Page 10 of The Widow Wore Plaid

“I know it’s hard to move on, Jane.” Georgie patted her arm. “And you seem so happy with Lord Kinellan.”

“If anyone can understand your reluctance to relinquish your independence, I certainly can,” Fanny broke in. “I struggled with that for quite some time myself. But Jane”—Fanny gripped her hands—“what good is that independence if you have no one in your life who makes you happy? All of us are now married, with families growing bigger by the minute, it seems.” She looked pointedly at Charlotte and Elizabeth.

They exchanged a glance and reddened.

Fanny glared at them. “Please don’t tell me you haven’t told your husband you are increasing again, Elizabeth? Why would you withhold such splendid news from him?”

“Elizabeth!” Georgie squealed and threw her arms around her sister-in-law. “How wonderful! You must tell Jemmy tonight. He will be so very pleased.”

“I know he will, Georgie.” Elizabeth fanned her hot face with her hand, looking about the room as if hunting for an escape.

“And little Nes will have a new brother or sister,” Georgie continued on, her face shining with happiness as though she were increasing again. “How marvelous! I don’t know what I would do without my brothers and sisters. Especially Jemmy and Hal.”

“How did you come to that conclusion, Fanny?” Elizabeth shifted the focus to her friend, thankfully far away from their discussion of Jane and her evening with Kinellan. “I’ve not told a soul.”

“You don’t have to, my dear. You’ve eaten hardly any breakfast at all this past week, save for a piece of ham or some toast.” Fanny smiled triumphantly.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Georgie frowned, obviously puzzled.

“Elizabeth has always had morning sickness in her earliest months with all of her pregnancies.” Fanny nodded, looking self-satisfied. “You told me that when you were carrying little Nes. And if anyone has noticed, I’ve recently begun taking milk in my tea again.”

“What does that mean, Fanny?” Jane hoped to keep the conversation safely on pregnancy and away from other topics. Fortunately, Fanny could hold everyone’s attention for as long as she chose to. Which in these circumstances was a godsend.

“That I’m also carrying another child.” She lifted her chin proudly. “Matthew is terribly pleased about it.”

“Fanny, how wonderful!” Elizabeth hugged her friend and Georgie moved from one woman to the other, embracing them one after the other, while Charlotte had to content herself with smiling and squeezing Fanny’s hand.

“So all of us, save Jane and Georgie, are increasing again.” Fanny’s gaze rested on Jane and a speculative gleam came into her eyes. “Ladies, you are slackers. You really must keep up.”

They all burst out laughing and Jane’s tension eased.

Fanny grasped her hands. “I know you love your freedom, Jane, but I also know you love Kinellan as much. And in a way you didn’t love Tark.”

Shaking her head in protest, Jane tried to speak, but Fanny continued relentlessly.

“I’m not saying you didn’t love Tark, but you and Kinellan seem much better suited. I see you as kindred souls, like me and Matthew, especially when I see you together, talking or laughing or even walking side by side. You simply seem made to be together.” Fanny’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And when you find your kindred soul, Jane, you should hold them close forever.” Fanny’s eyes glowed with a fire Jane had never seen before. “Its price is above rubies.”

Her friend was right. She and Gareth were kindred souls. She could not bear to think of being with anyone other than him, or of him with another wife. It was almost a blasphemy to her sensibilities. A wave of love welled up from deep within Jane, love she’d suppressed, tried to deny, but which had grown stronger every time she’d seen Gareth.

And Fanny was right, although she’d loved Tark in a fashion, it paled in comparison to the deep-seated and abiding love that welled from within her whenever she even thought about Gareth. They seemed to be pieces of an interlocking puzzle, two halves that together made a whole. Made her whole.

“I know it is, Fanny, I truly do.” Tears trickled slowly down her cheeks and she didn’t care in the least. “I do love him and he loves me.”

“He does?” Fanny leaned forward, sudden excitement in her face. “He made a declaration?”

Throwing caution to the wind, Jane nodded. “Last night.” She couldn’t stop now. “Just before he proposed.”

The stunned silence as each of her friends stopped talking and turned to stare at her was alarming, for it gave Jane time to realize what she had done before the dam burst and her friends’ chatter rose to an incredible height.

“He proposed?”

“Oh, Jane, he proposed again?”

“He did? My dear, what did you say?”

They spoke all at once, so she had to calm them before she could find an opening to answer them all. “Yes, he did.” She paused, but looking at their expectant faces, hanging on her every word, she had to go on. “And this time I said yes.”

Their incredulous smiling faces made her heart swell anew with joy.