Mornings were for rides and household duties. Afternoons were for estate business or receiving and making calls. In the weeks since her aunt and Cherry had departed for London, there were no more anonymous notes or gifts. Jane was glad of it, for it proved that Cherry had been behind it all along. With this little annoyance out of the way and her new spinster status firmly settled, Jane would be much more content. Jane avoided confronting certain facts, however, when she told herself how happy she was. No matter what she did, the viscount was never far from her mind. The most frustrating occasion had been when she visited the ruins. The abbey had always been a source of solace and peace for her. But her mind had betrayed her. Her eyes saw only his face when she walked among the fallen stones. Even her remembrances of her father couldn’t erase Devlin’s image for long. It had been more than a month, and she could not bring herself to return.
