Her mother answered. “To see you, of course. Really, Jane. He made his intentions abundantly clear last night.”
Jane stood as she heard his footsteps growing closer.
“I can’t say I understand it,” her mother said. “But his grandfather must be insisting upon this connection to our family. What an honor!”
Jane couldn’t bring herself to smile. Or answer. Or do much of anything at all, really, as she watched Luke enter and make all the idle pleasantries with her far-too ingratiating mother.
“Would it be all right if I speak to Jane in private?” he eventually asked.
Her mother glanced over, blinking over as if surprised to find Jane still standing there where she’d left her.
“Why yes!” Her mother’s enthusiasm could not be contained. “I’ll just be in the other room. With the door open, of course.”
She cast Jane a triumphant look that made Jane’s heart feel too heavy and her stomach began to turn.
This couldn’t really be happening. Could it? He’d been joking, surely.
If their last two interactions were anything to go by, Luke didn’t even consider her a friend let alone a viable potential wife. Why, he’d told her specifically to stay away, so then why—
“Jane.” His low voice had her blinking rapidly as she realized with a jolt that her mother had fled and she was now alone with Luke.
Her heart began to race as he drew closer. When he was so close she could reach out and touch him, he stopped and regarded her with a wince. “I do wish you wouldn’t look at me like that?”
“Like what?” she whispered.
“Like I’m a wolf that’s about to devour you.”
She stared in shock but the vivid image that filled her mind was so ludicrous she let out a muffled sort of laugh.
He smiled, and for the first time since she’d encountered him at the masquerade, the smile seemed kind. Not teasing, not smug, just…kind.
“What are you about, Luke?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you?” He gestured toward the settee and she sat, with him taking the seat right beside her. “You’re a clever girl,” he said. “I thought perhaps you’d worked it out.”
She glanced over at him to see if he was teasing.
He didn’t appear to be.
She sighed. “Right at this moment I don’t feel particularly clever, so perhaps you can elaborate.”
His lips twitched with another smile. “I wasn’t teasing you about wanting to marry.”
“But…but…”
He arched a brow.
“But you weren’t even happy to see me,” she finished, inwardly wincing at how pathetic that sounded. And how telling. She might as well have told him plainly that he’d hurt her feelings.
His gaze flickered over her features, the expression in his eyes confoundingly unfamiliar and…confusing. “Jane, I didn’t recognize you.”
Ouch. She tried to stifle her flinch. “I suppose it had been a while, I shouldn’t have presumed you’d remember me.”
His brows drew together for a moment as if confused, then his expression cleared. “I didn’t say I didn’t remember you.” Laughter warmed his voice. “I said I didn’t recognize you. You’ve grown, you know.”
“No I haven’t. You said so yourself.” The retort was quick and made them both smile.
“You know what I mean. You’ve become….” His jaw worked and she watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “You’re not a gangly little girl any longer but a grown woman. A beautiful young lady, I might add.”
