Free Regency 09 - Redemption by Jaimey Grant

and using humor and wit—along with
a healthy dose of biting sarcasm—to cover it up. He was everything
she would have wanted in a brother and her sympathy for his
feelings of self-doubt gave her an insight into his, sometimes, odd
actions.
    But now she wondered if perhaps
she’d been very, very wrong about him. It irked her that she could
so misjudge another person, especially one in the same family as
her husband—the only other person she’d so grievously, and
erroneously, reviled.
    “ Lady Connor Northwicke, my
lady.”
    As thrilled as she always was to
see her dearest friend, Bri nevertheless wished she had informed
West that she was “not at home” to callers.
    Rising, she embraced her friend
warmly. “Verena! What brings you by? I wasn’t even aware you were
in Town yet.”
    Lady Verena, her violet eyes
twinkling with some secret merriment, explained her sudden
appearance. “Connor was lonely without me so he sent a retinue of
servants to conduct me hither. I just arrived last night and so
thought to come here immediately this morning.” Her smile
disappeared, replaced by concern. “Are you quite all right, my
dear? You look peaked.”
    Bri glanced at the door. West
lingered. “Tea, West.” He bowed, withdrawing, silent as a
ghost.
    “ Oh, Verena, I am in a
quandary.”
    Moving to the settee, the two
ladies sat, their arms linked companionably.
    “ Tell me, dear. What has you so
troubled?”
    Bri explained, her fingers
uncharacteristically pleating and un-pleating the muslin of her
skirts. When she realized what she was doing, she uttered an oath,
apologizing immediately afterward.
    “ So, now I’m at an impasse. I
can’t tell Adam because nothing on earth will stop him from
committing murder. And obviously, I can’t tell Con as he would do
much the same.”
    Verena’s horrified look spoke
volumes. “Are you sure? I mean…have you talked to
Jenny?”
    “ Dare didn’t come right out and
confess anything in his note, but I assure you, the tone was far
too intimate and apologetic to be otherwise.”
    “ Oh dear,” murmured Verena, her
shoulders slumping just a bit. “This is quite a pickle, isn’t
it?”
    Bri released a staccato laugh. “A
pickle, yes. I’m just not sure what to do about it short of gelding
Dare.”
    Verena was oddly
silent, her dark brows creased in thought. “I’m not sure you need
to do anything,”
she finally replied, slowly.
    Bri leaned forward. “What do you
mean?”
    “ Well, even if what you suspect it
true, there may not be any consequences. Perhaps Jenny will emerge
with little more than a loss of virtue.”
    “ In other words,
I hold my peace until we find out whether or not she’s enceinte .”
    “ Precisely.”
    “ And the note?”
    Verena’s gaze was frankly puzzled.
“What about it?”
    Bri shrugged. “It’s plain he
doesn’t want to marry her, or can’t. I wonder if it would be wise
to give her the note that he left. She may take it as a sign of his
good regard despite the goodbye inherent in the message. Would it
not be cruel to raise her hopes?”
    “ You feel she may move on if she
believed his heart was not constant?” Bri nodded. Verena pondered
that idea a moment. Then, “Would you have moved on had Adam done
the same?”

    “ He’s gone? Just like
that? He said nothing?”
    Realizing that her voice
rose alarmingly with each word, Lady Genevieve took a deep calming
breath. It would not do for her to lose her poise now.
    She stared at Lady Brianna
Prestwich hopefully, hardly daring to believe that Dare might have
left something for her, some word, some sign that he was returning
one day or that her feelings were reciprocated.
    Bri shook her head, patting
Jenny’s hand. “No, dear, he said nothing. He was gone before the
servants were even up this morning.”
    Jenny was sure her face was
crumpling. She knew her heart was. It folded into itself until it
resembled nothing more than a hard little stone.
    After last night, he would
just