Can't Say No by Emma Wildes

Author:Emma Wildes [Wildes, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Torrid Books
Published: 2018-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

* * * *

Jenna watched over the table and a nagging suspicion made her only pick at the fish course rather than actually eat anything.

She knew her daughter, so it wasn’t simply intuition to come to the conclusion that something had happened. Helen was overly vivacious and from time to time, if there was a lull in the conversation, she smiled as if thinking about something that pleased her very much.

Or someone.

The very nature of that secret smile is what gave Jenna pause. Once she too, had felt the giddy joy of infatuation, though her circumstances were certainly much different for she hadn’t been anywhere near London or faced the strictures of proper society. In her experience, that glow was reserved for one thing alone, she thought uneasily, eyeing her daughter’s face as she laughed at something one of her younger brothers said. Ever since Jonathan had insisted she accept Frederick Westerland’s marriage offer Helen had been subdued and abstracted. This evening she was positively radiant.

Why?

If there was any certainty, it was that the Duke of Resdale was an unlikely source.

After the meal was over, Jonathan retired to his study and a glass of port, and the two boys, Anthony and Charles, were shepherded on up to bed by their governess. Jenna suggested she and Helen take a walk in the garden. It was a clear evening, not overly cool, and the air smelled like moist soil, chimney fires, and hung with the fragrance of dying roses.

Subtlety seemed the best place to start so Jenna asked with as little inflection as possible, “How was the dressmakers this afternoon?”

Helen, dressed in a rose silk gown, with her golden hair caught very simply at her nape, glanced very quickly away. “Going to the dressmakers is always the same, isn’t it? Not my favorite chore to be treated like a mannequin and occasionally stuck with pins by accident, you know that, Mother.”

“That’s why I was so surprised you arranged a trip yourself. I usually have to practically drag you.” Jenna caught the evasiveness of the reply easily enough.

Her daughter’s slender shoulders lifted in a noncommittal shrug that could mean anything. Around them insects toned quietly from the trees and now and then a bird would trill an evening song.

There was no mistaking the purpose of her averted face, for Helen had never been an adept liar.

The hell with subtlety, Jenna thought in resignation. She needed to know what was going on. “Did you actually go to the dressmakers?”

“No.” The admission was made with barely a pause and Helen gave a short laugh and shook her head. Several loose golden tendrils of hair brushed her neck. “You know, it is very uncomfortable you can read my mind, Mother.”

“Let’s just say you have an expressive face and I know you very well.” She indicated a small stone bench up ahead near a bank of rhododendron. “Let’s sit down. It is private here and you know you can always freely speak to me.”

“You won’t want to hear this.

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