The Highwayman Read Online Free PDF Page B

better than anyone—most certainly better than she knows herself. And while there is no finer female than she, I would be the first to admit that she is as full as she can hold with proprieties. Not that propriety is a bad thing in a female of gentle birth, but I fear that Jane has a trifling tendency to overdo it, which is likely why you have taken her in dislike.
    “In any event,” she went on when he made no reply, “I hope you will not judge her too harshly, for you see, there are extenuating circumstances. Not that I mean to bore you with those details, but perhaps if I were to make known to you a few of her better qualities...”
    She went on, but by now the laudanum was taking hold, and he heard nothing beyond the drone of her voice until she ended with the words “... and that is what I wished to convey to you, Mr. Sebast.”
    The repetition of the misnomer pulled him back just enough to make the attempt at correcting her. But he only managed one word, “Not...” before he floated off again on a deliriously pain-free cloud.
    * * * *
    Agatha was far off the mark when she said that she knew Jane better than that lady knew herself. In point of fact, Miss Lockwood was well aware of all her faults, and was agonizing over them at that very moment.
    Although a more youthful Jane would have thought it impossible to be too concerned with proper behaviour—and, certainly, she still knew its value—there were times when she admitted, if only to herself, that, possibly, she tended to be a bit too steeped in propriety. On a very few occasions, she had even shared Agatha’s wish that she were a bit less so. But after years of ruthlessly training oneself to be a model of decorum, it was difficult, if not impossible, suddenly to turn round and become something else.
    For the most part, she accepted herself as she was, the most memorable exception to that being her one, disastrous London Season years before. She had known how it would be, just as she had known that it would take a very unusual man to overlook all her drawbacks and offer for her. She had not really wanted to go to London, but Agatha and Jane’s aunt, Lady Chidwell, had insisted.
    By the time her embittered and irascible father had consented to give her a Season, she was already older, by at least two years, than most of the other girls making their debuts that year. That, however, had not been the cause of her failure to “take.” Nor was it a lack of looks which had been the problem. She was no great beauty, but she had certainly been comely enough to attract the notice of several eligible gentlemen. Although her dowry was not large, she was the heiress to Meadowbrook, too, which counted for something. At least it had then, for at that time the estate was still bringing in a tidy profit.
    But after only one dance and some brief conversation with her, all of the more interesting males soon escaped her for the company of more agreeable females.
    She knew that she was considered to be too cold, too aloof, too unbending, even too prudish, but as much as she longed to be more like those other girls, she had been wholly unable to relax her rigid code of conduct. Besides, she had not the talent for flirtation or light-hearted chatter with persons of the opposite sex, and would have felt ridiculous attempting it.
    And, of course, there was always the old scandal involving her parents, which was, actually, at the very core of the whole matter. It, more than anything else in her life, had formed her present character.
    Agatha, always the optimist, had been certain that no one would recall how Lady Lockwood had deserted her husband and daughter to run off with another man. But, although no one had mentioned it in her presence, Jane knew the incident had not been forgotten, and that knowledge had rendered her even more incapable of lowering the barrier she had elected over the years. That barrier had been raised in an attempt to protect herself, to prove herself to be