Andrea Pickens - [Lessons in Love 01] Read Free Page A

an expanse of polished pine lapping cream from one of her spotless Staffordshire pitchers. Their father had hurried them from the door so as not to have the bad manners of laughing aloud. But once in his study they had all collapsed with mirth until tears rolled down their cheeks. That one shared moment had seemed to break the ice of his grief and once again he became the Papa of old, sharing long rides around the estate and dinner together in the evenings.
    It was Nanna, too, with whom she and Thomas had shared the intimate moments of growing up. The magic of a perfectly formed robin's egg, the tears at being too young to go to Town with Papa, the wonder of a first kiss.
    Though Nanna had retired to her own snug cottage on the estate last year, declaring that now her little ones were truly grown up and didn't need her anymore, Jane rode over frequently to visit when she was at home. Settling at Nanna's knee while she knitted, just like in days gone by, Jane would regale her beloved old nurse with the latest gossip from London as well as confessing her and Thomas's latest escapades. Nanna would chuckle and scold, Jane would look contrite and they both would laugh and take comfort in the familiar warmth of each other's presence.
    On reaching the cottage, Jane burst through the door with a sob and without a word Nanna gathered her to her ample breast.
    "Come, come," she soothed, patting Jane's disheveled hair into some semblance of order. "It's not like you to be such a watering pot. Dry your eyes while I fix some tea and then you'll tell me all about it."
    She disengaged Jane's arms and handed her a linen hanky. "Now let me guess," she called as she put a kettle on the stove. "Lord Edgarton has proved a sad disappointment because the poem he's sent is not up to snuff with Lord Byron's work. Or is it that Baron Haverill has refused to let you drive his matched grays, even though you are an infinitely better whip than he is?"
    Jane couldn't help smiling in spite of her quivering lower lip. "Oh, Nanna, do you, too, think I am such a frivolous thing?"
    "I'm quizzing you, love, as well you know. Now come sit down and tell your old Nanna what is wrong."
    * * *
    On finishing her halting explanation, Jane hugged her cup close to her chest as if she needed its warmth. "So you see," she added, "I am in an impossible situation!"
    Nanna shook her head. "Your aunt has always been a meddlesome woman, always sparking no good. But I have been fearing your father would do something like this for some time now. I know he has been ill at ease about you. He has long worried that he hasn't provided you with the proper upbringing for a lady—it has been rather unconventional, you know—and he is quite concerned about making a good match for you. And you haven't helped allay his concerns, Missy, with your behavior."
    "But I will not be treated like... a prize mare, my merits and faults discussed by others, to be given, on careful consideration, to the highest bidder. I won't! I am a person with my own mind and I will not have my freedom taken away."
    Nanna recognized the mulish tone in her former charge's voice and shot her a reproving look.
    Jane bit her lip. "I'm sorry to sound like a fishwife, but when Thomas engages in pranks he is called high-spirited. I am called shameful. It's not fair!"
    "No, it isn't. It never has been," answered Nanna softly. "You know that well enough and it's something you must learn to accept."
    "Must I?" asked Jane desperately. "You, too, think I should accede to my father's demands and spend the rest of my life with a husband I care nothing for, a man who may order my entire existence exactly how he wishes?"
    "Now, now." Nanna stroked Jane's hair. "I didn't say that. I just mean that it is time you admit that in your station in life you have limited options if you don't marry. You may remain on the shelf and care for your father in his dotage or become a doting spinster aunt to Thomas's future brood, hanging in his