“Damn,” George spit. She’d not simply run, she’d run back to her game, back to her system for determining the most practical fit for a husband.
Just when he’d begun to think he might try for her hand himself.
Chapter 14
When Jane returned to the gardens, she was flanked by a small army of groggy suitors, rubbing their eyes and pulling at cravats. She stayed close to them, keeping George as far away as possible.
He still loitered in the gardens, despite the cold, his eyes hard, his jaw harder, watching her.
Jane strode to one of the maze’s four entrances and turned to face everyone.
The suitors blinked at her as one. She’d not told them the details yet, and curiosity sparked their eyes.
Edmund wandered out of the house, Katherine at his side. “What’s all the hubbub about? Damn me, it’s cold out here. Got a hat, Kat?” He turned to her, looked approvingly at the hat keeping her ears snug and warm, and patted her firmly on the head.
Katherine winced and hunched into her shoulders with each pat.
Jane looked at the maze behind her. Its four paths would lead to one final decision. “I know I promised everyone a comfortable game of charades, but I was walking through the gardens this morning—”
“Ahem.” George raised an eyebrow, his gaze an icicle to her heart.
“Walkingin the gardens when the maze inspired me. It strikes me that communication is key in a relationship. So, I will stand in the center of the maze and each of you will stand at one of the four entrances. Blindfolded. You will make your way to me using only my voice, offering instructions. I know every twist and turn of every path in this hedge maze. And if we communicate well with one another, you will find your way to me.”
“A little on the nose, don’t you think?” George asked.
Newburton glared at George. “A brilliant and creative test for the lot of us, I say.”
Mr. Dour strolled past Jane and into one of the entrances of the maze. “It’s an unusual design, I’ve noticed. Most mazes have a single path with no wrong turns.”
“This one has many wrong turns and four entrances instead of one,” Jane said. “My mother had it designed special. There is no other like it in England.” She’d said it represented the twists and turns and dead ends of the heart, the fact that there was more than one way into the maze of love.
Jane had never felt the truth of those words more than now. She seemed lost, unsure what direction to turn. But it didn’t matter for in every direction, there stood George.
Mr. Dour smiled. “A challenge. I like the way your mind works, Lady Jane.” He bowed. “Where’s a blindfold?”
Jane signaled to a footman who brought forth a silver platter with clean black cravats folded neatly atop it. She recognized them. Her father had worn them after her mother’s death until the day he met Christiana. She took one and handed it to Mr. Dour, then handed the remaining two to Mr. Newburton and Mr. Quillsby.
The men took the cravats and wound their way around the maze, choosing the entrances through which they would enter to find their way to her.
Jane stood just outside the entrance facing the house. She hesitated, her feet refusing to move. One foot tapped until the toe pointed outward. She looked in the direction it pointed. George. His arms crossed over his chest, his gaze hard and cutting as the gravel beneath her feet. It had been warm, so warm, earlier this morning. She slammed her eyes closed and hinged her head back to face forward, like slamming a door. On George and on the dangerous, seductive choice he offered.
She strode into the maze. It took mere minutes to find the center. Her muscles had known which turns to take since childhood. She stood near the bench at the maze’s very center then raised her voice. “Blindfolds on!” She waited. “Ready?” She’d have to do this one at a time. “Do not move unless I put an instruction with your name. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” A chorus of male voices.
“Good. Mr. Dour. Let’s begin with you. You have the longest route to travel. Walk into the maze.”
“Done.”
“Now turn left, then right. Then two lefts and a right. Stop after you’ve done that, and I’ll give you more instructions. Do you understand?”
“Perfectly.”
Good. With his precise, mathematical mind, he would not struggle a bit with the maze.
“Now,” Jane said, “Mr. Newburton.”
“I’m here, Lady Jane. And I’ve entered the maze.”
