“Well,” came Mrs. Langford’s silky voice, still directed toward Jane. “Perhaps you learned something about attracting the interest of a man while you were in the—ahem—library last night? Any books about that in there?”

Cass gasped. Lucy’s head swiveled back and forth between Jane and Mrs. Langford. Garrett studied his wine glass. Julian and Derek shifted in their seats.

“I wouldn’t know,” Jane replied sweetly. “If such a book did exist, I’d be singularly uninterested in it.”

“You’ve never taken a fancy to a man?”

Jane pressed her lips together. Something in the smug look on Mrs. Langford’s face made her think the woman knew something. Or seemed to suspect. Twenty-four hours ago, Jane could have said “no” without a shadow of guilt on her conscience, but considering that last night she’d just had her first kiss … and more, she wasn’t able to stand on the moral high ground any longer.

Once again, Cass, the dear, waded into the silence for her. “Jane is a confirmed intellectual. She’s not interested in marriage at all.”

“A pity.” Mrs. Langford pulled a piece of bread from the basket that had made its way to her. She set the slice on her plate. “Marriage can be ever so agreeable, if it’s done with the right partner.” She turned toward Upton and batted her eyelashes. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Upton?”

Upton cleared his throat. “Considering that I am a bachelor, Mrs. Langford, I wouldn’t know.”

Jane hid her smile at his answer behind her wine glass but inside she was simmering. The nerve of that woman. What was Upton about, bringing this odious person into their midst? He couldn’t possibly relish her company, could he? Oh, no. He didn’t … He couldn’t have thought that she was Mrs. Langford last night, could he? A knot formed in Jane’s belly and sat there like a hard, jagged rock. She glanced up to see Upton’s gaze sliding away from her again.

“I’m quite certain marriage is ever so agreeable,” Julian said, a sparkle in his eye as he pulled Cass’s hand up and kissed the back of it. Cass beamed at him.

Derek tightened an arm around Lucy.

Jane found herself fighting back … tears of all things. It wasn’t as if she’d never thought about marriage, never considered it. As a younger woman, she’d been inclined to daydream, to wonder what it would be like to be swept off her feet by a handsome stranger, told she was beautiful, fall in love. Those things were not for her. She preferred solitude to parties, books to fripperies. She was plain and dowdy, not fashionable. Nothing like her gorgeous friends Lucy and Cassandra. Jane had never had one suitor. Not one. Not even the hint of one, the whiff of one.