The Husband List Read Free Page A

And poor Eddie was gazing raptly into his wine goblet as though the secrets to life rested there.
    Caroline didn’t dare look at Jack. If she did, her humiliation would be complete. She pushed back her chair and rose.
    “I … I think I’m feeling unwell,” she said into the silence that hung over the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just…”
    But because she had no idea what she planned to do, she simply turned and left. Her new shoes skidded on the hard floor, making her steps as wobbly as she felt inside.
    She passed Annie in the hallway, but didn’t stop to ask her what in heaven’s name she was doing by the dining room. And instead of heading upstairs as she, too, should have done, Caroline rushed to the conservatory.
    Once inside, she closed the glass and wrought-iron door that kept the room’s warmth and humidity neatly trapped. She paused at the finch cage and shook her head.
    “I know just how you feel,” she said to the birds.
    At least the birds couldn’t see through the room’s foliage to know that their kind flitted freely outside. Caroline had to watch Eddie being given full rein, while she and the twins were groomed to be Mama’s idea of perfect wives.
    But that was not going to change.
    The best she could do was work well within the cage that surrounded her, too. Caroline touched the tip of one finger to the pinkish edge of a delicate orchid blossom and watched it quiver. At least it was a very pretty cage, if over-furnished.
    “I knew I’d find you here,” said a male voice.

 
    TWO
    Caroline looked away from the flower. Jack stood between the tall potted palms that framed the room’s entry.
    “It’s just where I’d find you at Rosemeade, too. Would you mind some company?” he asked.
    In his right hand was a plate bearing a thick slice of chocolate cake. Even though her appetite had fled with her outburst in the dining room, Caroline revised her prior assessment. Jack Culhane was not just perfect, he was gloriously so.
    Caroline couldn’t recall the last time she’d been alone with a male who wasn’t a family member. Mama had deemed it unacceptable under any circumstance once Caroline had turned twelve. But here she was, alone with Jack. She couldn’t think of a better man with whom to break a few rules.
    “Of course I don’t mind company, especially when it arrives with chocolate cake,” Caroline said to him. “But why aren’t you still in the dining room?”
    “Amelia and Helen started sniffling, and I got the sense the dam was about to burst. Since I believe in self-preservation, I did what I had to do.” He extended the cake. “Are you going to take this, or should I give it back to the red-headed maid who came running after me with it?”
    So Annie was behind the miracle of the cake. She might prove to be a wonderful ally if she wasn’t fired first. Caroline eyed the treat. Perhaps her appetite hadn’t fled as far as she’d thought.
    “I’d hate to send you out of your way over mere dessert,” she said, reaching for the plate and fork. She speared a fat chunk of cake and sighed when its rich flavor met her mouth.
    Jack grinned. “I take it the cake’s more to your taste than quail?”
    “That’s me,” Caroline said after she’d swallowed. “Plain, old me.”
    Jack followed her as she walked down the mossy green tile pathway between the benches of plants and on to a small wrought-iron table on which sat an open-mouthed blue-and-white jar holding a white water lily.
    “Not plain, not old … and in no way unremarkable,” he said.
    She glanced over her shoulder at him. He appeared to be sincere.
    Caroline sat, taking care not to snag her dress on the metal chair. She didn’t usually believe compliments from gentlemen, because she had millions of reasons in the bank to doubt the giver’s sincerity. Jack was rich, though.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “You’re welcome.” He was looking at her much as Eddie had been at that wine goblet. “You look