When the gentlemen joined the ladies after dinner that night, Mrs. Langford kept her sultry gaze trained on Upton. Jane couldn’t take any more of the two of them. She’d been a complete fool telling Upton she’d get to the bottom of why Mrs. Langford had come. It had been obvious the entire time! If Jane hadn’t allowed first her dislike of Upton, then her scandalous interaction with him, and finally her suspicion that he was in love with her, to cloud her judgment, she would have seen it from the start. Upton, the cad, had managed to invite his mistress to his friends’ wedding. Even worse, he’d kissed Jane, too. Was the man so overcome with his base instincts he couldn’t limit his sexual appetite to only one woman at a house party? What would Mrs. Langford say if she knew the man keeping her had been kissing another lady in the upstairs drawing room the other night? It was disgusting to contemplate.

Of course, there was no chance Jane would be the one to tell Mrs. Langford about her lover’s defection. Jane would be admitting to being the other woman, and she’d rather die. No. She would keep Upton’s dirty secret.

What nonsense of Lucy to tell her Upton loved her. Utterly ridiculous. How could he possibly be in love with her and invite his mistress to the house party at the same time? Lucy had informed Jane that Upton obviously had decided he’d fallen in love with her after Mrs. Langford’s arrival, but the entire thing was sickening. If this was Upton’s type of love, Jane had no use for it.

The worst part wasn’t realizing what a degenerate the man was. The worst part was knowing she didn’t have the right to be angry. Upton hadn’t known it was her whom he’d kissed. He’d been kissing a stranger during a drunken masquerade ball. He probably hadn’t given it a second thought. How many women did Upton consort with? Regardless, she was through with him. She’d have to suffer his company for the remainder of the house party, but then Jane would make it clear to Lucy that if she wanted to spend time in her cousin’s company, she would do so without Jane.

Surprisingly, Upton made his way directly over to where Jane sat on a settee in the far corner. He’d searched the room when he’d entered as if looking … for her? Mrs. Langford was on the opposite side of the salon, no doubt being catty to Daphne Swift. Poor Daphne, it looked as if the young woman had purposely engaged the widow in conversation.