The rest of the evening was an unmitigated disaster.Her employers saw her return to the ballroom in the earl’s company and immediately jumped to an appalling conclusion.The earl went directly to his wife and regaled her with something that made her break out in a radiant smile, so it couldn’t have been about her indiscretion.At least the twins were having a wonderful time, and Jenny couldn’t feel too guilty about abandoning them.They were ready to be launched into society, and they wouldn’t miss her a bit.
She would have liked nothing better than to escape to her bedroom and bury her face in her pillow, but she’d been self-indulgent enough for one night, and she waited until the twins were exhausted and dropping on their feet.She herded them upstairs and listened to their breathless chatter about the men they’d danced with, both young and clumsy and old and deft, and neither of them seemed to notice that Jenny had disappeared from the ballroom for a shameful amount of time.Perhaps it hadn’t been that long—it seemed like an enchanted interlude where time didn’t matter.
When the girls had finally settled down and Jenny left the bedroom, it was only to run smack into Annis Rohan, staring daggers at her.
“How dare you!”she said, her plain face mottled with rage.“It’s what I would expect of the Scorpion, but I thought you were better than that.And to think you’ve had the care and upbringing of my girls!I have every intention of telling my sister-in-law and you’ll be sent from the house in the snow with no way back to the city.”
It had been a long day and an even longer night.“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, straightening her back and reclaiming her long-lost dignity.
“You went off with the Scorpion…”
“Who is the Scorpion?”she demanded.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.Your host, the Earl of Rochdale.You were dallying with him…”
Annis’s mind was as ugly as her expression, but Jenny resisted the temptation to tell her so.Or to tell her the truth.“I got lost in the hallways,” she said calmly.“This is a huge place, and it’s easy to get turned around.The earl showed me the way back to the ballroom.”
“And what were you doing wandering around alone?”
“I had to use the necessary,” she replied, pleased to see the fastidious Annis turn pink.
But Annis wasn’t done yet.“And I suppose you told the Scorpion what you were doing in the hallway.”
“He was polite enough not to ask.”It was a deliberate rebuke, gently spoken, but Jenny didn’t care.She was soon to be free of this family of lunatics.
“I don’t believe you,” Annis said.
“Then ask Lord Rochdale,” she shot back.“He’ll set your mind at ease.”
Annis opened her fish-like mouth, struggling for something properly belittling to say.Words failed her, and she turned and stalked away, rage vibrating in her body.
Jenny watched her go.If Annis was truly worried that she’d hired a loose woman to raise her children, it was the first sign of maternal interest she’d shown.She tried to summon up some sympathy, but she simply couldn’t.She needed her bed.
She managed to keep The Kiss out of her mind since the earl…or was he the Scorpion…had rescued her, but the moment she was in bed.it all came rushing back.Brat de Malheur.The gentle brush of his lips against her forehead, her cheek, her eyelids.The soft touch of his mouth against hers, and then not so soft, but strong, demanding, and she’d responded with all the longing in her heart.Whether love at first sight existed or not, she was infatuated, bewitched, lost in him, when she knew it was the worst thing that could happen.
He was toying with her.He was the son of an earl, she was the widow of a vicar.He was a rake, a brat, a misbehaving creature who teased her and confused her and certainly didn’t take her and her poor heart seriously.Annis was right—she should leave here immediately.Tomorrow she would ask Miranda if she could get a ride to the nearest posting inn.If the woman cared about her son, she’d send her off immediately.Unless she believed Annis’s poisonous words about her husband.
She’d smiled, quite brilliantly, after the Scorpion had whispered in her ear.Maybe she thought her son’s misbehavior was amusing.Maybe they were all mad.
Or maybe the only mad person was she, lost in love with a mischievous rake who was simply using her.
She wished she could blame Josiah.He’d been gone for three years, and she still missed him, but it hadn’t been longing for him that had caused her to kiss Brat back.She knew whom she’d been kissing, and she’d wanted his mouth, his hands on her.No one else’s.
She climbed into her lonely bed, curled up in a ball and hugged herself, and she touched her mouth with awe.She was a fool and a half.Because maybe there was such a thing as love at first sight after all.
ChapterSeven
If Annis had triedto spread her poison, it hadn’t worked.Miranda greeted her warmly the next morning, almost too warmly, and once again, Jenny wondered about the sanity of the Rohan family.The twins had filled her in on the start of Miranda and the Scorpion’s happy marriage—apparently the man had abducted his future wife with the intention to ruin and abandon her.According to family legend, she’d hit him over the head with an oar and they’d lived happily ever after.
All mad, she thought.The maddest was Brat, who’d ignored a beautiful, suitable young lady to dance Jenny among the mistletoe.She would never be able to look at that plant the same way again.
The twins were already down, though thankfully there was no sign of Charles and Annis, and they were in the midst of excited plans for a pantomime.“You’ll help us, won’t you, Jenny?”Horry said.
Jenny cast a quick glance at Miranda to see her reaction to Horry’s informal address, but she must not have heard it.“Of course,” she replied.“As long as you don’t expect me to get on stage.”
“But Jenny, you sing so beautifully,” Horry protested.
“Do you?”Miranda questioned.“Brat loves music.”
