“Why does she hate you so much anyway?” Edward asked. “I’ve never understood it.”
For a brief moment, Evan flashed back to a much-recalled and highly despised afternoon sixteen years ago. Flashed back to the bright pain in Josie’s eyes. Then he blinked those thoughts away, along with the shame that accompanied them.
“I don’t know,” he lied. “Miss Westfall has the memory of an elephant, I suppose. Never forgets a slight.”
“You slighted her?” Jude said with wide eyes.
“I don’t know. She hates me, I must have,” Evan said, waving away their questions. “Or maybe she just doesn’t like my choice in cravats. Who knows with women?”
Gabriel blinked at him and Evan turned his head so he wouldn’t see his younger brother’s knowing stare.
“Well, I hope you won’t let it interfere with Audrey’s wedding,” Edward said as he pushed to his feet.
Evan wrinkled his brow. “I would never do that.”
“Edward, did you want to go over those figures?” Jude asked, also taking his feet.
Edward laughed and shot Gabriel and Evan a glance. “Three days to his wedding and this one is still managing estate business.”
Jude rolled his eyes. “Because I intend to leave you manager-less for several blissful weeks after I make Audrey mine. So take me while you can get me.”
Edward clapped an arm around their friend and the two moved toward the door. “So I can’t send you messages day and night about estate minutia?” he teased.
“You can, but I won’t answer them,” Jude chuckled as they left the room.
Once they were gone, Gabriel turned his attention back to Evan. His younger brother leaned back, folding his arms and meeting his gaze evenly. “You haven’t really forgotten why Josie hates you, have you?”
Evan glared at him. He had often wished his younger brother hadn’t been witness to the afternoon in question.
“I remember something about it,” he admitted. “I should have known you’d recall it all, with that memory of yours.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I pay attention to detail, that’s all.”
“Yes, you do that,” Evan muttered, his own mind recreating the very details he wished he could forget forever. “You know, it was a decade and a half ago. You’d think she could just forget it. I have apologized a dozen times.”
His brother lifted both eyebrows. “She must have her reasons. When was the last time you apologized?”
Evan pursed his lips. “The year she came out. So…”
“Eight years ago?” Gabriel said with a shake of his head.
“Well, she hardly spoke to me during those eight years,” Evan said, pushing out of his chair and pacing the room. “Even when she was running about with Claire, she’d hardly look at me. Look, the girl doesn’t like me. That’s fine. She may not even come to Audrey’s wedding. Then how she feels or doesn’t feel about me won’t matter a whit. Hell, if she comes it won’t matter. I’ll see her for all of a few hours—she’ll avoid me. That will be the end of it.”
Gabriel shrugged. “Very well, if you say so. Now I am going to go up and talk to Mama for a bit. I’ll see you later.”
His brother walked from the room and Evan moved back over to the table. He leaned his hands against the smooth surface and tried to control the tangled emotions that knotted in his chest. Thoughts of Miss Jocelyn Westfall always did that. Damn her.
“This is ridiculous,” he barked, then spun from the room and out the front door. He began to make his way down the path to the stable where he would take his horse out for a very long run.
But there was a part of him that knew from bitter experience that he could run his horse into the ground, but he would never fully escape the past. The best he could hope to do was push away the guilt that followed it.
Josie looked up from the stack of papers in her lap as her mother entered the parlor. She smiled and stood to greet Mrs. Westfall with a kiss.
“You look rested,” she said.
“Oh yes, I napped the road away very well.” Mrs. Westfall laughed as she took her place across from where Josie had been seated and tucked a lock of rich chestnut hair behind her delicate ear.
Josie sighed. Her mother was so very pretty, even in her advancing years. And while Josie had inherited the same color of hair, hers lacked the luster of Mrs. Westfall’s. And she certainly did not have the slimness of body her mother had retained even after birthing four children.
“Is that tea?” Mrs. Westfall asked, motioning to the service on the table before them. Josie jolted into action.
