“We’ve been over this,” Lucy replied. “Derek and Julian wouldn’t have agreed to this in a hundred years. They would have given us a lecture about how it isn’t the right thing to do. And it’s not an awful lie. Not really.”

“Perhaps it isn’t the right thing to do, Lucy. Lying to our friends feels wrong.”

“Look at it this way.” Lucy pushed a palm frond away from her forehead. “You’re not fibbing so much as you’re helping them. You saw how Garrett and Jane acted at the picnic. Something is definitely happening between them. We’re simply giving them a small push. Now, tell me, what did Garrett say?”

Cass tugged at one of the leaves on the palm tree. “He was shocked to be sure, quite shocked.”

“Did he believe you?”

Another tug on the long green leaf. “I do think I was able to convince him, though he was skeptical for certain.”

Lucy clapped her hands together. “Perfect. The first phase of the plan has gone off splendidly.”

“What about you?” Cass let go of the palm leaf. It sprung back into place. “Have you told Jane yet?”

Lucy shook her head. “I’m on my way to speak to Jane now. The second half of the plan is to commence shortly. I call it Much Ado About Something.”

Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

“You must be jesting,” Jane said five minutes later as Lucy sat on the end of the bed in Jane’s guest chamber. “I cannot believe for a moment that Upton is in love with me.”

“I didn’t believe it either, at first,” Lucy said with a nonchalant shrug, “but Derek and Julian both told me the same thing. When Garrett was in his cups the other night, he admitted it to them.”

“Then he’s a loon when he’s in his cups,” Jane replied, shaking her head.

Jane’s voice was protesting, but her mind was preoccupied with examining this news. It couldn’t be true. Could it? Garrett? Garrett Upton? Rake, gambler, and general profligate, in love? With her? If Lucy had told her this news two days ago, Jane would have laughed her out of the room. But today. Today was the day after she’d nearly been ravished by Upton on the settee in the upstairs drawing room—and liked it. Today was the day she’d gone on a picnic and noticed Upton glancing at her every time she looked at him. Today everything had changed and Lucy’s story didn’t seem quite so far-fetched.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Lucy, but wasn’t Upton madly in love with Cass until recently?”

Lucy twisted her lips. “Oh, ah … about that…”

Jane narrowed her eyes on her friend. “What?”

“It seems I was mistaken about that.” Lucy traced her fingernail along the pattern in the bedspread.

“Mistaken?”

“Yes.”

“Upton wasn’t in love with Cass?”

“No.”

“Ever?”

“Never.”