Page 19 of The Lady Was Lying (Greydon #3)

Chapter Eight

T he next morning, James had been up for less than an hour when his mother’s voice invaded his study. “Do you think it’s a good idea to align yourself so closely with the Earl of Greydon?”

He lifted his head to find her standing in the doorway with a scandal sheet clutched tightly in her fist.

“By socializing?” he asked.

“ Socializing ?” she repeated incredulously.

Rubbing his bleary eyes, he replied, “I have no idea what you’re suggesting. I attended a ball at the man’s house, and then we went to the theatre together one time.”

“That is not all you’ve done.” Frantically waving the paper in the air, she took a handful of steps into the room. “Are you or are you not courting his sister?”

Still off balance from his most recent encounter with Belinda, he shook his head.

“Not.” He’d known as soon as he saw her in his carriage for the second time that if she kept approaching him, she would be discovered, but he hadn’t expected anyone to write about her escapades this quickly, especially since they’d never been in public together.

Had his coachman betrayed him?

Or had it been the lady herself?

“I hardly know Lady Belinda,” he added.

“Lady Belinda?” His mother’s nose wrinkled. “How many sisters does Greydon have?”

“Three,” he replied, not sure why the number mattered but unwilling to ask for clarification. The sooner the conversation was over, the sooner he’d be able to figure out what he needed to do to mitigate any damage to Belinda’s reputation caused by her late-night excursions.

“None of them are married?” his mother asked.

“The youngest is not even out.”

“Hmm. Well, there is no mention of Lady Belinda here, only Lady J.”

Of course.

He was an idiot.

As far as the public knew, he hadn’t even met Belinda, while he’d spent the entire evening in close proximity to her sister. The scandal sheets reporting on him and Jane made far more sense. “I’m not courting Lady Jane.”

“That isn’t what the paper says,” his mother replied, slapping the freshly ironed sheet onto his desk and pointing to an absolutely horrendous rendering of him leering at a young woman who was clearly meant to be Jane.

In the image, he appeared comically happy, while she looked undeniably smug.

The insinuation was rather damning, even if it wasn’t at all accurate.

“This paper is misinformed.”

“Is it?” His mother’s voice rose as she began reading the words that accompanied the image.

“‘Newly arrived duke already off the market. Lady J desperate to be a duchess. An intimate tête-à-tête between the season’s most celebrated beauty and its most eligible bachelor suggests an imminent betrothal.’” She paused, dropping her voice to a mere whisper.

“‘The Earl of G breathes a sigh of relief while Dowager Countess remains elusive.’”

“It wasn’t an intimate evening,” he countered. “The box was actually quite crowded.”

Danford and his wife Clarissa had joined Greydon, Emmeline, Jane, Edward, and Violet. He’d been surrounded by three couples and… one eligible lady .

Bloody hell.

He hadn’t considered that they’d been the only two unmarried people in the box. If Belinda had joined them, there would be much less reason for speculation. Two eligible ladies were not nearly as suspicious as one.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t joined them.

“It isn’t how it appears,” he argued.

Sinking into one of the chairs that flanked his desk, his mother raised her brow. “You’re rather missing the point.”

“I know, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not courting Lady Jane”—Belinda’s sister was perfectly nice but there was no spark between them—“and I don’t intend to. I’ll try to be more circumspect in the future, but I swear that I have not shown her undue attention thus far.”

“You’re spending too much time with her for it to appear innocent,” his mother challenged.

“You’ve been socializing with your sister and her family nearly every day.

What are the scandal rags supposed to think?

” She didn’t wait for a response. “If you keep seeking the countess’s company, the stories about you and Lady Jane are only going to get worse.

” Her hand shot into the air, halting him from speaking.

“And don’t tell me they aren’t true again. The truth hardly matters.”

“I’m not giving up my siblings because of a little gossip,” he stated unequivocally.

“I will be careful in my interactions with Lady Jane but ignoring her entirely would be worse than occasionally conversing with her. I don’t want to suggest there is something wrong with her now that we’ve been publicly linked.

” He sighed. “You’ve warned me countless times since I decided to come to London that appearances are everything, and thanks to this ridiculous paper, I’ll need to be quite careful in how I interact with her going forward.

” Everyone would be watching him even more closely now.