“Yes, gracious, I’m sorry. I was woolgathering,” she said, pouring the tea into first her mother’s cup, then freshening her own. “Would you like a cake?”
“No, I couldn’t.”
Mrs. Westfall’s gaze shifted to the cake on Josie’s plate, sitting half-eaten. She said nothing, but Josie felt her words without needing to hear them. She pushed the plate aside and returned her attention to the paperwork.
“What is that, dear?” Mrs. Westfall asked.
Josie shrugged. “Just a few details here and there about estate things. Some news about the tenant families, that sort of thing. I thought I might make some rounds to them while we’re here and asked Charles to gather the information.”
Her mother waved her hand. “Oh, Richard should do that.”
Josie pursed her lips as she thought of her brother, older than her by more than fifteen years. He wasn’t exactly a wastrel, but he liked having money more than responsibility.
“Yes, he should,” she said softly. “But since he isn’t here, I must take it up in his stead.”
She sorted through some of the papers slowly, reviewing staff changes and other minutia with relish. She had always loved facts and figures and reading of any kind. When she glanced up, she found her mother frowning at her.
“You know, someday you’ll need spectacles the way you read so much,” Mrs. Westfall scolded softly.
Josie forced a smile. “Perhaps you’re right.”
This was a little game they played. Her mother would half-heartedly try to encourage her to be more focused on her appearance while Josie would pretend to listen. At the heart of it though, she knew the truth. Her entire family had given up on her marrying well years ago. So had Josie, truth be told.
“Is that an invitation in your little pile?” her mother gasped, reaching out to snatch the corner of an envelope that was hidden in the midst of the papers.
Josie laughed. “You are like a bloodhound when it comes to such things!”
Mrs. Westfall glanced up with a smile. “Oh, it is from the Woodleys!”
The smile on Josie’s face slipped away and she found herself setting her papers down slowly. “Is it?”
“Yes. I had all but forgotten they were in Briarlake Cross.”
“How could you?” Josie teased, trying to lighten the mood for herself. “There was gossip associated with it.”
Mrs. Westfall reached out and caught Josie’s hands. “Isn’t there, though? Lady Woodley’s sudden illness? Lady Audrey’s whirlwind engagement and upcoming nuptials to Edward’s man of affairs?”
“And the grandson of a viscount,” Josie added softly.
“Well, of course he is that, so it softens the scandal, but still.”
Josie shook her head. Her mother was often an empty-headed gossip, but she was rarely cruel. Even when she was, it wasn’t purposeful. She just liked to know about other people.
But Josie knew how damaging gossip and whispers could be.
“And then there is Claire!” Mrs. Westfall continued.
Josie tensed further as thoughts of her friend’s desperate situation mobbed her. “Yes, there is no need to mention Claire.”
“How can one not when one talks about the Woodleys?” her mother said, waving a hand in front of her face. “I used to be sorry I had a daughter who did not create interest, but then Claire ran away with that scoundrel. Now I am pleased.”
Josie shook her head. “Thank you, Mama.”
Mrs. Westfall stopped and looked at her, and the color faded from her bright cheeks. “Oh, darling, I’m sorry. That sounded like a judgment and it wasn’t meant as one. We are who we are, aren’t we?”
“Indeed.” Josie sighed as she took the envelope back to look at it. “But instead of rambling on about gossip, why don’t we open this note and find out what it says?”
Mrs. Westfall nodded, leaning forward as Josie broke the familiar seal and unfolded the pages.
“It is from Audrey,” Josie said. “Welcoming us back to the village, et cetera, et cetera. Ah, well…” She trailed off in her reading, knowing that blood was flooding her face.
“What? What?” Mrs. Westfall all but ripped the pages back from her and read the last part out loud. “Oh goodness, Audrey is inviting us to her nuptials at the family home in just three days time!”
Josie nodded slowly. “Yes, that is what I read as well,” she whispered.
