“I was engaged once.”
“Oh?” she breathed out, her heart a hammer in her chest.
“To Mina’s mother.”
Olivia’s mouth opened and closed. She’d gone speechless.
“Does that shock you?”
She shook her head for no words seemed to be coming to save her from the truth: she’d believed the gossip. She’d believed Mina the product of a lord’s tawdry liaison with a servant. She hadn’t even questioned it.
But for Jake to have been engaged to Mina’s mother, there was a different story, one less sordid, one more honorable, one in keeping with the man she’d come to know. She should feel ashamed, but she couldn’t. A curious and ineffable joy sprang up from the pit of her belly and shimmered through her veins. High-born or low-born, Jake had loved Mina’s mother.
Why did it matter to her? It confirmed what she’d felt about this man from the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. He wasn’t the sort of man who let a woman fall.
It mattered. Too much.
“No wife of mine will ever be subject to such a marriage.”
“Of course,” she began, protesting his words because she must, “you don’t believe so now, but—”
“Never.”
She believed him. And, oh, how she shouldn’t. It occurred to her that she might be lost, that she just might be in lo—
“Here you are!” a sharp voice sliced through the air some distance away.
He blinked, then she blinked, and they each took a step back, snapping out of the trance that had overtaken them. When had their bodies drawn so close?
In unison, they turned to face a rapidly approaching Miss Fox. “I had a devil of a time finding you. You do realize that you’ve strayed off the main path, don’t you?”
That sounded appropriate. But she would keep the sentiment to herself as it didn’t apply to Miss Fox’s meaning. Olivia tucked her shoulder blades together and drew herself up straight, even as awareness ofhimat her side pulsed through her with every beat of her heart.
A winded Miss Fox drew to a stop a few feet away. “The rabid gooseberry performed quite a number on the posterior area of Miss Markley’s dress, and she had to return directly home in my carriage.”
Jake cleared his throat. “Seems the most prudent course.”
“And as we weren’t finished with our stroll,” Miss Fox continued, “I decided to come back. You two are such delightful and fascinating company.”
Olivia’s head canted to the side. What a curious person Miss Fox was.
“As to my lack of a chaperone,” Miss Fox went on like it was of the slightest concern to her audience, “since we have you here, Lady Olivia, you can play the part.”
Olivia nearly started out of her boots. Chaperone to Jake’s courtship of another woman? Not in an eternity of years.
“Lady Olivia,” Jake cut in, “won’t be accompanying us in that capacity.”
It was all Olivia could do to suppress the sigh of relief that wanted release. Really, though, the cheek of Miss Fox. “Lord St. Alban is correct. I have a round of calls that I must attend, if you will excuse me.”
She stepped away, and Miss Fox said, “But, Lady Olivia, it is too early in the day to pay calls.”
Olivia drew up short, flummoxed. It was time to put an end to this farce. Umbrage that had wanted to rise the instant she’d spotted Miss Fox strolling arm in arm with Jake was given its head. “Miss Fox, has it ever occurred to you to mind your own affairs?”
The smug smile froze on the chit’s face, and Olivia felt a mean bit of satisfaction at having hit her mark. She inclined her head, chirped a bright, “Good day,” whirled around, and marched away, her heels a muted crunch on gravel. Several yards down the path, a realization, hard and true and utterly annoying, struck her: she was heading in the wrong direction.
On a deep sigh—would nothing go right today?—she stopped and pivoted. There they stood, observing her like a particularly curious animal at the zoo, Miss Fox’s eyes wide and amused, Jake’s eyebrows drawn together in concern. They looked like a couple. And why shouldn’t they? Theywerea couple. The thought slid a tiny dagger into her soul. It was wrong that it did, but feelings couldn’t be controlled like actions. Right.
Well, she could do something about herself. She set her feet into motion and focused on a point in the distance well beyond their shoulders. Just as she was about to move past the duo, her eyes darted left and locked onto Jake’s. How still he could be. How serious. How appealing. But the contact was cut when she sailed past and left him behind.
