Page 54 of A Stormy Season

Carefully, she approached the door. Sally was standing beside Jeffrey’s bed and saying in a hushed voice, “No, you can’t go downstairs, and your father can’t come up here. He’s very busy with the grown-up people. But I am here looking after you.”

Jeffrey said in a whiny voice, “No. I want to go find Papa.”

“You can’t. It’s nighttime and you’re supposed to be abed, asleep.”

Poor little lad.All the noise of the ball must have awakened him. Jane began to back away from the door, lest Jeffrey see her and start making even more of a fuss.

She took a step backward, then another, and bumped into something solid.

Spinning around, she found herself face to face with Luke.

Jane jumped in surprise. Thankfully, she stopped herself from screaming. Was she so afraid of him catching her looking in on his son? She raised her chin, wrapped her arms around herself, and looked him in the eye.

“Why were you sneaking up on me?” she whispered.

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you,” he whispered back. “I was coming to look in on Jeffrey.”

At that moment, Sally shut the door. She didn’t seem to see them standing a few feet away in the shadows of the hall.

“What were you doing lurking about outside his door?” he asked.

“Excuse me? Lurking about?” How dare he accuse her! “I was getting a bit of air and heard crying and—I don’t have to explain myself to you.” She turned and hurried away from him, back toward the stairs.

She was almost to the top step when she spun on her heel and said, “And if you don’t wish to play this charade anymore, tell me now and we can inform our guests that we have no plans to marry.”

He was still standing where she’d left him, staring back at her. She heard him let out an audible breath. “If you wish. It is your reputation that will suffer.”

Her cheeks burned at his callous dismissal of her. He was making it clear that he didn’t care at all.

Jane hurried down the stairs, unable to make a civil reply. Indeed, she wasn’t sure what to say. And telling their guests that they were no longer engaged—or that they never were—felt too humiliating.

Someone else was on the stairs below her, moving fast. Had they heard what she’d said about their charade? About informing their guests that they had no plans to marry?

As she reached the bottom, a woman moved toward the light of the ballroom. It was Sarah.

Jane’s heart sank to her toes. What should she do now? Sarah would surely tell everyone what she’d heard, and in a few minutes half the room would know that they were not actually engaged.

Perhaps Sarah hadn’t heard—Jane had been whispering. But her sinking feeling, and the way Sarah had hurried down the stairs, told Jane that she had.

She should probably go back up the stairs and tell Luke, discuss with him what they should do. But the very thought of speaking to him made her blood boil. She wished she never had to speak to him again.

Back in the ballroom, she went to stand beside Penelope, who turned to her and asked, “What is the matter?”

“Nothing is the matter. I want to dance.”

A young man was looking at her from across the room. She’d been introduced to him when they were welcoming their guests, but Jane couldn’t remember his name.

Jane smiled at him, giving him what she hoped was a long and inviting look, then turned her gaze aside. A moment later, she saw from the corner of her eye that he was coming toward her.

“Miss Gilchrist. Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?”

“Of course.” She laid her hand on his arm and walked with him to the dance floor, spying Luke just entering the room. He stopped. One glance told her he was watching her and her dance partner.

Jane smiled at her partner as brightly as she could. He turned a shade of red and smiled back.

She danced and flirted with the young man—she wished she could remember his name—and did her best to forget that she was supposed to be engaged to a man who made her so angry that for a minute she literally saw everything through a film of red.

When the dance ended, she glanced around the room but didn’t see Luke. But it was just as well. What she did see was Sarah whispering with two other ladies. They were so intent on what Sarah was saying that they did not notice Jane looking at them.