“The whole family will be there,” her mother continued. “Oh, how nice it will be to spend time with them again.”
Josie squeezed her eyes shut. “Not the whole family.”
A frown was Mrs. Westfall’s response. “Well, no. Not Claire, of course. But there will be Audrey and Edward, Gabriel and Evan.”
Josie pushed to her feet at the mention of Evan’s name. She moved to the window and stared out at the garden behind the house. “Of course they will all be there. They wouldn’t miss this grand event, would they?”
“You know, we weren’t invited to Edward’s recent nuptials,” her mother said behind her. “We simply cannot miss this set. If we do, we won’t be invited to Gabriel or Evan’s weddings, for certain.”
Josie gripped a fist against the glass. “But perhaps we shouldn’t intrude.”
She knew her mother would not accept that option, even before she squealed out a sound of derision. “Gracious no! We will go, Josie. I will pen a response right away.”
Josie leaned her head forward until the window cooled her suddenly hot brow. “Of course. You know best.”
She heard Mrs. Westfall stand and suddenly she was at Josie’s elbow. “You know, dearest, in the not-so-distant past, Audrey was on wallflower row with you. And now she is marrying and people even whisper it is for love! That should give you hope.”
She pressed a quick kiss to Josie’s cheek and then flitted out of the parlor, invitation in hand, to pen a response. Once she was gone, Josie rested her arms on the window and her head in her arms.
God, this was a disaster. She didn’t want to go to the Woodley estate. She didn’t want to sit and watch Audrey marry and know that Claire, her best friend, her confidante, her sometime protector, wasn’t there to see it. She most certainly didn’t want to see Evan!
She made a face as she straightened up and returned to the paperwork she had discarded, but she could no longer concentrate as she flipped through the pages. All she could think about was Evan. Evan’s cruel words so many years ago and Evan’s handsome face that she often found in crowds, sought at parties, the face that followed her into her dreams. An unwanted passenger that always left her confused.
“Damn him,” she muttered.
And now she would be attending a family wedding where he would be front and center in the action. There would be no way to avoid him, that was certain. And he would pretend like nothing had ever happened and she would relive her worst childhood nightmares and try to hate him.
What a glorious wedding it would be.
But then again, perhaps he would be so busy with his duties to his sister and Mr. Samson that he wouldn’t notice her at all. Her mother spoke of hope. And that was the best Josie could have.
CHAPTER TWO
Josie took a deep breath before she smiled at the Woodleys’ butler Vernon and stepped into the foyer.
“Mrs. Westfall, Miss Westfall,” he intoned as he took their hats. “The family is expecting you.”
“Indeed, they are,” came a deep voice from the top of the stairs. Josie closed her eyes tight for a moment, trying to find focus or calm of some sort. But when she opened them and looked up at the man coming down toward her, all that fled.
Evan had always been by far the most handsome of the Woodley clan. In fact, she could easily call him beautiful and not be exaggerating. His dark brown hair was just a touch too long, which gave him a rather disheveled, rakish look even when he was dressed formally, as he was for Audrey’s wedding.
He had even darker eyes that had always put her to mind of chocolate. They were bright and always filled with mirth or some mischief. And when he smiled, as he did in this moment, he had a dimple in his right cheek that no other Woodley possessed.
“My lord,” her mother said, blessedly interrupting the moment, which allowed Josie to turn her head and compose herself. “How lovely it is to see you. It must be two years!”
“Three,” he corrected softly. “Good morning, Mrs. Westfall. Miss Westfall.”
Josie refused to meet his welcoming stare and instead examined her slipper. “My lord.”
Vernon stepped forward. “I was about to tell the ladies that the family is gathered in the Yellow Room and escort them there.”
“You are busy, I know. Go tend to other things,” Evan said with a broader smile for the family servant. “I’m happy to make sure the ladies are situated.”
The butler nodded with gratitude and scurried away.
