Page 3 of The Lord Next Door I Wished For
His father had recently passed, however, leaving Luke the new marquess. And, according to Jocelyn and every other woman in society,theman to marry this Season.
But now Jocelyn had gone and fallen in love with her brother’s best friend and no longer had her sights set on Luke. Which was disappointing. It would have been great fun if Jocelyn had become mistress of the neighboring estate.
But then again…who knew when Jane’s parents would actually allow her to return to her home? Perhaps it would never be her home ever again.
The thought made her throat tight and her eyes sting.
She missed her home. Not her parents, necessarily. But she missed her childhood bedroom, and the servants she’d known since birth, and most of all she missed the stable full of horses she adored.
Her heart ached for long afternoons spent riding out in the meadows, exploring the woods beyond, and racing over creeks and hedges as wind and laughter whipped around her.
That was the only time she truly felt free. When the weight of expectations disappeared. When her flaws and mishaps faded away, and her parents’ hopes for her future vanished, it was just Jane and her mare and the wind in her hair.
Her sigh was drowned out by the loud quartet playing nearby and the raucous laughter from her other side. Even here on the edges of the masquerade, the crowd was overwhelming. An evermoving sea of people.
Her gaze caught on a group of tall gentlemen standing near the glass doors leading to the veranda. Several of the men did not wear masks and they looked to be around the right age. And there…
His back was to her but his hair was the right shade. It was golden in the candlelight, and when he and his friends moved toward a door, she felt her feet following on instinct.
Was that him?
There was only one way to find out.
Jane dove back into the crowd again, holding her breath to squeeze past laughing men and ducking to avoid the waving of fans from the ladies.
At times like this, her small size was useful. She held her breath and squeezed between couples, slipping wordlessly through clusters of friends…
Though she would have loved to be able to see over the crowd to make sure she was still heading in the right direction.
She forged through the crowd on little more than hope and instinct.
The color of that man’s hair had been a true match to what she remembered. That was something. Not much, but something.
And if it wasn’t him? If he wasn’t here at all tonight?
Well, then she’d be no worse off than before she started. Unless, of course, she got caught sneaking back into the townhome tonight.
But perhaps Madame Bellafonte could be persuaded not to tell her parents…
And it would be worth it, she told herself as panic began to creep in and the crowd seemed to grow ever thicker around her.
But a voice in the back of her mind differed.Mistake,it said.This was a mistake.
Hands grazed her back, her waist. A stranger suddenly blocked her path and for a moment she couldn’t find a way around him. Panic surged.
She was trapped. Coming here was a mistake. Even her cousins, Delilah and Daffodil, and her friends, Isabelle and Jocelyn, would surely scold her if they learned of this.
She swallowed hard at the thought of her beloved friends she missed so much. Then she pushed onward until she felt a blessed breeze coming from the doors ahead. She forgot all about her quest to find a long-lost friend and headed instead for the sweet relief of the outdoors.
With one last push through a thick crowd of inebriated men, she tumbled out into the dark of night and…
“Oof!”
And straight into a brick wall.
Or…no. Her head spun as she staggered back from the hard surface, and then two hands caught her arms.
Instinctively she went to jerk away, but the hands steadied her and then dropped. “Easy, love,” a low voice murmured.
