Read Jenna Petersen - [Lady Spies] for Free Online

seem tomake herself move as the young man waited, blinking at her.
    “My lady?” he finally ventured, his head cocking with confusion.
    “Yes, Thomas, I’m just a bit slow.” Tamping down her fear, she slid to the door and let him help her down. As he stepped away, she smoothed her gown and looked up at the large home. She had to show more than just Lucas Tyler that she could do this.
    She had to show Charlie. To show Lady M. To show Meredith and Emily. They all had faith in her. She had to prove their faith to be well placed.
    She had to show herself.
    Somehow she moved into the crowd now entering the doorway and in a few moments, found herself inside the buzzing ballroom.
    It had been a long time since Ana was in such a crush. When The Society for Widows and Orphans held events to raise funds, it was Meredith and Emily who took center stage. Ana normally stayed home, crunching figures and researching ways to increase attendance. The gatherings she did go to were teas and ladies’ luncheons which consisted of twenty women, rarely more.
    Truth be told, sometimes twenty seemed too many for her comfort. Yet here she was, in a ballroom with hundreds of people. They were laughing, they were talking, they were utterly comfortable in their fancy attire.
    And Ana felt miserably out of place. Lost. Weak. She longed for the ease of her day gowns and spectacles and inventions. Every fiber in her being told her to turn around and run back to her carriage. Every ounce of her soul reminded her how unprepared she was for the field, that Lucas was right about her being sheltered no matter how forcefully she denied that accusation.
    The only thing that kept her frozen in place on the edge of the ballroom floor was Emily. If Ana did not do what she had come here to do…if she didn’t swallow her fears, then all of Emily’s work would be for nothing. The man who had nearly put her best friend in a cold grave would very likely escape capture.
    And the begrudgingly good name of the Lady Spies would be tarnished in the eyes of the government forever. They might use her hesitation as proof that the organization wasn’t valid. God, they might even disband the group. She wouldn’t do that to Meredith and Emily. She couldn’t.
    “Anastasia Whittig? Lady Whittig?”
    Ana started at the sound of her name being squealed from across the ballroom. She spun around in time to see a pretty, plump woman in a blazingly violet gown come hurrying around the perimeter of the dance floor toward her at a shocking speed. Her face was flush with color and her eyes danced as she reached Ana. “By heavens, it is you!”
    Ana stammered, looking for something to say when recognition dawned on her. “Victoria Nethercourt!” she exclaimed, numbly allowing the woman to grasp her hands. This was one of her friends, albeit a friend from another lifetime, long before she lost Gilbert, long before she became a spy.
    “It’s Victoria Brightoncraft now,” Victoria laughed. “A Countess, can you imagine?”
    “Of course.” Ana nodded as the surprise of seeing someone she once called a confidante faded, replaced by an almost shy pleasure that she had been remembered after so long. “I heard of your marriage. Many felicitations. I hope you are well.”
    Victoria nodded emphatically and began to launch into a detailed accounting of the past few years of her life, but before she could proceed too far in her hurriedly spoken tale, yet another woman approached to reintroduce herself to Anastasia. And then another. And then another.
    Within a quarter of an hour, Ana found herself surrounded by a flock of friendly faces, all welcoming her back to Society with excited glee. Even Lady Westfield herself, whom Ana had never been close to even before her self-imposed exile, stopped by to say hello and express pride that her invitation had been the first Ana accepted in so many years.
    Ana listened to their giggling words, stored away the plethora of information she