The Unlikely Lady(34)

Though one couldn’t be too careful. “Who is it?” she called, smoothing down her hair.

“Lucy,” came her friend’s voice.

“And Cass.”

Jane breathed a sigh of relief. Grabbing her spectacles from the bedside table and placing them upon her nose, she hurried to the door. She paused along the way to stare at her reflection in the looking glass. Her white linen dressing gown was perfectly pressed. Her hair was in place. Her cheeks had no rosy glow. She looked normal. Not guilty at all.

It would be best if she could admit what happened to her friends, and she would have. If it had been anyone other than Upton. Ugh. It was a complete disaster. She didn’t even like Upton. How in the world had this happened?

She briefly considered telling Lucy and Cass the story, substituting an unknown gentleman—she could pretend that she didn’t know who he was either. But she quickly discarded that thought during the journey to the door. She knew Lucy and Cass. If her friends learned that she’d engaged in such an escapade with a gentleman at the house party—any gentleman—they wouldn’t rest until they discovered his identity. Not to mention they’d ask her a barrage of questions about what he looked like and what he’d been wearing, and it would all be discovered soon enough. There were only about two dozen gentlemen at the house party. Two dozen, and the one she happened to share a passionate interlude with had to be Upton. She shook her head.

“Are you in there, Janie?” came Lucy’s impatient voice.

“Coming,” Jane replied in the most normal, guiltless tone she could muster. She had to pretend that nothing unusual had happened last night. If Lucy and Cass wanted to know where she’d gone off to, she’d simply tell them she’d been in the library reading. She would apologize to Cass for being unsociable. Better to be thought unsociable than to be discovered being too sociable with the wrong person.

Jane pulled open the door and smiled widely at her friends. “To what do I owe the pleasure so early in the morning?”

Lucy and Cass entered stealthily as if they were sizing up the situation, much like Mrs. Cat when she’d first come to breakfast.

“We’re sorry if we woke you, Jane,” Cass said. “I know how much you like to stay up late reading.”

Jane shook her head. “It’s quite all right. I was awake.”

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. “Where did you go off to last night, Janie?”

Jane’s palms began to sweat. She pressed them against the front of her dressing gown. Did they know something? No. They couldn’t know anything. She and Upton had been completely alone. She was certain of it. They hadn’t been the ones who’d closed the door. She’d decided that had all been a figment of her guilty imagination. Besides, Lord knew, if Lucy had been the one to discover them, she wouldn’t have silently shut the door and backed away. She would have burst in and demanded an explanation. No. Lucy didn’t know, but her question had been quite direct. Guilt was making Jane read too much into it.

“I was—erm, in the library, reading,” she offered.

“Reading? In the library?” Lucy continued, walking in a slow circle around her as if she were a barrister examining a witness.

Cass remained silent but her bright eyes were trained on Jane’s face and she looked worried.

“Yes.” Jane didn’t meet Lucy’s gaze. Lucy was clever. She might discern that Jane was lying with one glance. “The music from the masquerade ball was a bit too loud for me. I’m sorry, Cass. I tried to stay. I truly did.”

Cass ignored that last bit. “How many teacakes did you eat last evening?”

Jane blinked. She wrapped her dressing gown more tightly around her waist. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Cass managed a half-shrug. “I usually see you occupied with a plate of teacakes and I didn’t see that last night.”

Jane snorted. “What are you accusing me of, Cass? Not being hungry enough?”

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest again and paced across the carpet. The look on her face was entirely suspicious. Oh, lovely. They suspected something. Upton hadn’t mentioned anything, had he? No. He hadn’t known who she was. How many times must she remind herself of that?

“So, you ate no teacakes and you went to the library where you spent the rest of the evening reading?” Arms still crossed, Lucy tapped her fingers along her opposite elbows.

“I didn’t say I ate no teacakes,” Jane replied, pushing up her chin. “I adore teacakes. I ate three before I went to the library.”

“The library?” Lucy looked down her nose at Jane.