Read Jenna Petersen - [Lady Spies] for Free Online Page A

learned from their gossip, and generally marveled at their reception of her. Thesepeople not only remembered her, but they welcomed her back to their fold. Her old friends, ones she had lost contact with except in passing, cared for her.
    It was shocking and thrilling all at once.
    “Isn’t that Lucas Tyler?” one of the women asked, rising up on slippered tiptoes to glance across the busy ballroom.
    Immediately, Ana shook off her excitement as a new emotion flooded her. Dread. And when she looked deeper, anticipation. Lucas was here. She craned her own neck with as much subtlety as she could and immediately found him in the crowd, talking to another man.
    But he was looking at her.
    Her heart leapt into her throat where it cut off her air for a brief moment before she managed to control her reaction.
    “My, he is a handsome one,” Victoria said with a nod. “You probably don’t remember him, Anastasia, as he wasn’t in country when you came out and married.”
    Ana remained silent, unsure of how much she could or should reveal about her relationship with Lucas. Telling the women she knew him could either garner her much desired information or destroy her cover.
    Another woman, Lady Taberton took up the story. “Despite his not having a title, he does have money. And just look at him. Why, he’s one of the most sought-after bachelors in Society at present, Lady Whittig,” she saidwith a smile that was a little more knowing than Ana wanted to think about. “He’s considered a catch, several ladies have wagers running about who will snag him first, either for a husband or…” She trailed off with a suggestive wave of her hand.
    Ana bit back a gasp. Of course she remembered how frank the talk of the married ladies and widows could become, but she never recalled it bothering her so much. These women were betting on who would bed Lucas first!
    Assuming none of them already had.
    “I don’t suppose you would like to put yourself into the contest?” asked another woman, Lady Valleyton.
    Ana turned her gaze onto the pretty redhead who was watching her with a teasing, playful grin. Her offer was made in all friendliness, but it grated along Ana’s spine like metal on slate.
    “No,” she managed to say with what she hoped was a smile. It felt more like a grimace.
    Victoria patted her hand and gave the women a shushing glare. “Come now, ladies. You know how attached to the late Lord Whittig Lady Whittig was.”
    Lady Valleyton’s cheeks colored dark crimson as she glanced down at Ana’s mourning gown. “My apologies, my lady,” she stammered. “I never meant to offend.”
    Ana nodded stiffly. Actually, for the first time in a long time, she hadn’t been thinking of Gilbert at all. “It’s fine, of course.”
    “Well, those of you still in the running, get ready,”Lady Taberton interrupted. “Because he’s coming this way!”
    The group of women caught their collective breath, and Ana was ashamed to admit she caught her own with it as she watched Lucas shoulder his way through the crowd, dodging footmen and overly eager mamas with the grace of an athlete. All the while he moved toward her …not the group of giggling women, but her with all the focus of a hawk hunting a field mouse.
    When he got nearer, she saw that he was smiling, a friendly, rakish expression that made more than one woman around her blush. But the smile didn’t reach his eyes. In fact, there was a dangerous, almost angry light in his gray stare that put her on notice. She had done something wrong, and Lucas wasn’t pleased with her.
    “Ladies,” he drawled as he reached their group.
    Clearly he was acquainted with at least one of the women to approach them all so boldly. Her gaze darted around her as she tried to determine which one…and how. She prayed it wasn’t Lady Valleyton with her pretty pale skin and silky auburn hair, not to mention the philandering husband who probably wouldn’t care who she took a tumble with since