Almost A Spinster by Jenna Petersen Read Free Book Online Page B

leapt into her throat as she stared at the envelope Jenkins held out. She got to her feet, barely supported by her shaking knees, and tried to make herself move toward him even as her mind raced. Who had sent the letter? Was it Wesley? Was it about the kiss? Was it ending their charade?
    “My lady?” Jenkins asked, his brow creasing with worry as she remained standing in her spot, frozen by fears.
    Felicity got to her feet and hurried over to the servant. Taking the note, she smiled. “Lady Jane is a bit tired. Could we have some tea, perhaps, despite the late hour?”
    Jenkins nodded. “Of course.”
    When he had disappeared, Felicity turned back to Jane. She held up the note. “I have never seen you this way. You must-” She hesitated. “You must love him a great deal.”
    Jane started and the blood that had drained from her face came rushing back to heat her cheeks. “Who, David?” she croaked.
    Felicity pursed her lips as she grabbed Jane’s hand and forced the message into her fingers. “No. Not David. Read your note, for heaven’s sake.”
    Jane turned her back. She wasn’t sure she could take Felicity’s knowing stare on her as she read the words from Wesley. She turned the envelope over and stared at the seal. Just as she suspected, it was the Stanton “S”, though the seal was slightly different from the one Wesley usually used.
    “Well?”
    Jane shook her head at Felicity’s impatient question and opened the envelope. She removed a small sheet of exquisite and very expensive linen paper and unfolded it. The hand was small, neat and decidedly feminine. The note was not from Wesley.
    “What is it, Jane?”
    Jane read the words again. Then a third time. Her heart rate increased with each instance. Slowly, she turned back to her friend and stared at her.
    “It is from Wesley’s grandmother,” she said softly, unable to keep shock and confusion from her voice.
    “Lady Stanton?” Felicity repeated as she reached for the note Jane held out.
    “She asks… or rather demands an audience with me tomorrow morning.”
    Felicity’s eyes came up to meet Jane’s, wide and filled with interest. “What do you think she wants?”
    “I haven’t the faintest notion, but I believe it’s safe to guess that her ladyship wishes to discuss my relationship with her grandson.” Jane turned to look out the window at the darkened alley behind the parlor. Anxiety arced through her like a lightening bolt. “And I have no idea what I shall say to her.”
     

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    “Bloody hell!”
    Wesley rubbed his throbbing temples as he read and re-read the missive his butler had placed beside his morning paper. The words swam before his eyes. It was far too early for this.
    The servant looked at him with impassive eyes. “Is there something amiss, my lord?” he asked in that bored tone butlers of the Empire probably went to some special school to perfect.
    “No,” Wesley groaned, his tone belying his answer. His head was pounding from too much drink. And the joke of it was that getting himself properly smashed the night before hadn’t even done the one blasted thing needed more than anything else.
    It hadn’t made him forget the feel of Jane’s slender arms as they came around his neck. It hadn’t erased the press of her full lips or her soft sigh of surrender on the terrace. It sure as hell hadn’t made him forget the pointed words Felicity Ellis had spoken. How far was he willing to go to have Jane?
    Far enough to risk his heart? To risk telling her the truth now instead of waiting until he was sure she was over David? To risk telling her that he had loved her for as long as he could remember and that he didn’t want to pretend anything anymore. That he wanted everything they had done to trick the ton to be a reality?
    “Is there anything I can do to assist you, Lord Stanton?” Greenville asked.
    Wesley started. In the midst of his musings over Jane, he’d all but forgotten the