Free Deceived by Jess Michaels Page B

wife, you know, who I think you would adore.”
    “I’ve heard nothing but good about her. We talked briefly at Audrey’s wedding and I did very much like her. She is not at all like Alice.”
    Both of them shuddered at once. “No,” Evan agreed. “Edward’s second wife is nothing like his first. And that is all the more to recommend Mary to us.”
    “Tell me more about the healer,” Josie said. “She is very pretty.”
    “Is she?” Evan said, his gaze darting to her in what seemed like true surprise.
    Josie shook her head. “Oh, please. It is an undeniable fact that Miss Gray is lovely. I’m surprised you haven’t found your way to cornering her in the billiard room.”
    The moment she said those words, she wished she could take them back. First, they brought up a subject she was trying to ignore, but also because she now wondered if Evan, indeed, had done that already with the pretty, auburn-haired healer. Josie couldn’t possibly be special in that regard.
    Evan turned her to with a frown. “I’m not exactly in the habit of doing that, Josie. Certainly I have no interest in doing it with Miss Gray.”
    “Oh,” Josie said, both embarrassed and secretly pleased with his answer. “Well, at any rate, I was just saying she was pretty and wondering what you thought of her.”
    “She seems a nice enough girl, though for all the time she spends in our home with our mother, she speaks mainly to Gabriel, rather than me. And she saved our mother’s life, so we must all like her.”
    “Was it truly so dire?” Josie whispered, trying to picture her own life without her mother. She would really have no one at that point, since she wasn’t close to her siblings. Oh, one of them would take her in, she supposed. But it wouldn’t be out of love, but duty.
    “Very,” Evan said, all humor gone from his voice. “When we first arrived from London, I think she was on death’s door. It was…horrifying.”
    Josie reached out and covered his hand with hers. His gaze slipped down to her hand before he looked at her face, and she caught her breath. He wanted to kiss her. She recognized it now, that heavy-lidded expression.
    Worse, she wanted him to do it.
    But he didn’t. Instead, he moved to stare straight ahead, his jaw set, and said, “But we’ve talked about my family more than enough. How is yours?”
    Josie pulled her hand back to her lap. It seemed for all his smiles and teases that perhaps Evan regretted what had happened between them. She pushed aside her hurt at that fact.
    “Oh, you know. My brother is so busy running everything that he hardly ever calls on us. My sisters are married, with their children and their charities. I suppose they’re all well enough.”
    “You were never close to them,” Evan said, a statement not a question.
    She shook her head. “No. But they were all so much older. Lydia is the youngest after me, and she is fifteen years older than I am. What could we possibly have in common? I was a surprise youngest child who only served to split the family inheritance further. Why would they want to be close to me?”
    Evan frowned. “When Edward was estranged from our family after his first wife’s death, it was terrible. I suppose I have a hard time picturing not being a friend to my siblings.”
    “But your family is wonderful,” Josie explained, smiling as she thought of the days she had spent in their company. “Aside from you, I loved spending time with all of them.”
    He laughed, and she blushed as she realized what she’d just said to him.
    “I didn’t mean—” she began.
    “I know what you meant,” he reassured her. “You had a history with me that made it hard to want to be my friend, but with Edward or Gabriel or Audrey or especially Claire, you were welcomed.”
    She nodded. “Yes. I felt a part of that circle when I truly needed to be a part of something.”
    “Mostly thanks to Claire I would wager since we boys were rather busy being hellions and Audrey