The Perfect Lady Worthe by Rose Gordon Read Free Book Online

sharpness in her tone could cut steel.
    “No, I need to be. I was being thoughtless. Please forgive me.”
    Jane tapped her finger against her chin. “Only if you let me stay here.”
    “Why do you want to stay here so blasted badly?” he burst out.
    Jane swallowed audibly. “I don’t want to be moved.”
    “The library is downstairs.” He hoped that’d ease her fears and she’d stop fighting it.
    “It’s not that.” She closed her eyes and sighed.
    “Then what is it?”
    “Nothing. I’ll go,” she said without bothering to open her eyes.
    He blew out a breath. What a maddening lady she was! “I don’t do well with games and theatrics, Jane,” he said with a calm he didn’t feel.
    “Says the man who would have me believe my chattering teeth stole him from his slumber,” she murmured, still not bothering to look at him.
    Just then, Potter with his nightcap askew peeked his head into the room.
    Gareth ran over to him and gave him instructions to ready the library to be used as Jane’s bedchamber post haste. And yes, that did include bringing down a bed from the attics. He chanced a glance at her. While it was nice that her chair reclined he doubted that could be comfortable for an entire night.
    When he was finished with his instructions, he walked back over to where Jane lay.
    “All right, I confess I was already awake,” he said, sitting on the floor again. “But when I first walked into this room I heard the little clink, clink, clink, of your teeth hitting together.” Abandoning all good sense, Gareth reached his index finger to her face and ran his knuckle over the smooth skin of her cheek. “Now that I’ve made my confession, can you make yours about why you don’t want to leave this room?”
    “It’s unimportant.”
    “Unimportant?” he said on a chuckle. “A minute ago you were acting as if it was imperative that you stay in this room. Almost as if this is where you’d told your Prince Charming to meet you and—” He poked his bottom lip out in an overdone frown. “You’re not intending to use my drawing room as a meeting place for one of those rapscallions on that list you made earlier to haul you off, are you?”
    Jane gave a heavy sigh. “Oh dear, you’ve caught me.”
    Gareth chuckled. “All the more reason to secret you away in the library!”
    Jane’s hands flew to her face, muffling her laughter.
    Gareth fought his urge to pull her hands from her face and let that contagious sound fill the room. “Jane, I can’t help you if I don’t know what you want.”
    ~*~
    Jane’s heart slammed in her chest and her laughter ceased with an abrupt gasp.
    I can’t help you if I don’t know what you want . Want. Nobody had ever asked what she wanted. Needed? Yes. It would seem with her living as an invalid all anyone cared about were her needs, not her wants. Apparently she wasn’t supposed to have any.
    “It’s a personal matter,” she whispered, a blush heating her face and a small pang of something she couldn’t place settling in her chest.
    “Personal,” he repeated thoughtfully. He sat quiet for a moment. “Oh.” Lord Worthe scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry, I shall request that Potter wake two of the maids to help you.”
    “No!” Jane hadn’t meant to shriek; it just slipped. “I mean, please don’t do that.”
    His mouth worked, but nothing came out.
    Jane curled her fingers into the blanket. “I don’t want your staff to see…” She knew that sounded ridiculous, but that didn’t make it any less true. It was hard enough that sometimes some of Michael’s staff came in when she was vulnerable, but his staff was loyal. They’d never mock her or talk about her when she wasn’t around.
    Silence filled the air between them and a myriad of emotions played over Lord Worthe’s face. “Jane,” he rasped. “I beg you to forgive me. I’m not…” He raked his hand through his hair the same way she’d witnessed Michael do when he was frustrated. “I