It was too bad he’d danced with Jane at her debut.

Two encounters in one week did give the illusion that he was interested.

“I’ll do my best to keep a respectable distance between us when we next meet. ”

“Hmm,” she replied. “I’m not certain that will help. Are you sure you don’t want to consider courting Lady Jane? It seems as if she’s quite eligible, and marrying her would solve more than a few of your problems.” She made a humming sound. “Is she truly as beautiful as they report?”

“She is.” It would be useless to deny. Even if he didn’t find her quite as attractive as Belinda, the entire family was unfairly good-looking.

“But you do not consider her worthy of becoming your duchess?”

His eyes narrowed.

When his mother had stormed into the study, he’d been nearly sure she was against a match between himself and anyone related to Greydon. Now it seemed as if she preferred one. It was difficult to say which would be worse—her favor or her opposition.

“It isn’t that simple,” he told her. “I consider every young lady I meet a potential duchess.”

His mother snorted in a most unladylike fashion.

“Mother,” he chastised.

“You do not consider every lady a potential duchess. As far as I can tell, you haven’t shown a preference for any woman since we arrived.

” She reached for the scandal sheet, placing it in her lap.

“If you found someone you were serious about, the papers would have nothing to speculate about, and these stories about you would disappear. It would behoove you to select a wife. If you did, we could return home sooner rather than later.”

“I haven’t met anyone who intrigues me.” Anyone except for a certain lady who showed no interest in him unless she was trying to get him to kiss her, threatening to seduce him, or apologizing for threatening to seduce him.

“I want to meet Lady Jane. Decide for myself whether she’d be a suitable match.”

He groaned. “I am not courting Lady Jane.”

“But perhaps you should be.” Humming softly, she rose to her feet. “Shall we invite her to dine here?”

“Absolutely not.”

He could not court Belinda’s sister if he wanted to court her .

* * *

Belinda was determined to help her sister become a duchess, despite the fact that the urge to kiss James had not waned.

She’d hoped that, once she had apologized and promised to desist badgering him, it would diminish, but she had not been that lucky.

Thoughts of him and his lips had plagued her dreams, and she was more than a little irritable by the time morning arrived.

Instead of wallowing in her feelings, she barged into Jane’s bedchamber and found her sister awake and seated on her bed with a breakfast tray on her lap.

“You are still interested in the duke?” she asked.

Jane gently placed her chocolate on the tray and then nodded slowly.

“Are you sure?” Belinda demanded, bewildered by her sister’s lack of enthusiasm. She’d expected more than a placid agreement. Was it because she’d interrupted before Jane could properly fortify herself? Should she wait until after Jane cleared the tray?

“No. I mean, yes. Umm…it’s just…why are you asking?”

“You requested my help, and after much contemplation, I have reached the same conclusion that you have.”

“Which is?”

“The duke is your ideal match.”

“He is?” Jane replied, her eyes widening.

Belinda’s hands found her hips. “Why do you seem surprised? I thought we were in agreement on this.”

“I’m not surprised. And we are in agreement,” Jane claimed, sounding far less than sure.

Belinda stomped her foot. She did not have the energy to deal with her sister’s sudden flakiness. “Either you are interested, or you are not.”

“I’m interested,” Jane responded with the same level of excitement as before, which is to say very little.

“However…” she prodded. She wanted to believe her sister, but she couldn’t help feeling as if there was something Jane wasn’t telling her.

“However…nothing.” Jane waved her hand in the air. “What has gotten into you? Why do you suddenly care so much whom I’m interested in?” She hesitated and then said in a rush, “I thought you didn’t like the duke.”

“My feelings about him are irrelevant.” Very irrelevant .

“I might have judged him before I truly considered whether his qualities made him a worthy candidate for marriage. Now that I have thought about it further, I have concluded that you should encourage him as much as possible.” Her nose wrinkled.

The next part was going to be painful. “I will accompany you on as many outings as I can stomach in order to help facilitate your courtship of him.”

“I’m not courting him ,” Jane replied, almost upending the tray across her lap.

“Perhaps not formally, but if you are truly interested, you need to pursue him as much as he is pursuing you.”

With uncharacteristic shyness, Jane turned her attention to the ground. “He hasn’t given me any indication that he’s truly interested. Last night, he was polite, but nothing more.”