“You do. Though it has been some time since I have seen it. It is rather nice to see you so excited about something.” Cressida paused, a twinkle in her eyes. “Something that is not hurling barbs at a certain duke whenever you see him.”
“Are you implying that I am excited to see the Duke of Caden?”
“Animated may be a better term. But yes. Though I am glad the two of you have managed to stop glaring daggers at each other at every turn.”
“I did say that I could keep my temper.”
“And so you have. For the most part anyway.”
The church bells rang, and Cressida clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh goodness, we really must leave. Arriving late will be rather poorly received.”
“It would, indeed.” Jane glanced once more at the rows of books behind her and spotted a familiar title.
It was a relatively short book, one that she had started to read and then stopped many times over. Light reading, and hardly edifying, but she still wanted to know the ending. Her heart rate quickened as she reached for it and slipped it into the fake book cover she had made. She could not tell if she wanted it to fit or not.
It fit perfectly.
Jane bit her lip. “Perhaps I should take a different book. This may be pushing things a little far.”
“Jane, come on! We need to leave!” Cressida called to her.
“Coming,” Jane called back, still hesitating with the book in her hands.
It was a novel. One that her mother had confiscated from her once she had found her reading it.
It is far too inappropriate for a well-bred young lady.
Was this really the sort of thing she could bring to church?
Blake’s words echoed in her mind.“When was the last time you did something just for yourself?”
She replayed the tedium of the first reading of the Banns, replayed the Duke’s words.
“I want to read this book,” she murmured to herself. “And I am going to enjoy it!”
She steeled herself and followed after Cressida.
* * *
An hour later, Jane was very grateful for her decision. The book was far more interesting than she remembered, and the heroine was rather more engaging. Jane felt an odd sense of kinship with her, as though they shared struggles, desires, and lives.
Around her, several people yawned, not bothering to hide it from those around them.
Emily’s eyes were glassy, and Cressida kept looking at Richard dreamily, but it was clear that even daydreaming about her future husband was not quite enough to keep the boredom at bay.
“And in the words of our Lord, ‘I judge no man.’ Yet, how can a man say this when he has judged? For even our Lord hath judged.” The Deacon’s words tugged at the edges of Jane’s mind. “Though we cannot hope to compare the judgment of our Lord to man’s judgment.”
Jane heard a sigh behind her but ignored it, instead focusing on her book. She glanced down at the line she had just been reading.
And at that moment, Lord Benjamin looked at her, and it was as though the world fell away.How could Elizabeth have failed to notice the truth right in front of her eyes? She moved towards him, barely realizing what she had done.
“So why, then, are men so hasty in judgment? For they know they do not sit upon the right seat, not to cast judgment.” The Deacon’s voice droned on in the background.
Jane glanced up and saw Richard’s head loll back, only to jerk sharply upwards a moment later. She suppressed a giggle as she watched him glance wildly around, his mouth half open in a confused expression. Beside him, Cressida shook her head.
Absently, Jane wondered where Blake was. She could not spot him among the pews at the front and did not recall seeing him as she entered. Though she had not been paying very close attention.
“No doubt he is off doing something scandalous,” she murmured without thinking, earning a reproachful look from an elderly woman near her.
