Dalton sprang into action, opening the door, leaping out, and letting down the steps for Anna and Jane.After assisting Anna, he leaned wordlessly into the carriage, offering his hand to Jane.With only a slight hesitation, she placed her own in his and balanced herself as she stepped down onto the pavement.Instead of releasing her, Dalton drew her arm through his as he escorted her to the front door, where he rapped loudly on the lion’s head door knocker.He took her hand from his arm and raised it to his lips, pressing a kiss onto her fingertips.Jane gasped in surprise as she felt his soft lips against her thin gloves and tried to pull her hand away.She felt a slight resistance before it was released.Startled by his behavior, Jane peered up at his face, searching for a clue as to whether he was amusing himself at her expense.Before she could determine his meaning, the door opened, breaking their steady gaze.Anna slipped into the house, murmuring her thanks to Dalton.
“May I call on you in the morning, Miss Brody?”he asked.
“You may, but why?”
“Does a gentleman need a reason to call on you?”She could see his smile spread to his eyes.
“Why no, of course not, but I thought you may have wanted to discuss our women’s rights cause.”
“Ah yes, of course.We may continue that discussion.”
“Is there anything else you would wish to discuss with me, my lord?”
“Perhaps.”He took her hand again and bowed over it.“Sweet dreams, Miss Brody.”
Jane watched him stride to his carriage and swiftly step up into it.She turned and entered the house through the door still held open by the housekeeper.Jane halted in amazement as she climbed the long staircase to her room—she was looking forward to Dalton’s promised morning visit.
Chapter Five
UMPH.Jane woke with a start.Bright light shafted through the curtains she had left slightly apart after watching the Marquess’s carriage sweep around the corner of Harley Street.
This morning, her small writing desk with its neat piles of fresh paper, quills, ink, and her prized nib pen didn’t draw her hasty steps.Instead she lay staring at the muslin bed canopy above, reliving the wonders of the ball.
She always enjoyed dancing but it had never before filled her with the wonderment of new emotions.Not like last night...as she danced with Dalton.She could feel the fine texture of his coat beneath her fingers, smell his crisp scent, hear his deep, mellow voice and see his teasing smile with its accompanying crinkles at the corner of his eyes.
Jane reveled in her nostalgia for a few minutes more before stretching languorously.Aaagh.Today was the deadline for the draft of her latest pamphlet, and it wasn’t finished.She threw back the covers and scrambled out of bed, quickly washing and pulling on an old morning dress.
Jane wrote her concluding paragraphs about education suitable for girls who were to take up their rightful places as men’s equals.She lay down her pen and reread her words.
Realization hit her.A wash of disappointment hollowed her stomach.This attraction to Dalton was pointless.It couldn’t possibly come to anything.He needed a conventional wife, urgently, to provide him with a hostess and an heir or two.And she was never going to marry.
Jane relived the last hours of her mother’s life as if it were yesterday rather than eight years ago.She stood in the darkened room that was her mother’s bedchamber.The brocade curtains covered the windows in the middle of the day because the sunlight hurt her mother’s eyes.A fitful breeze forced its way into the room, only partially relieving its stuffiness.
Tiredness from her unrelieved care of her mother weighted Jane’s limbs with lead.Her hair hung in braids because there was no time to put it up during her life of ceaseless nursing over the last few months.
Jane lifted her mother gently to place another pillow beneath her head and shoulders.She didn’t trouble her with words requiring an answer, just told her what she was doing.The exertion forced her mother to gasp for breath.
