Anne's Adversity by Jennifer Joy

Author:Jennifer Joy [Joy, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jennifer Joy
Published: 2015-05-27T05:00:00+00:00

She has some fire in her.

Luc put his handkerchief into his breast pocket and patted it to the rhythm of his steps up to see Miss Beatrice.

Pulling the curtain back, he frowned at her.

“Do not look at me like that,” she snapped at him.

“You behaved most atrociously toward your own niece. Still, she wants you to meet her at The Golden Lion tomorrow during the normal calling hours. I will give her this: she is one tenacious woman.”

Miss Beatrice sighed. “And you like her, I suppose. You see yourself as her knight in shining armor.” The words were sarcastic, but Luc chose to take them literally.

“Does not every woman deserve a champion for her cause? What is so wrong with me wanting to help a damsel in distress?”

“You do not know she is in any distress. She, no doubt, has led a life more comfortable to anything you have known since your childhood.”

“And yet, here she is alone with only a maid, and staying in a hotel. No, Miss Beatrice, something is wrong and I think it has everything to do with Sir Lewis.”

Miss Beatrice shrugged her shoulders. “I will soon find out if I call on her tomorrow.”

“If?” Luc gave his most disapproving look. He felt like he was scolding a child.

“All right, all right. I will go. But if she puts on airs like her mother… I have worked very hard to keep that woman out of my life and out of my brother’s. I will not allow her offspring to ruin our peace.”

“Just… Give her a chance. Please.” It was an order more than a plea, and Maman begrudgingly acquiesced.

Luc left, content with his efforts. He had done the best he could, and now it was up to Miss Beatrice and Miss de Bourgh.

Several times during the evening, he looked up into the box where Miss de Bourgh sat. At first, she was very solemn, but it was lovely to see her face light up when she smiled during the concluding clown act. Though she was clearly a full-grown woman, there was a sweet innocence in her face like a little girl expressing her merriment with no restraints. He wondered what that laugh sounded like.

Even hours after the theater closed, Luc thought about Miss de Bourgh. She was intriguing and so unlike any other woman he had met before— not within the ranks of society in the ton nor in his theater with the freer lifestyles of the actresses. How would a man go about courting a woman like Miss Anne?

Luc quickly dismissed thoughts of courtship, pushing them away as if they were a disease. He enjoyed his life the way it was, and saw no need to complicate it with the added responsibilities and burdens of marriage. He was a career man and enjoyed whatever company he pleased.

However, Miss Anne’s face loomed before him the next morning. He still felt the smoothness of her cheek on his fingertip. He had slept well, and the pleasant dreams of a very different kind of life with her left their sweet aftertaste.

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