Season for Temptation by Theresa Romain

Author:Theresa Romain
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical romance, Fiction
ISBN: 9781420125597
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-08-17T21:00:00+00:00

Several weeks trickled by, weeks in which James and Sir Stephen were frequent callers at the Grosvenor Square address. Sometimes both of them came at once and squired her and Louisa around the city. During these outings, they inevitably began with Louisa and James paired, leaving Julia to accompany Sir Stephen.

She supposed he was nice enough, but his intense seriousness began to pall on her, and his eager interest in her every word was intimidating. She felt she had to weigh each word with care lest it be misinterpreted, which was an undeniable hardship for a girl used more to speaking in paragraphs than sentences.

Whenever she could, she tried to break the stride of the foursome as they walked out together—by stumbling, staring into a shop window, whatever it took—so that she could try to switch their grouping around and walk with James. She felt a tiny bit guilty leaving Louisa with the baronet, but Louisa never admonished her for it. And anyway, Louisa got to see James all the time, while Julia did not.

In truth, Julia hardly ever saw James anymore, since she was out so much of the time with Charissa Bradleigh, or paying the requisite morning calls with her aunt. Between the efforts of those two aristocratic ladies, she was learning more and more about the ins and outs of London society as the wealthy and titled, bit by bit, straggled back to town from their country estates.

She had never expected to be kept so busy, and with such a series of inconsequentialities. Some days she came home late, exhausted, and couldn’t think of a single memorable thing she had done. She didn’t mind it, she supposed, since she knew it was the reason for her being in London. But more and more, she understood why Louisa’s spirits had been lowered by the relentless social beating each day brought. Julia liked talking to a lot of people, and still, it was tiring.

So, she and James rarely crossed paths now. No one seemed to think it at all necessary that she should ever get to spend any time in the company of her sister’s fiancé. It was much more important that she meet powerful strangers, or undergo yet another dress fitting, or be seen driving out in Hyde Park with someone or other, by someone or other.

And she supposed it wasn’t such a social necessity that she see James . . . but she missed him, anyway. He was a necessity to her. Even though she’d promised to look for a husband, she thought about him more than she cared to tell anyone. It felt like a secret she ought to keep, even though she couldn’t think of the last time she’d kept a secret, especially from Louisa. The knowledge of her hidden fixation preoccupied her, putting a feeling of distance between her and Louisa.

So passed the remainder of January, and the grayness of February. The weeks flew quickly, and Julia could recall little of them after they had passed.

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