Jenna Petersen - [Lady Spies] Read Online Free PDF

her would be a challenge. She couldn’t forget herself or what was at stake. If she lost track of Tristan for an entire fortnight, he could rid himself of the painting before she was able to intercept him. Her chance to prove his innocence—or guilt—would be lost.
    She slipped through the enraptured group of women carefully, keeping her eyes focused on Tristan’s mother as she edged near. Before she could think of a way to interrupt, her ladyship’s eyes fell on her and she gasped as her hands came up to cover her cheeks.
    “Oh my! Lady Northam, is that you?” she said with a wide, welcoming smile that tugged at Meredith’s heart. “My dear, my dear, how long has it been?”
    Meredith pushed away unexpected delight that she had been remembered. “Lady Carmichael, how kind of you to recall me. It has been far too many years since I’ve had the pleasure of your company.”
    Lady Carmichael nodded with a wide grin, then shook her head. “Oh, I’m forgetting myself. I’m sure you know these ladies.”
    Meredith looked around the group. To her surprise, she knew them all. She’d met them at many a party and laughed at their frivolity. They were the debutantes of the current Season, with their mamas in tow. In fact, all of them were debutantes.
    She arched an eyebrow as she looked from the crowd of young women to Lady Carmichael. Her ladyship’s daughters were grown and married, so she wouldn’t know the young women through their social acquaintance with her children. Why was she surrounded by them at present?
    Unless…
    Tristan. She found him in the crowd with one quick pass of her gaze. He was unmarried. Evidently, Lady Carmichael was playing matchmaker.
    A strong and equally surprising blast of jealousy smashed through Meredith before she pushed it aside with violence.
    “Of course, my lady.” She gave a nod to the women. “Good evening to you all.”
    The women nodded politely and said their hellos. Meredith refocused her attention on Lady Carmichael. “I am sorry I haven’t spoken to you in so long, my lady. I suppose it has been since the death of my husband.”
    “And that was many years ago, was it not?” Lady Carmichael asked. “It seems we have been two lonely ships. We have passed each other, but never on the same course.”
    Meredith nodded. “Indeed. How pleased I am that we navigated to each other tonight.”
    Her ladyship sighed quietly. “I’ve told Tristan many a time how I wondered about you these past few years.”
    Meredith wondered how Tristan felt about that statement, since it was he who had desired the distance between them, but she smiled, and it wasn’t an expression she had to force. Her memories of Lady Carmichael were all fond. The woman had been nothing but kind to her during her visits. Almost motherly in her care.
    “I have fared very well, ma’am,” she said.
    “I’m glad to hear of it.”
    Meredith cocked her head. Lady Carmichael was staring at her with an odd expression. Like she was being sized up. And suddenly she realized…she was. The lady’s matchmaking had apparently stretched to her as well, despite her six and twenty years and status as a widow. The thought was quite shocking, but Meredith recovered herself as well as she could.
    Like it or not, she could use Lady Carmichael’s desire to see her son married against her…and against Tristan. The idea left a sour taste in Merry’s mouth, but she swallowed it.
    “I enjoyed a very brief but pleasant conversation with your son earlier in the evening,” she said with a shy dip of her head that so went against her personality. Even when she was out in Society, she had never been good at flirtatious games. She preferred to be straightforward. Something she could rarely be in her role of spy. “He is looking very well. As handsome as I remembered him to be so many years ago.”
    Lady Carmichael’s eyes lit with interest and she stepped closer, effectively closing out the conversation she’d been having