More Than A Mistress, Chapter Two

Things are already heating up ... by the end of Chapter Two, our Bold Heroine is already trying to get Devilish Duke into bed!  I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING.

So as Devilish Duke heads off home to see his doctor about his wounded leg, perspective shifts and we get to learn the heroine's name.  It's Jane Ingleby, and Mary Balogh does some extremely skillful exposition where we learn that Jane is broke, alone, recently arrived in London, and only tenuously employed, all in the space of only one sentence.  Nice!  (I mean the exposition is nice, not the situation for our heroine.)  We also find out that Jane has been feeling paralyzing fear for "other reasons" not relating to her money woes.  Perhaps these reasons are why she has fled to London?  Two pages later, this seems to be confirmed as Jane reflects that "perhaps even now she was being hunted."  By whom, or why, is as yet a MYSTERY.

Could Jane be a higher-class woman than she is pretending to be?  Apparently she is trying "to disappear into the relatively anonymous world of the working class."  She also reflects how "women of the lower classes [are] so utterly powerless, so totally without any right to respect".  If she is actually a Lady of good standing, it would explain why she is so bold and arrogant and has this compulsive habit of standing up for herself.  We'll have to wait and see.

Jane loses her dismal job at the millinery, which she has held for two days, because she is late for work.  There's a bit where Jane's now-former boss is actually an interesting character, which is a nice surprise since we'll likely never see her again.  That's two points for good writing, Mary Balogh!  (And Val cheers quietly and grins widely and thinks I'll get hooked on romance novels yet.)  The same milliner character also gossips a bit about the Duke, noting not only that "he is the very devil himself" but also that he's well-hung: "no padding in them breeches, I would have you know!"  (How does she know?!)

On the flimsy and likely sarcastic promise that she could keep her job at the millinery if she produces a signed note from the Duke that he was the cause of her being late to work, Jane strides (the only possible means of locomotion for a bold heroine such as Jane) towards his house.  When she arrives, oh folly!  The butler mistakes her for the doctor's assistant, and quickly ushers her in to the Duke's bedroom, where he is awaiting his surgery!  The doctor thinks she is a servant, and gives up on waiting for his assistant, instead ordering Jane to help him.  The Duke recognizes Jane but has no time or presence of mind to speak up before surgery begins and rampant pain tears through his body.  Whee!  Farce!

Post-surgery, Jocelyn allows himself only a brief moment to enjoy Jane's tender care as she mops the sweat from his brow, then demands to know what she is doing there.  She requests the note for her employer, and though Jocelyn's friend Conan (seriously, how awesome is this) supports the request, he refuses.  She then insists that he provide employment for her as she simply "refuse[s] to starve."  Jocelyn, having just been told by his doctor that he must stay in bed and off his leg for three weeks - "he could not think of a worse fate", the narrative notes - agrees to hire Jane as his nurse.

The stage is now set.  Jane feels that Duke Jocelyn is the most "arrogant, bad-tempered, ill-mannered man" she's ever met.  Jocelyn feels that Jane is "the cause of all his woes".  These characters despise each other, and now they are going to spend three weeks together.  In romance novel terms, this is a foolproof recipe for hot sex.  The fact that one of them is bed-ridden is just icing on the cake.

A few other things happen in Chapter Two.  We find out that the Earl of Durbury is in London and staying at an expensive hotel.  He has hired a Bow Street Runner (Wikipedia describes these as London's first professional police force) to find a "green country girl" who has "as good as killed [his] son".  This dangerous criminal has also "run off with a fortune in money and jewels."  The Runner (Mick Boden) wants to know more about the particularities of this woman's crime, as well as her appearance, but we don't get to find out about that yet.  I'm guessing the murderess will have "golden hair" and "eyes a man could drown in".  If it is indeed Jane the Earl is looking for, my theory of her being a noblewoman is shot, as he describes her as a green country girl.

Also, Mary Balogh made me laugh twice in this chapter.  Behold:

Passage One:
[Jocelyn has been given quantities of alcohol, which function as anesthetic so the doctor can remove the bullet in his leg.]  "'f I drink more, th'old sawbones will have m'leg off b'fore I can protest."  His lips and tongue felt as if they did not quite belong to him.  So did his brain.

Passage Two:
"Who let you in?"  Jocelyn [demanded of Jane].
"Your butler, I suppose," she said.  "I told him I had come to speak with you, and he whisked me up here.  He said I was expected.  You may wish to advise him to greater caution about the people he admits.  I might have been anyone."
"You are anyone!" Jocelyn barked.

And now, as promised, the conclusion to Chapter Two.  Jocelyn and Jane set up a few rules of engagement. Jocelyn frowns at Jane, attempting to intimidate her as he lectures her on the fact that he is the master and she is the servant (foreshadowing?) and she must show respect at all times.  Jane responds by telling him not to swear in her presence, and also instructing him to call her Miss Ingleby instead of Jane.  Jocelyn, for some reason, does not beat her senseless at this point, but asks if she has any other requests for him.  She does:

'"Why are you not in bed?'"

Fin.