Free Deceived by Jess Michaels

“It sometimes seems I don’t.”
    Gabriel caught his arm and shook it. “Please, just keep working on Josie, will you? For me? For Claire?”
    Evan let out a long sigh. He couldn’t deny his family. So he nodded. “All right. I’ll keep working on her.”
    His brother smiled and the look of relief on his face moved Evan. But it also made him think of Josie. Of all the damage he could do to her, to them both, if he couldn’t walk the very fragile line between her desire and her hate.
     
     

Chapter Six

     
     
    Josie shifted the basket on her arm and waved to her maid as Nell exited Martin’s general store with a bottle in her hand.
    “Here it is, miss! The very last one!”
    “Oh, thank you, Nell. I’m sorry, I would have gone and collected it myself, but you know how Mrs. Swanson can talk the ear off a goat. I could not escape her easily.”
    Nell laughed. “That she can, but it weren’t no trouble. Mr. Martin said he’d put the cordial on your account.”
    Nell let out a huge sneeze at the end of her statement and shook her head with a look of pursed-lipped frustration.
    “Bless you! And Mrs. Howard will love it, I know,” Josie said as she placed the bottle carefully in her already full basket. There was bread and other pastry in there, seeds from their very own garden, a salve, several pairs of socks, a salami and now the bottle of cordial, along with a few other sundries.
    “Please tell me you two are going on the oddest picnic in the history of Britain.”
    Josie froze in her place as the all-too-familiar voice washed over her. She didn’t want to look. She couldn’t look. She ought not look.
    And yet…she still turned and faced Evan. She had not seen him in nearly three days, not since their heated, odd, wonderful encounter in the billiard room. It had been all she thought about since, but she managed to remain calm as she said, “Good afternoon, my lord.”
    He arched a brow at her formality, but continued to grin at her. “Good afternoon, Josie and…”
    “Nell, my lord,” her maid said with a glance between Josie and Evan. She stifled yet another sneeze.
    Josie gritted her teeth. Some girls told tales to their maids about gentlemen. But as much as she liked Nell, she hadn’t said a peep about what had happened between Evan and her.
    “And Nell,” Evan said with an acknowledging nod. “Now, do tell me, you two have a very mixed basket there. What are you doing?”
    Josie wished she could fold her arms, but with the basket in the way, it was impossible. So she made her tone very frosty as she said, “Well, if you must know, Nell and I are about to make the rounds of those who live and work on my late father’s lands.”
    Evan’s smile fell a little, replaced by an expression of surprise. “You are?”
    “Yes. I do it every time I come here for any extended period,” she explained. “My mother usually goes with me, but today she is actually with your mother. So Nell is going to accompany me.”
    The maid responded with another sneeze.
    “Gracious, are you all right?” Evan asked, his focused attention suddenly shifting to the maid.
    Nell just stared up at him, smiling slightly. Josie rolled her eyes. Trust Nell to be taken in by a handsome face. A very handsome face with the most kissable dimple.
    Damn, now she was doing it.
    “The horse chestnut tree seems to make Nell sneeze,” Josie explained. “In London we don’t have any, but here we are in the country.”
    “I’m perfectly fine otherwise,” Nell said, then let out a sneeze that belied her statement. “Thank you for inquiring, my lord.”
    Evan shook his head. “If you are going out to see the tenants, you’re going to be strolling right through copses of the trees. You will explode.”
    “I have a handkerchief,” Nell offered weakly.
    Evan folded his arms. “It will not do. No, Nell, you will march back home right away and have a good hot tea.”
    Josie stepped forward. “Now wait just a moment, you have no