Catch a Falling Heiress: An American Heiress in London by Laura Lee Guhrke Page B

forgive me for keeping mum. I feared just speaking of Linnet might have done more to reveal my deeper feelings than I would have liked, and I’m not the sort of man inclined to wear my heart on my sleeve. Until I’d spoken to her, I could not think of revealing my feelings for her to anyone else.”
    Before his hostess could ask any more questions and impel him to more blatant lies on the topic, Mrs. Holland entered the conversation, playing up to him far better than her daughter was doing. “Why, Linnet, you sly girl, you never said a word, not even to me, your own mother. I am shocked. But at least I now understand why you refused every other suitor in London.” She turned to her friend as her daughter spluttered incoherent protests. “Abigail, would you mind giving me a moment alone with my daughter, and her . . . umm . . . fiancé?”
    “Of course, of course.” Though her disappointment at not being able to remain was obvious, Jack hoped Mrs. Dewey would console herself by spreading the gossip of an honorable engagement rather than a midnight tryst, and spread it as fast as possible, preferably before Van Hausen woke up.
    “No, wait,” Miss Holland protested as their hostess moved to leave. “You must understand. This isn’t what it seems.”
    The older woman gave her a pitying smile. “It never is, my dear.” With that, she departed, closing the door behind her.
    The girl turned to her parent with a groan. “Oh, Mother, why on earth did you send her away before I had the chance to explain? You know she’ll go back to the ball and tell everyone.”
    “Well, you’ll be the subject of gossip, but that’s what happens when you choose this sort of time and place to accept a young man’s proposal of marriage. Which I believe—” She paused long enough to open the door and verify that Mrs. Dewey was not standing on the other side with one ear to the keyhole, then she closed it and returned her attention to Jack. “Which I believe,” she resumed, “he was in the midst of offering when he was interrupted by my arrival?”
    “I had, yes,” he answered at once, for there was no way to prevaricate, even if he wanted to. “I realize it was very wrong of me to conduct things in such a clandestine fashion. My excuse—and it is a poor one, I admit—is that I was carried away by the depth of my feelings.”
    Beside him, the girl gave a derisive snort, but though the mother glanced at the daughter for a moment, she seemed willing to accept this version of events even if she suspected the whole thing to be a hum. After all, what other choice was there? “I trust you are willing to meet with her father and conduct the remainder of your suit in the proper manner?”
    He didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”
    “This is ridiculous,” the girl burst out. “This man has no feelings for me. He doesn’t even know me, and I don’t know him. I didn’t meet him out here. Why should I?”
    “And yet, here you are,” her mother pointed out, “caught with him in a secret assignation, allowing him the opportunity to propose—”
    “That is not what happened.”
    A soft moan behind him caused Jack to cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder. “Perhaps, we should return to the house,” he suggested in a louder voice, hoping to cover any more of Van Hausen’s inconvenient groaning. “There, we can adjourn to the library for a fuller discussion of the situation?”
    Flattening his palm against the base of Miss Holland’s spine, he attempted to usher her toward the door, but he should have known her cooperation would not be forthcoming since nothing about this young woman was proving to be easy.
    “I’m not going anywhere with you.” Turning, she ducked past him and ran to the painted wooden screen. “This is who I came out here to meet, Mother,” she went on as she shoved the screen aside to reveal Van Hausen’s prone body.
    “Frederick?” Mrs. Holland sounded appalled, a fact in which Jack took great