed.

But when David cocked his head in confusion, Wesley didn’t need to hear his reply. It was as evident as the moon that cut through the cloudless night.

“I could never offer for her, Stanton,” David said, reverting to Wesley’s title as he always did when he was trying to defend some ridiculous action. “No matter how much I like her, her family’s financial situation… her father’s reputation…”

“But you always behaved as if those things didn’t matter to you,” he insisted.

Jane had often remarked about David’s utter acceptance of her family’s state. He knew it meant the world to her. Had even been a part of why she thought herself in love with him.

David shrugged. “Because it had nothing to do with me whatsoever. Her financial and social status would never prevent me from being a friend to her, of course, but marry-”

Wesley didn’t allow David to finish before he was on his feet. He reached him in three long steps, grasping David’s dandified collar as he pushed him back against the wall. David was nearly the same height as Wes, but unlike him, David had to pad his clothing to give the illusion of muscular definition. In a fight, there would be no match.

What was happening? How had it come to this? With him ready to
hit
David. David looking at him with confused and terrified brown eyes. Wesley’s blood running hot as he thought about the muck David had made out of Jane’s life. How could his friend be so utterly stupid and blindly cruel?

“You idiot,” he growled, pushing David against the wall once, hard before he let him go and backed away. This was madness. He had to stop. He’d come here to lay the seeds of his pretend courtship, not challenge his friend to a fight… which was the next step in this encounter that was spiraling out of control so damned quickly.

David straightened his mangled collar as he stared in disbelief at Wes. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“How can you ask me that? You have ruined Jane… you have ruined her hopes. Destroyed her future.”

David seemed to have recovered himself, for he stepped forward and snapped, “You sound as if you care! As if you have some stake in what happens to her!”

Wes drew a few deep breaths to calm his racing pulse. This was the perfect opportunity to regain purchase on the situation.

“Yes,” he said, his voice nothing more than a harsh whisper. “I suppose I do. And I shouldn’t be angry for what you did because it-it opened a door I have long wished to pass through.”

David’s eyes widened slightly. “A door?”

Wesley clenched and unclenched his fists. Why couldn’t he catch his breath? “Jane. Your callous dismissal of her has allowed me an opening to her heart. And I intend to take it. In fact, when I comforted her last night after your engagement, I took the first steps in creating a new bond with her.”

David shifted uncomfortably as he looked his friend up and down. “You and Jane?”

Wesley nodded as he tried to dismiss how easily the words fell from his mouth. It took no effort to claim a desire for Jane’s affection. A desire to take the place David once claimed in her heart… in her life.

The emotions that coursed through him… the anger at David’s callousness, the pain at the hurt he’d caused Jane, the need to protect her… they were all too real.

And they went deeper than physical attraction. He’d never admitted that to himself before because of David, but now… Now everything became clear.

His feelings for her crystallized.

David’s rude snort interrupted the dangerous path of Wesley’s thoughts. He shook his head to clear away the cobwebs and shot his friend a glare.

“What does that mean?” he asked, folding his arms, if only to keep from putting a fist through David’s face.