AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
When Jenny came to, she was in a room with light filtering in through the window, under warm covers. Raising her hands above her head, she stretched. The last thing she remembered was fainting in front of Nicholas. She bolted upright, the events of the previous night rushing back to her. She didn’t know why she had gotten ill but she felt it had to do with marrying Nicholas. Then she’d had to faint in front of him. It mortified her.
A knock sounded at her door. “Come in,” she called.
Her companion Mrs. Atwood walked in, bearing a tray. “Good morning, my lady,” she greeted. “I am glad to see you’re well this morning.”
Mrs. Atwood practically raised her and the woman was very dear to her. “What happened?” she asked, still feeling embarrassed for falling ill like that.
“I’m uncertain, my dear. Your father brought you home and you were shivering like a leaf in the rain. You looked as though you got the fright of your life.”
“I suppose marrying Nicholasisa fright,” she murmured.
Mrs. Atwood set the tray down and came to sit on the bed beside her, feeling her forehead with the back of her hand. “You seem to be alright now. What happened at the ball, my dear?”
“I overheard my fate being decided. I am to marry Nicholas Brighton.”
“Your neighbor in Norfolk? The duke?”
Jenny nodded, pushing her hair away from her face and accepting the cup of tea Mrs. Atwood was giving her.
“Oh, that explains your nerves last night.” She frowned, seemingly thinking. “But what about marrying him frightens you? You were friends, were you not?”
“Yes, wewerefriends. I don’t know him anymore and I don’t want to marry him.” She sighed, then took a sip of the tea and almost spat it out.
“I know it’s bitter but it will help you.”
“His grandmother, the dowager duchess, is insisting on the match.”
“Perhaps you can convince your father to allow you to make your choice.”
“I hope I can.” She swallowed more tea before setting the cup down and swinging her legs to the floor. She had to find him and speak with him. “Do you know where my father is?”
“In his study, I believe. Do you want me to help you dress or should I call Sarah?”
Jenny shook her head. Sarah was her lady’s maid and right now, she needed the comfort of having Mrs. Atwood around. “I want you to help me.”
The woman gave her a motherly smile and stood, crossing the room to her dressing room. When she arrived downstairs, she was told that her father was out. Jenny became annoyed. Sheneededto speak to him.
“Come, my dear.” Mrs. Atwood steered her toward the breakfast room. “You should eat to regain your strength.”
“I am not sick,” she protested.
“Yes, but nerves require strength to beat.”
“Now you make me feel feeble, Mrs. Atwood.”
She laughed. “Oh, you are anything but.”
Was she? Somehow she doubted her own strength, especially where Nicholas was concerned.
* * *
Brightness jolted Nicholas awake and he covered his face with his hands.
“Get up!” his grandmother barked, stomping her cane on the carpeted floor.
“What the devil is the meaning of this?” He sat up, trying to compose himself and wondering what his grandmother was doing at his house this early in the morning.
