Page 50 of The Widow’s Christmas Surprise

“I will be fine. And all we need tell them is the truth—with one short interlude left out.” Her cousin’s rule always held true. “Let’s see if we can get my chemise a little drier. No one will see that save my maid, and she is very loyal.”

The afternoon shadows had begun to lengthen across the lawn by the time Hugh tossed Maria, shivering in the cold wet clothing once more, up onto Lily and they set out for Kersey Hall by the shortest route possible.

As they drew up in front of the house, grooms appeared to take the horses.

“Call Lord Kersey and Lady John Tarkington this instant,” Hugh called to a footman on duty at the front door. He then helped Maria crawl down off Lily, almost as frozen as she had been earlier. The ride had been an agony of icy wind on the wet clothing. Shivering, she let Hugh help her up the front steps. As they approached, the door opened and a bevy of people spilled out onto the portico.

“What has happened?”

“Maria? Maria, are you all right?”

“Granger, what the devil is going on?”

Everyone spoke at once, so Maria answered none of them. She gazed about until she located Jane and steered herself through the throng and into her cousin’s arms.

“Maria, what happened to you?” Jane’s worried face peered into hers, looking for some accident or illness.

“I f . . . fell through the ice. On the p . . . pond.” She leaned on Jane’s shoulder and whispered, “I will be fine. Get me to my room. We must talk.”

Maria had to give her cousin credit. If there was some sort of emergency, even if she didn’t know the particulars, Jane would rise to the occasion every time.

“Let us through, please.” Her arm around Maria, Jane pushed through the crowd of people, all of them asking what had happened. Ignoring everyone, acting like a general with victory in sight, she escorted Maria through the gauntlet of nosy friends and relatives, reaching the front stairs without a single encounter.

When they finally reached Maria’s room, Jane called for Hatley, who immediately stripped her mistress, popped her into bed, and sent for the bathtub and hot water with the same military efficiency Jane had showed. Lying snug between clean sheets, Maria truly appreciated such competence.

As soon as the maid had gone to oversee the bath, Jane sat on the end of the bed, and fixed Maria with a steely eye. “What happened, Maria?”

Tell the truth, but not the whole truth. They had agreed.

So Maria launched into the excitements of the day, omitting only her interlude with Hugh in the dowager’s bed in Francis House. She ended with the news about the possible will and requested her counsel on the matter. “Jane, I cannot think why Mr. Clarke would not have contacted me if Alan’s will had contained a bequest to me.”

“I cannot see any reason why he would withhold it from you either, my dear.” Tapping her lips, as was always Jane’s way of signaling she was thinking. “Although someone might well have a reason to keep it from you.”

Panicked, Maria sprang up in the bed. “You don’t think Mr. Granger would do such a thing, do you?”

Jane waved her worries away. “Of course not. He has nothing to gain by doing so. Quite the opposite, in fact, if you do marry. Which I gather you may now be forced to do. You’ve been in his bed, haven’t you?”

“I have no idea what you mean.” Maria sank back down beneath the covers. Of course Jane would know. Maria’d almost never been able to conceal anything from her cousin.

“I am quite sure you do, my dear.” Jane tossed the statement at her cousin and waited.

Wishing she had said nothing to Jane, Maria pulled the covers over her head. “Leave me be.”

“I am afraid that is out of the question now, my dear.” Jane peeled the blankets back from Maria’s face. “If you have taken Mr. Granger as your lover, everything has changed.”

“Why would you think I have done such a thing when we expressly said last night that we would not do any such thing?” Lord, but she wished Jane was not staring so intently at her. Like a cat waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting mouse who had not told the whole truth.

“That promise was not worth the breath it took to make it.” Jane scoffed, waving the pledge off like an unwanted dish at dinner. “Kinellan may have been fooled by it—a very gullible man, I will tell you—but not I.” She peered at Maria again. “Are you denying that you have taken Mr. Granger as your lover?”

“No.” The word was spoken very low.

“I did not think so.”

“But how did you know?” Maria was truly puzzled as to how Jane had found her out.

“You look very different, my dear, than you did this morning.” Smiling, Jane touched Maria’s cheek in a caress. “Happier, more relaxed. Satisfied.”

Maria blushed, her cheeks now the warmest they had been all day.