His feet touched the ground, and his shoulders broke the surface. “Well, that was awful.”
“Then why did you do it?” she demanded.
“You’ve rescued me enough for one day. I thought I’d try to be of use.”
She shook her head at him. “We didn’t both need to get wet.”
“You should hardly be dragging boats around with your ankle. Besides, wet looks so good on you. I got jealous.” He didn’t need to look to know she blushed. Jasper grabbed hold of the boat and started towing it behind him with a smile.
As he squelched through the mud and dragged the boat ashore, he realized he was the only one squelching. He spun around—to make sure of what, he didn’t know. That she hadn’t collapsed in the mud? Been dragged back to the depths by some fanciful lake monster?
Juniper was standing in the shallows with the water lapping around her hips. With her hair plastered flat around her face, her eyes were impossibly large. Water adhered her shift to her body, rendering it all but useless.
Jasper blinked. “You’re breathtaking.”
“You’re not supposed to be looking.” Her arms came up, crossing over her chest and blocking out the view of her breasts.
“Sorry,” he answered softly. He’d thought something had happened to her.
Her smile was small. Private. “Up the shore and turn around.”
Jasper turned away from her. “I feel like we should discuss this. Negotiations might be in order.”
“What happened to being a gentleman?”
“Highly overrated. Who needs it?”
Her laugh rang out like bells across the water. “Walk up the shore, please.”
He started walking, calling over his shoulder. “You’re missing out. My ungentlemanly talents are world-renowned.”
“So I hear.” Light splashes sounded behind him as she left the water.
“I’ve already seen most of what there is to see.”
“Then you should be content in your good fortune.”
“Never.” If he glimpsed Juniper undressed a thousand times, he would still want the one thousand and first.
After a moment, she said, “You can turn now.”
Jasper turned. She’d eschewed the other layers and just put on her dress. It was sticking to her damp curves with tantalizing precision.
“You’re going to cause a riot.” He reached into the boat and handed her his shirt. “Here.”
She ran her eyes the length of his bare chest and waterlogged trousers. “What will you wear?”
“My irresistible masculinity.”
She choked a laugh as she pulled the shirt over her head. “Well then, you should be well covered.”
Jasper chose not to ruin his boots by putting them back on, so he traversed the lawn in bare feet. Juniper walked beside him, swallowed up by the billowing fabric of his shirt. They were a ridiculous pair, but there was something so intrinsically right about it, something that resonated satisfaction through him. When he reached for her hand, she looked up at him with a question in her eyes.
“I almost drowned. I’m feeling quite vulnerable.”
She looked down with a laugh. “Liar.”
He pushed open the door off the terrace with her fingers threaded through his. The halls leading to the foyer were empty, and they almost made it through the ground floor of the house without causing a fuss—until they ran smack into their absent hosts at the foot of the main staircase.
Jasper hadn’t realized how closely Juniper resembled her cousin until he saw Amelia standing there; a brunette version of his dripping companion. There were small differences—Amelia’s face was rounder, and her eyes were darker brown, but there was no denying their relation. She was frowning up at the much taller, dark-haired figure of her husband. Nicholas was looking down at his wife with the embarrassingly besotted expression Jasper suspected he’d worn his entire life. How Amelia had failed to notice it for so long was a mystery of the universe, but she certainly noticed it now. Her expression softened to a doughy ridiculousness of her own, and Jasper felt a warming sensation in his chest. He’d helped make that happen.
Then Nicholas ruined it by spotting them.
“What in the bloody hell?” Nicholas took in their disheveled states with a scowl.
“You’re back!” Jasper did his best not to sound disappointed.
“You’re wearing my trousers,” Nicholas countered.
“Why are you wet? What is Jasper doing here? Hello, by the way.” Amelia rushed to her cousin and Juniper’s hand left his as they embraced each other. “Is everything all right?”
Juniper answered her cousin with a beaming grin. “Perfectly.”
A storm was brewing on Nicholas’s face, and Jasper had no intention of facing it half-dressed and dripping, or of subjecting Juniper to one of Nicholas’s conservative diatribes in their present state. “Why don’t we tell you both about it after we’ve changed?”
“Jasper—”
“Oh, I owe you a boat,” he called over his shoulder as he reclaimed Juniper’s hand and led her up the stairs. “And two oars. See you at tea—and not a moment before!”
For the second time that day, Julia ended up in a bath. However, she agreed to this one with significantly less resentment. For one thing, she smelled like lake water. For another, instead of being anxious to see Jasper, she could lean back against the copper tub and relive their afternoon. He’d told her he intended to hide out from Nicholas until tea time, so she had a few blissful moments to relive her adventure.
It wasn’t the idyllic rendezvous she’d envisioned when she sent him out to the boathouse, but in some ways it was better. He was clearly terrified of the water, but he’d gone anyway. Because she’d asked him. And the way he’d looked at her when she was standing in her shift—if it was the last thing she did, he would look at her like that again, and next time she would not make him walk away.