“Poor man, he is overwhelmed, as is the entire staff, trying to make my sister’s day perfection.” Evan laughed. “What they don’t realize is that she could be in a potato sack in a field and she would be blissfully happy.”
Josie’s mother beamed. “So then the rumors are true.”
“Rumors?” Evan repeated, his own smile fading slightly. “And what are those?”
“That Lady Audrey has found a love match,” Mrs. Westfall continued.
Josie was also interested in that answer, but she refused to show that to Evan, though she leaned a touch closer.
“Indeed,” Evan said with a shake of his head. “True love through and through.” He tilted his head as he looked at Mrs. Westfall. “You know, my mother has been ill of late. She has not yet joined the rest, but is upstairs with the healer who helped her, Miss Gray, and Jude Samson’s own mother, who has joined us in the last few days. I think they would love your company.”
Josie jolted. “We wouldn’t want to intrude upon—” she began.
But her mother all but shoved her aside. “How lovely.”
Evan motioned upstairs. “Turn right at the top of the stairs. It is the third door on the left. It’s open and you’ll never be lost. They are giggling like a bunch of ninnies.”
Josie’s mother squeezed her hand and then all but bolted away. Josie watched her go with panic building in her breast. She was about to be alone with Evan Hartwell, the most wicked Woodley of the bunch. And she was not ready.
After all, she had specifically arranged not to be alone with him for over fifteen years.
“How are you, Josie?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.
She frowned at him, mostly because she didn’t have a good response when her mind was spinning so. “I’m fine.”
He laughed softly, but there was no cruelty to the sound. “Only fine?”
“What answer do you want, my lord?” she whispered.
He shifted at her sharp response, but did not pursue it. “You look very well. That green in your gown is quite fetching.”
She looked down at her dress swiftly. She could admit, though only to herself, that she had chosen it on purpose to bring out her eyes. She was far from vain. In fact, she considered her eyes her only good feature. Why not accentuate them?
“Thank you,” she said.
At her reticence to expound or make any effort to drive the conversation, he shifted. “Well, I should take you into the parlor with the rest of the family.”
At that suggestion, s
he drew back. “Oh no, I couldn’t intrude upon family,” she said.
“But—” he began, a strange look on his face that made her feel foolish.
And feeling foolish, especially at this man’s hand, made her defensive. “Honestly, why do you argue?” she asked. “I am not like my mother—I know when a day is special enough not to want interlopers.”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, I shall take you out to the terrace where the ceremony will be held. There are chairs there for guests.”
Josie nodded with relief. Once she joined the rest of the guests, she would be able to excuse Evan and this awful little encounter would end at last.
Except as he guided her through the hallways toward a door that led out onto the wide, stone terrace that wrapped all the way around the manor house, she felt less than eager to see Evan vanish forever.
Why did he have to smell so good?
He pushed the door open and they moved onto the terrace. But instead of being greeted by dozens upon dozens of people from the village and London, Josie was shocked to find not another person there. Just a few chairs arranged before a flower-wrapped wooden arch where Audrey and her intended would soon say their vows.
“What—I—what is going on? Where are the rest of the guests?” she stammered as she spun to face Evan.
He folded his arms. “I tried to tell you that everyone was in the Yellow Room.”
She set her jaw. He was being deliberately obnoxious. “You said family was in the Yellow Room.”
“Yes.” He sighed. “This is a small affair, Josie. Aside from a very select group, the only others in attendance are family.” He motioned her to a chair. “But now that we are here, it is actually very nice. Inside they are all talking at once and trying to figure out who will wed next. It’s quiet here. So since you insisted on coming out here, I insist on joining you.”
Josie’s heart sank. Everyone talking at once was perfect for her. She loved that. It meant she could slink against the wall and be forgotten. But out here, with the sun on her face and no one but the one person she didn’t want to talk to at her side, she was…exposed.
Deceived Page 2