Read My Lord Winter for Free Online Page B

human being, and she rather regretted having no chance of coming to know him better. The fog was bound to clear in the night and tomorrow she and Gracie and Ella would resume their journey to Town.
    In the meantime, she was soon going to have to face the ladies without the buffer provided by their menfolk. Thank heaven Gracie would be by her side.
    She was just wondering whether she could possibly fit in one of the delicious-looking mille-feuilles on a nearby dish, when Lady Wintringham gave the signal to the ladies to withdraw. Jane and Miss Gracechurch followed the others to the drawing-room, walking behind the awkwardly moving Lady Fitzgerald, who leaned on her sister’s arm.
    Lady Wintringham sent Miss Neville to find her embroidery and, as soon as Lady Fitzgerald was settled on a chair, she summoned Miss Chatterton to her side. The elderly Mrs. Tuttle joined them by the fire. Lady Amelia crossed to a small escritoire and began to write. Mrs. Parmenter, with an unfriendly glance at Jane and Gracie, took a seat near Lady Fitzgerald and said something to her that made her utter a faint protest.
    “I am worried about that young woman,” Gracie murmured to Jane. “If I am not mistaken, she is near her time. Do you look out of the window, my dear, and see whether the fog has lifted yet.”
    Jane went across the long room to one of the tall windows, parted the heavy olive-green velvet curtains, and peered out. A pale blankness reflected her face and the yellow glow of candle and firelight.
    “Miss Brooke!” said Lady Wintringham sharply. “Pray close the curtains at once.”
    “What can you be thinking of? We shall catch our deaths of cold,” Mrs. Tuttle seconded her, adding in a slightly lower voice, “The lower classes have no notion how those of refined sensibilities suffer from the least draught.”
    Miss Chatterton shivered ostentatiously.
    The Princess and the Pea, thought Jane, smothering a smile as she pulled the curtains together. She might have felt the chill herself had she been wearing thin silk instead of warm wool. The atmosphere was chilly enough, despite the blazing fire, and the stiffly elegant furnishings added no warmth of comfort.
    Returning to Gracie, she overheard Lady Wintringham reproving Miss Chatterton for being too familiar with Mr. Hancock. “If you think to make Wintringham jealous,” she said, “I can assure you that only a young lady of the most unexceptionable conduct has the slightest chance of winning his regard. My nephew is a high stickler. Regrettably your father is a mere baron, but I have made an exception in your case because...”
    Regretfully, Jane moved out of earshot. No doubt Miss Chatterton had connexions of the highest rank, allowing her to aspire to the earl’s hand. She wished them joy of each other.
    Miss Gracechurch had seated herself at a small table with a chequered top of inlaid ivory and ebony. Jane took the second chair and reported that the fog was as thick as ever.
    “Oh dear! Well, it cannot be helped. We must hope that Lady Fitzgerald has calculated her months correctly, since I cannot believe her husband would have brought her from home had she known she was due to give birth.”
    “No, he seems prodigious fond of her. Perhaps she is carrying twins.”
    “Perhaps. You found Lord Fitzgerald a congenial neighbour at dinner, did you not?”
    “A bore, but a friendly bore.”
    “And our host? I fear he broke off your conversation abruptly, and with displeasure.”
    “It was a triumph to draw him into conversation at all. All my polite and unexceptionable openings he squashed with monosyllables. He is so starchy and censorious that I knew I could not please him whatever I said,” Jane added guiltily, “so I did not mind my tongue as I know I ought.”
    “Oh, Jane!”
    “Dear Gracie, as you yourself said, no one knows you are my governess, so no one will blame you for my shocking lack of conduct. Look, there is a little drawer in this table, and a