“Nora, the water’s getting cold. Could you get some more to heat it up a little?”
“Of course. I live to haul kettles up and down the stairs.”
“You’re a ray of sunshine.” Julia rested her head against the edge of the tub.
Nora opened the bedroom door and gasped, hand on her heart. “Lady Amelia. You gave me a fright.”
“I’m sorry, Nora. Is my sister decent?”
“No, but there’s no force on heaven or earth that’s going to change that.”
“I can hear you,” Julia called.
“Can you? So, when I told you it was a bad idea to go gallivanting off with his lordship—”
“Go away, Nora.”
As Nora left, Amelia came in and sat on the bed. “You should be nicer to her, you know.”
“Then she’d be forced to be nice to me, and we’d both be miserable.”
“So, this gallivanting.” Amelia stacked a pile of pillows behind her back. Not a short visit, then. So much for waiting until tea. “What is going on?”
Oh, you know. Just desperately trying to engage a known rake in a scandalous affair. “Welcome back, by the way. How was your trip?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Julia should never have wished her sister would come back. Not having to explain herself had been delightful.
“What’s going on with you and Jasper? Why were you soaking wet? Why is he even here?”
“Well, I was out riding, and we came across each other…”
“And you get on famously, just like I always said you would.” Amelia was beaming with I told you so pride.
“We do, but there’s a slight complication.”
Amelia’s smile dropped away. “What complication?”
Julia cringed in advance, knowing what was coming next. “I told him I was Miss Juniper Fairchild.”
Amelia blinked at her. “Who the devil is Miss Juniper Fairchild?”
The woman I could have been—would have been—if not for my spine. “Your cousin. From Kent.”
“We don’t
have a cousin in Kent.”
“We do now.”
“But surely…how did you explain your back and the schedule?”
“He thinks I limp because I turned my ankle. I figured I would think of something for the rest of it when it came to that.”
“Oh, Julia.” Amelia sighed, the same way she’d sighed whenever Julia had gotten herself in too deep with some scheme or another. “How do you get yourself into such trouble? If you’d only—”
Julia sank down until the water covered her ears and she was staring at the ceiling. Amelia’s answer was just a distorted warbling of sounds. Julia smiled—until a palm flattened against her head and pushed her all the way under. She came back up flailing and stuttering. “You’re hateful.”
“Very. So.” Amelia returned to her pillow nest. “What happened today? Why were you all wet and wearing Jasper’s shirt? Are you lovers?”
“No,” Julia sighed. “Not for lack of trying. The bloody man has an incredible knack for not kissing me.”
“Julia!”
“What? Don’t pretend you didn’t seduce Nicholas with dishonorable intentions.”
Amelia ignored that. “What happened today?”
The pink flush that crept over Julia’s skin was not from the hot water. “I asked Jasper to row us around the lake while I sketched him.”
“Like we used to imagine we would do with our imaginary, perfect future husbands.”
Julia started to sink back down under the water.
“I will dunk you again,” Amelia promised.
She sighed. “I just wanted to know what it would be like, once.”
“And?”
“And Jasper has never rowed before, he let go of the oars, and apparently, he does not know how to swim.”
A laugh escaped Amelia. She pressed her hand to her mouth. “It was a disaster? I’m so sorry.”
It hadn’t been, though. It had been perhaps the greatest afternoon of Julia’s life. Nothing so exciting had ever happened to her. Again, she wished it had involved kissing. But it was progress, and what’s more—she felt closer to him. They shared something now that was just theirs. No one else could claim any part of it.
Amelia was watching her face. She sighed. “Oh, Jules.”
Julia stood up and stepped out of the bathtub, wrapping the towel around her body. “It was just a row around the lake. Don’t get all sentimental about it.”
“You’re falling for him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I fall for everyone in my imagination. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“But this isn’t imaginary. This is really happening.”
“He doesn’t even know who I am.”
“While we’re back on that subject…” Amelia scooted over, making room for Julia. “Why on earth did you choose Juniper, of all names?”
Julia tossed an embroidered pillow at her sister. “I was halfway through telling him my actual name when I realized I couldn’t. It was the first ‘Ju’ name that came to my mind.”
“What an unfortunate time to lose your silver tongue. Goodness, what are we supposed to call you? Is there a single good nickname for Juniper?” Amelia broke down in giggles again. “Juney.”
“No.”
“Niper?”
“They will never find your body.”
“Really, I could pick whatever I wanted and claim we’ve called you it since childhood. This is the sort of power you’ve placed in my hands with this ridiculous lie.”
Julia groaned. Twenty years of being the dominant force in their relationship was about to be paid back all at once. “As long as you go along with it.”
Amelia’s eyebrows raised and her mouth pursed in a dreadful similarity to Nora’s favorite expression. “You could just tell him instead.”
