Free The Seduction of an English Scoundrel by Jillian Hunter Page A

tongue.”
    Miranda slid to her feet and embraced Jane in a fervent hug. “Caroline told me everything,” she said in an undertone. “I am bursting with admiration. And terror,” she added as an afterthought. “Oh, Jane, what have you done?”
    â€œSo much for keeping a secret,” Jane said, dragging both sisters down the steps into the sun. “I forbid you to tell anyone else.”
    â€œNot another soul,” the two of them vowed somberly.
    â€œAnd I hope you did not discuss me in front of Madame Dumas. She already thinks I’m a lost cause because I preferred studying Italian over French in protest for all the friends who’ve died in the war.”
    Caroline coaxed a butterfly away from her heavy mahogany-gold hair. “I heard Dumas telling Mrs. Bee you might have to marry a Frenchman, as it’s unlikely any English aristocrat will have you.”
    Before Jane could react to that remark, Lady Belshire interrupted them, breathless from hurrying across the garden.
    â€œHe’s here!” With uncharacteristic aggression she wrested Jane away from her sisters. “And you’re not even properly dressed.”
    â€œProperly . . . for what?” Jane glanced around the garden in confusion. Aside from the two gardeners pruning the poplars, there was not a male in sight, and certainly no reason for her mother to go all fluttery. Which gave her another one of those dreadful feelings of doom.
    â€œWho is here, Mama?”
    â€œSedgecroft. Who else?” Lady Belshire put her hand to her heart at her daughter’s stricken expression. “Oh, sweeting, you thought I meant Nigel, didn’t you? How careless of me. How utterly stupid. Of course you are still hoping the scapegrace will appear with some perfectly understandable explanation for his appalling cruelty.”
    Jane stared at her mother, controlling a childish urge to yank off her beribboned straw bonnet and stomp it into the ground. “You know Sedgecroft’s reputation, Mama. Aren’t you the least bit concerned that he will taint me?”
    Lady Belshire paused to pluck a weed from between the flagstones. “Don’t be silly. All of my daughters are above temptation. Your brother is another thing entirely. I tried to tell you a few moments ago that Sedgecroft could not call this morning because he was detained on a family matter. He said he would be here this afternoon.”
    â€œThis afternoon?”
    â€œ
Now,
Jane,” her mother said in exasperation. “That was his carriage in the street.”
    â€œWhat carriage?”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter now,” her mother whispered urgently, turning Jane by the shoulders toward the house. “He’s
here,
and, oh, look at the dress you’re wearing.”
    Jane stared at the huge figure striding across the lawn, sunlight illuminating his hard-planed face. The expensive cut of his dark blue morning coat and buff breeches enhanced his elegant masculinity. Not that he needed enhancement in that respect. He might have been stark naked and he would still—oh,
no.
Not that image again. Not when she had to look him in the face.
    He slowed and sent her a sensual smile that set off tiny shocks of panic through her system. All that virility—in broad daylight! It took a woman by storm. After she began to recover, her first reaction was to cower behind the boxwood hedge. Being well bred, however, she bravely stood her ground as he resumed his confident stride.
    â€œThere you are,” he said warmly, taking her hands without the slightest hesitation. “I was afraid you had gone into hiding. We couldn’t have that.”
    That
was precisely what she had hoped to do.
    Her fingertips began to tingle under the pressure of his insistent grasp. She made several subtle attempts to tug away. He took no notice. She glanced around in embarrassment at her mother and sisters, who were unconvincingly pretending