Charming the Elusive Earl (Charmed By Chance #2)

Chapter 1

1

L ady Jane Westcott pressed her back against the wall, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

It was official. She was absolutely wicked.

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip to hold back a most unladylike squeak.

Was this terror or excitement? She couldn’t say.

The sound of her fiancé’s low rumble of a voice was nearly drowned out by the pounding of her heart. “Lady Jane is…out,” the Earl of Marlin repeated to the stalwart housekeeper.

Jane choked on a sound that was part laugh and part gasp of disbelief.

She was doing it. She was actually doing it.

“Yes, my lord.” Dear, wonderful, loyal Mrs. Harwich held her ground.

A silence fell, and in that moment, Jane felt the most overwhelming swell of disbelief. She’d done it. She’d actually done it.

Nearly a month ago, she and her friends had devised a game, of sorts. Challenges, to be precise. They issued dares to one another, and Jane’s had been simple.

Evade her elusive earl.

After all, aside from his monthly visits, Marlin seemed content to act as if she didn’t exist. But when he came here at his allotted time, he expected her to be waiting. To be grateful , she supposed, that he was taking one quarter of an hour out of his busy month for her.

Give him a taste of his own medicine , her friend Felicity had said.

It won’t do any real harm , Ann had assured her.

But maybe for one moment he won’t take it for granted that you’ll be dutifully waiting for him , Meg had added with a mischievous grin. Wouldn’t that be nice?

And yes, it had been a nice thought. And also terrifying.

But she’d agreed before she could lose her nerve, and now…she’d done it.

A smile tugged at her lips now and she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle that urge to squeal again.

But she dared not make a sound because the silence in the entry hall was stretching longer and longer. It was growing…awkward.

Even for Jane, and she didn’t have to face the formidable Earl.

Jane didn’t need to crane her neck around the corner to imagine the sort of intimidation the dear housekeeper faced. Jane had been forced to face it herself often enough.

Once a month for eight months, to be precise. Ever since the terms of their engagement had been laid out in a contract, which Jane had neither seen nor had a say in, obviously.

Such things are for the menfol k, her aunt had told her.

Her own mother might have taken the time to explain it to her, if she’d still been alive. But she’d passed away nearly a decade before, and her aunt who’d taken over raising her didn’t have time for such matters.

The deafening silence that came from the foyer made Jane’s heart pound even harder.

For a moment, she feared he’d call the housekeeper out on her lies.

When she heard a footstep, she scurried backward, half expecting the Earl to come barging into the parlor despite the housekeeper’s attempts to deter him.

Jane bit her lip. Perhaps she was being uncharitable. While their encounters to date had been torturous for Jane, she’d be the first to admit, he’d always been polite.

Painfully, tediously polite.

Well-mannered in the sort of way one would expect from a distant uncle, not a young lord who was, by all accounts…courting her.

He spoke again, but this time his voice was so low she could barely make him out. Just the sound of his voice, though, was enough to have her scurrying back even further. It was always this way when he came to call.

Everything about her fiancé intimidated her, and made her want to…to…

She backed up even further.

To run.

Her legs carried her back toward the kitchen, and before she knew it, she’d scurried through the servant’s hallway and found herself outside. The spring breeze hit her like a slap to the face. For a moment, she considered going back inside to grab her shawl, but the thought of going back in there and potentially running into the Earl…

No. She couldn’t. She kept going instead.

Her father had never enjoyed the close quarters of the city proper, and so they lived on a large estate on the outskirts of town, surrounded by a sprawling garden, a flat green lawn, and beyond that, a thin sliver of forested land that separated her father’s estate from the Earl’s.

And yes. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this marriage contract was more about joining their properties and forging an alliance amongst their families than anything else.

No one had ever pretended otherwise.

Jane headed toward the stables, a place she could always find comfort.

No doubt Marlin had ridden his steed over here. But he’d have left his horse out front. Her fiancé didn’t even pretend that he might while away the hours in her company. It was an unspoken rule that he stayed to converse with her for precisely a quarter of an hour.

No more, no less.

She shivered as she raced toward her sanctuary, irritation flaring now that her fear of being caught subsided.

She’d done it. She’d avoided him. And while he might be surprised that she wasn’t at home, he wouldn’t care enough to do anything about it.

He definitely would not wait around for her. This much she knew. He likely had another appointment scheduled right after his meeting with her.

If he was irritated at her absence, it would likely be because she’d thrown him off schedule, not because he’d miss conversing with her.

She made a face as she rounded the corner of the stable to enter without causing a fuss. What a stickler Marlin was. For propriety, for timeliness, for efficiency.

She could never shake the feeling that his hawkish glare was just waiting to find fault with her. It put her on edge for weeks leading up to these horrid visits. There was no way she could live up to his standards. He was so…particular. So focused, and practical.

Her next shudder had nothing to do with the cold.

She could only imagine what her life would be like when she was forced to live under the same roof as the man.

The stablehands gave her a nod as she crept past them, head down as she made her way to her stall. No one said a word to her.

Perhaps they were unaware that she was on the run from her visitor.

Or, more likely, they didn’t care.

She was the only one with a racing heart, and no one else could understand the significance of what she’d just done.

For a moment she stood in the safe, relatively warm confines of the stables and let herself marvel.

She’d done it. She’d gone through with the dare her friends had issued.

She’d eluded her Earl.

A laugh bubbled up and she clapped a hand over her mouth before it could escape. Truthfully, this noise was more from disbelief than amusement.

After eight months of dutifully waiting for the fiancé who ignored her every other day of the month outside of his obligatory visit, she’d given him a taste of his own medicine.

Well, it wasn’t quite the same, was it? The Earl wasn’t forced to show up alone, time and time again, to every social event known to man, only to be looked upon with pity. Because everyone in London knew that her fiancé couldn’t be bothered to escort her.

If it wasn’t for her friends, she’d have died of humiliation. Or from the pain of having to make chit-chat.

Another shiver racked her frame and she wrapped her arms around herself to stay warm. She’d always been shy, and while her mother had taken pains to help her with it, and her father hadn’t noticed…

Her aunt had deemed her fears a figment of her imagination. The only way to overcome such a weakness is to face it head on , she’d said.

And so Jane was thrust into society every chance her aunt got.

But today her aunt was out visiting friends, and her father was out of town, and she…

Jane closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the sounds of rustling and whinnies in the stalls as a smile spread across her face.

She was free .