Once an Innocent by Elizabeth Boyce

Author:Elizabeth Boyce [Boyce, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Regency
ISBN: 9781440573491
Google: RIWeAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2014-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

This was the first morning Jordan had not ridden out before dawn with the patrol since his return to Lintern Abbey. Sitting at the breakfast table, while guests slowly trickled in, left him feeling more tightly leashed than ever. He should be out there doing something, by Jove, not sipping coffee. However, there had been a consensus among the men that Jordan was a tad high strung and ought to take a day off from wielding weaponry in the vicinity of other human beings.

By luncheon yesterday, news of the hunting accident had spread through the party, like flame on tinder. He’d spent the rest of the day checking in on Lord Gray, consulting with the village surgeon, and withstanding withering glares from Lady Gray.

Fortunately, the shot had all been retrieved, and there was every expectation that Lord Gray would heal fully and quickly. Unfortunately, the surgeon insisted the young man remain abed, on his stomach, until the wounds healed over. Jordan was now a man short — a hefty loss when he’d only had twelve to begin.

Compounding his problems was Naomi Lockwood. Who else? he thought, frowning into his coffee cup. In all the years he had known her, the youngest Lockwood had never struck him as a nuisance. Yet that assessment had been made before he’d brought her to his home, where she could nose into things she ought not.

He shouldn’t have been surprised to find her outside of Enrique’s apartment yesterday morning. Naomi possessed a dogged determination to pry into the boy’s history, despite Jordan’s insistence that she mind her own business when it came to his ward.

He glanced up at the arrival of another guest.

Lady Janine paused, the dark wood of the entryway surrounding her like a picture frame while her restless eyes skimmed the several diners taking their meal. Her lips puckered slightly, deepening the lines around her mouth. She stepped hesitantly into the breakfast room, greeting no one on her way to the sideboard.

Jordan watched Naomi’s aunt while she helped herself to toast and a poached egg. Her rheumatic fingers could not fully close around the serving utensils, and only his knowledge of her prickly, independent nature kept him from offering to serve her himself.

Janine’s usually indomitable mood seemed off this morning … melancholy. There was something else. He appraised her with an analytical eye. Her steel-gray hair, pinned in a knot on the crown of her head, was unremarkable except for the absence of the frumpy cap she usually wore. Her dress was faded calico, the color palette ten years out of fashion.

Janine added a few apple slices from the fruit bowl to her plate. As she turned to the table, her eyes met Jordan’s. Color rose under her lined cheeks, which made no sense whatsoever. Lady Janine was much too fierce to blush, for heaven’s sake.

He rose to offer the seat next to his own. He tucked the chair securely beneath her before returning to his place. “I trust you slept well, my lady?”

“Not particularly,” Janine grumbled while she scraped butter across her toast.

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