Free The Betting Season (A Regency Season Book) by Jerrica Knight-Catania, Catherine Gayle, Ava Stone, Jane Charles Page A

possibility? “But I can’t stay,” she muttered so softly, she barely heard herself.
    “ You must stay,” Lady Heathfield insisted. “You simply must.”
    “ And you must hold your head high,” Aunt Eunice added. “You mustn’t give the wagging tongues something to wag about.”
    Lady Heathfield smiled at Aunt Eunice. “I couldn’t agree more.”
    Pippa couldn’t even find words to reply. All of her plans to salvage what was left of her heart had just evaporated into thin air.
    “ Berkswell has an upstanding name.” The lady squeezed Pippa’s hand. “You have that going for you. And I’ll stand with you.”
    What good would that do Pippa? “But your husband is one of Jas… I mean, I know your husband is one of St. Austell’s friends.”
    “ True.” Lady Heathfield sighed. “But no matter how important Heath thinks he is, or how much I love him for that matter, my grandpapa’s name holds more esteem within society than nearly anyone’s. No one crosses the Duke of Danby.”
    “ Indeed,” Aunt Eunice agreed.
    Danby ? Pippa remembered the name from Georgie’s Debrett’s. “One of the oldest dukedoms in the realm.”
    Lady Heathfield smiled. “And one of the most powerful too. I lived under his roof most of my life. Being his granddaughter should give me some privileges, like tossing my support behind a deserving young lady should the need arise.”
    Pippa suddenly wished she hadn’t been quite so petulant when the viscountess had first arrived. Who knew the lady would be her ally in all of this mess, offering respectability Pippa couldn’t find anywhere else? “You are very kind, and after the scene I must have made at your ball.”
    “ Nothing to be sorry for. You made my ball the event of the Season.” The viscountess shrugged. “Anyway, I was thinking perhaps we should ride in the Danby landau through the park, this afternoon? See and be seen.”
    Pippa gulped. Was she ready to see all of the ton ? “Now?” she squeaked.
    “ As luck would have it, I happen to have traveled here today in that very conveyance.”

    Jason was not about to be put off by Berkswell’s uppity butler one more moment. Two times! Two times today, the infernal man had sent Jason packing. What rotten luck. Just as soon as he realized Heath had been right, just as soon as he realized there was something about Pippa Casemore that called to him, just as soon as he realized he’d like to wake up beside her the rest of his mornings, just as soon as everything had become clear, he’d been barred entrance to Pippa’s home.
    Pippa, his enchanting innocent. The girl whose face he’d imagined as he’d fallen asleep the night before. The girl he had to make his and his alone.
    How was he to propose? How was he to confess his sins and beg for forgiveness if that damned butler wouldn’t let him pass?
    Well, not this time. Jason was going to march straight into Berkswell House and he wasn’t about to be denied. He stalked up the steps and before he could knock, the door opened and that imperious servant glared at him.
    “ Lady Philippa isn’t receiving callers today, my lord.”
    “ She’ll see me,” Jason growled, pushing his way past the butler and into Berkswell’s entryway. “Where is she?”
    The servant clamped his mouth shut, and Jason had the overwhelming urge to permanently close it for him.
    Very well, he’d find her without the blasted man’s help. “Pippa!” he called. “Pippa, come here please!”
    “ Sir!” the butler hissed. “Lady Philippa is—”
    “ What,” began Pippa’s ancient aunt from the threshold of one of the parlors, “is all this commotion about?”
    “ The gentleman barged in here—” the butler started.
    But Jason didn’t have the patience for the servant to tell his tale. He needed to see Pippa now, this instant. He needed to be sure that what he’d felt wasn’t an aberration. He needed to know that his heart beat for her alone. He rushed towards the old maid. “I