“I have no idea.”He tried to answer in a bland tone.Would they believe him?
“Oh, he must be!”Charlotte exclaimed.“William, you have no ability to dissemble.Never take up politics,” she advised dryly.
He stood and answered bitterly.“Well, that’s another career I can’t take up.I’m rapidly losing options.If any of you mention this notion of yours and the source of your suspicions, I’ll lose my position here.Dalton requires absolute confidentiality, and if what you are saying is repeated, I will surely have the finger of blame pointed at me as the culprit.Say nothing!”He glared at his sisters.“Do I make myself clear?”
They nodded.
“Thank you.”He bowed to Lady Elizabeth and stalked from the room.
“Poor Mr.Brody,” said Lady Elizabeth.“He does have a predicament, but we must at least inform your sister that Dalton has finally begun to work for our cause as we requested so long ago.”
“But what about William, Lady Elizabeth?He must not lose his position with your brother,” Anna said.
“He shall not.I will take entire responsibility for making the information known to Jane.After all, I was the one who saw the amount of the bill listed in my brother’s account book.I was suspicious at once.”
Chapter Twenty-six
THAT EVENING, NUMEROUScandles lit the drawing room as guests at Jane’s salon seated themselves and chatted before her talk.Jane walked to the lectern placed in front the family’s new piano and waited for her guests to pay attention.She looked out across the room of attendees, smiling at old friends and noting new faces.
She drew breath to start her brief introduction before launching into her paper upon the need for access to university education for women.As she did so, the rear doors of the room opened quietly to admit a late arrival.She paused to wait for the person to be seated before commencing.
Jonathan and his sister entered the room.
Jane gasped.Jonathan quickly scanned the room for available seats and led his sister to the front directly before Jane.Elizabeth smiled at Jane in greeting and apology for their lateness.Blood pounded in Jane’s ears.Her gaze fixed on Jonathan’s face as he took his seat with an air of interested expectation.Their eyes locked, and Jane’s body froze.
Her mind did not.
It raced.
What was he doing here?Had they not agreed to go their separate ways?She had expected never to see him again except across the vast space of a crowded ballroom where they would nod towards each other in distant politeness.Now he was here—in the front row—looking as though he had every reason to be there.
Still their eyes were riveted to each other’s.Jane couldn’t read his.They were dark pools, and she was drowning in them.
She consciously pulled her gaze from his to take in the unchanged nature of his face, his curling brown hair swept forward upon his brow, his straight nose and sensual curved mouth, and that stubborn chin.His barber had tended him recently and there wasn’t a shadow of stubble upon his face, but two luxurious side whiskers emphasized his prominent cheekbones.As she continued to stare, his eyebrows crooked into querying apostrophes, and the quirk of his mouth showed his amusement with her stunned response to his presence.
Jane tore her eyes from him and looked around the room, realizing that the audience had grown restless from the delay.She glanced down at her notes, trying to bring her focus upon them, then began the talk abruptly with a little stutter.The room quietened again as the guests listened and considered her argument.
