She sat down and glanced nervously at him. “Are you angry with me?”
“No, not angry.” A slight smile curved the corners of his mouth. “Disappointed, a little hurt, but not angry. I’m used to you confiding in me. Us against Sebastian, that sort of thing. Now I feel like it’s you against me and Sebastian.”
“Oh Quinn, that’s not what I meant at all. I just couldn’t tell you. It was too...personal.”
“Yes, I understand that. I’m not angry, truly. Well, at least not very angry,” he said with a rueful smile. “I just don’t know how to make it better for you.”
“You can’t. No one can,” she said matter-of-factly. “I have to accept that. And I suppose the sooner I do, the less miserable I will be.”
“Do you really believe that?” he asked, a note of disbelief hanging in the air.
She sighed. “No, but it sounds good to say.”
Several times she tried to form the words to tell him about the letters, but they stuck in her throat. What was happening to her? Quinn was right. She wasn’t confiding in him anymore. In the past she wouldn’t have hesitated to go to him with such a problem, but now she felt further away from him than she ever had in her life. She felt truly alone.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. Well, yes. But then we’ve already been over it,” she said in an attempt at humor. She rose from her seat. “I am retiring to bed.”
“So early?”
“It isn’t as if I am going anywhere so I may as well try and sleep.”
She reached over and squeezed Quinn’s hand. “I am truly sorry I hurt you, Quinn. You may not believe that based on the rashness of my actions, but I love you and Mamma and Papa and Sebastian very much. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Lady Jenna,” Thomas called from the door.
She released Quinn’s hand and swung around. “What is it, Thomas?”
He cleared his throat. “Mr. Eglin is here to see you. I told him you weren’t receiving any callers, but he was most insistent.”
She gulped nervously, her heart rising in her throat. Why was he here? The last person she wanted to see tonight was Stuart. Not after what she had found out. What could he possibly want anyway? Unless he wanted to rethink forgiveness and cry off the engagement. That thought cheered her, though the chances of it happening went out like Beau Brummell.
“Want me to send him away?” Quinn asked.
“No,” she said, rising. “I may as well see what he wants.”
She was nearly to the door when she collided with Sebastian. “There you are,” he said. “Stuart’s in the drawing room.”
“So I heard.”
“He came to ask you to attend Lady Hawthorne’s soiree tonight.” He paused. “And I think you should go.”
“Have you taken leave of your senses? I have no hope of preparing for such an event in such a short time, not to mention I have no desire to go anywhere with him or anyone else. Whatever happened to locking me in my room?” She couldn’t go out with Stuart...alone. What if he suspected she’d found him out?
He placed his hands out in front of him in a placating manner. “Hear me out, Jenna. You should go. Now is not the time to anger him. He could ruin you with just a few words in the right ears. We don’t need him shouting to London that you had an affair. And please,” he said as she opened her mouth to retort. “This isn’t about me or the family. I have no wish to see you hurt any more than you’ve already been. Whether you think so or not, your life will never be the same if you are found out.”
She promptly closed her mouth, swallowing the caustic reply. “You’re right, of course. Tell him I’ll be down as soon as humanly possible. Perhaps you can entertain him while he waits.”
Sebastian nodded and walked back out.
“Do you want me to come along?” Quinn asked softly.
She hesitated. She did want him to come, but how could she say she was afraid to be alone with Stuart? Cursing her overactive imagination, she shook her head. Tonight she would get to the bottom of this nonsense about Stuart being a spy. With Stuart’s family’s flare for dramatics, it was possible the viscountess had dreamed the entire thing up. But the voice in her head told her she was wrong. Dead wrong.
Casting a reassuring smile in Quinn’s direction, she turned and hurried to her room to begin preparing. She summoned Margaret, and the two of them began work on her coiffure.
In record time, Jenna descended the stairs and entered the drawing room to find Sebastian and Stuart sitting across from one another in silence. When they saw her, they quickly rose. Stuart smiled in her direction. “You look beautiful, my dear. Please pardon my unforgivably late invitation, but I decided at the last minute to go and immediately thought to ask you.”
