Page 69 of The Lady Was Lying
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that James was desperate for contact. The longer Belinda avoided him, the longer she had to convince herself that the budding emotions between them were false.
She seemed like just the sort to doubt her feelings—and his—so he wanted to enact his plan sooner rather than later. In order to succeed, he needed help from someone inside her house.
Hence, the quandary.
“Lady Jane,” James whisper-yelled from his hiding spot behind a large tree in the park. He hadn’t spotted Belinda, and he didn’t think she was nearby, but he didn’t want to inadvertently catch her attention. Not while he was scheming to win her heart.
Jane turned her head from side to side, but did not look toward the trees at her rear.
“Behind you. In the trees,” he called, slightly louder.
She pivoted, a frown on her face as she slowly walked toward the tree he was using as cover. The frown disappeared as soon as she saw him. “Your Grace.”
“Is Belinda with you?” he asked, staying well out of sight until he had an answer.
“No. She has a headache.”
Immediately concerned and fearing he’d been misled about the state of her health, he popped out from behind the tree. “Belinda is ill?”
Jane shook her head. “She is fine. Apparently, I was being so irritating earlier this morning that she developed a headache and had to retire to her room for a respite.”
He forced himself to chuckle. “I’m glad she’s well.”
But not that she was hiding away. His plan required Belinda to venture out of her brother’s house and would have a much better chance of succeeding if she were in a favorable state of mind. “Were you irritating her intentionally or unintentionally?”
“A little of both. She’s been even grumpier than normal and has refused to leave the house for over a week. I was trying to spur a reaction.” She grimaced. “Sorry to say I only succeeded at angering her and pushing her further away.”
It was his turn to grimace.
He was going to have to be blunt and honest.
Looking Jane straight in the eye, he told her the unvarnished truth. “I want to marry your sister, and I need your help. I have an idea, but I can’t manage it on my own.”
“Marry her.” Jane’s lips curved upward, and her eyes glittered. “I knew it. Tell me what I can do.”
Belinda was listlessly walking next to Jane when a carriage careened to a stop in front of them. The door flew open and before she could react, James leapt out, plucked her straight off the ground, swept her inside, and deposited her on the forward-facing bench.
It was the middle of the day, people were nearby, and she could have attempted to resist or create a scene, but she was too astonished to do anything other than gape as he yanked the door closed and secured it.
“You…you…” she sputtered rather incoherently.
“I’m sorry,” he responded, adjusting the curtain that covered the window. “Too dramatic?”
Was it?
Wallowing in melancholy had never been good for her disposition.
It made her surly.
For days, she’d been struggling to regain her equilibrium, and she had required something to jostle her back into herself. Being tossed into his carriage had certainly managed to break through her malaise.
She definitely wasn’t surly any longer.
Instead, she was…reluctantly happy to see him.
When she didn’t respond to his question, he tried apologizing again. “Sorry.”
“Apology not accepted.” No matter how intrigued she was, she refused to forgive him until he explained. “What have you done?”