She couldn’t. Every time Julia thought about it, a sick feeling rose up in her stomach. “He wouldn’t like me as…me.”
“Why not? From where I was standing, it seemed like he liked you just fine.”
It seemed that way to Julia, too, but the idea of telling him was terrifying. “I just need more time, Mia. I’m not ready to risk it yet. Will you ask Nicholas not to give me away?”
Amelia sighed. “You know we’ll do anything for you, but we’re awful liars. You should tell him before we mess it up on accident.”
She should. She would. Just not quite yet.
Chapter Six
The writing desk in Jasper’s room was small, but large enough for the single sheet of paper centered on its walnut surface. He held the pen, inked nib suspended above cream vellum. So far, he’d only managed two words.
Dearest Ruby,
A day’s worth of distance wasn’t enough to get out what he needed to say. There might not be enough time in their whole lives, but he had to say something. She deserved something. Instead of the words that would slice his heart to shreds, he wrote about his day and trusted she would be able to read the meaning in them.
Today I rowed in a boat on a lake. It was exactly the catastrophe you would expect—a young lady had to jump in and push me to shore. You would have found it quite comical.
If she was capable of finding anything comical at the moment.
I’m sorry for the way I left. I know you expected better of me. You always do.
It was all he could manage. Everything else came too close to the knot that closed up his throat.
Give my love to Gran and to
Jasper’s hand shook as he realized what he’d been about to write. He took a deep breath to steady it as he crossed out the words.
Give my love to Gran.
Be well,
Jas
He hesitated, pen poised over the post script. There was always a danger in giving Ruby too much information. In the end, he threw caution to the wind because that was his way.
P. S. –If you need to reach me, send word to my solicitor in London. He won’t tell you where I am, but he can get word to me if necessary. Please don’t try to find me.
It wasn’t enough, but it was what he could give her. Jasper folded the page over on itself and headed out of his room to put it with the outgoing post.
“Jasper!”
He turned at the top of the stairs to find Nicholas coming from the opposite hall. “Hullo, Nick.”
“I need a word with you.”
Undoubtedly, but better now than after Juniper joined them. Nicholas in a temper wasn’t the most careful with his words.
“Study?”
Nick nodded. Jasper followed his silent march down the hall and through the dark walnut door of the ground-floor study.
When it closed behind them, Nicholas whirled on him. “What in the bloody hell are you thinking?”
Jasper didn’t need to ask what he was referring to. “She’s a delightful woman.”
“She’s Amelia’s—a member of Amelia’s family. Of my family, now.”
“Nothing untoward has happened.”
Nicholas stared him down.
“I mean it. I have been behaving myself quite admirably.”
“You two were barely dressed.”
Jasper poured them each a glass of port. This conversation would clearly require something stronger than tea. “That was an unfortunate circumstance, but not in any way planned.”
“Are you trying to tell me you aren’t pursuing her?”
“It’s complicated. I’m trying not to, but I’ve still got a pulse, Nick.” Jasper took a quick sip, barely tasting the fortified wine as it passed his throat. “Nothing serious has occurred.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Oh, come on. I promise to behave myself. Where’s the harm?” He leaned against the edge of the desk and tried to lure Nicholas back to the lighthearted friendship they usually enjoyed.
Nicholas refused. “The harm? The harm is what if she gets attached to you? What if she takes you seriously and develops feelings for you?”
The thought generated a warm flush just under Jasper’s skin that h
ad nothing to do with the wine. “I would be quite flattered.”
“And she will be devastated, because you don’t mean it and this…” Nick shook his head. “This cannot end well.”
“Maybe I do mean it,” Jasper said quietly.
“Excuse me?”
“Maybe I do mean it.” His voice was louder, more confident, the second time. “Maybe Miss Fairchild is special. In fact, I know she’s special. Maybe she’s the woman for me.”
“I’m not kidding, Jas. Take this seriously.”
“I am. Are you?” Being near Juniper, hearing her laugh, made Jasper feel a rightness that had been missing for a long time. He wasn’t in the habit of analyzing his feelings, so he couldn’t say for certain what it was. But why couldn’t it be love? Stranger things had happened.
“No! Why would I?”
“Maybe Miss Fairchild is the person I’ve been waiting to meet my whole life.” The idea was taking root. Their story had a great deal of romance to it. He’d run off to the country in a fit of grief, saved her life on the hillside, and then they would fall madly in love to the backdrop of the rustic English countryside.
While he crafted the ballad in his mind, Nicholas stared at him like he’d lost it. “You’re incredible. I’ve always known you only have a passing acquaintanceship with the truth, but that you would be willing to fabricate this kind of justification—”
If Nicholas truly could read his mind, he’d know none of it was fabricated. Perhaps a little embellished, but fully truthful. “I have never needed to justify myself.”
“—purely so you can continue to pursue Jul—Juniper with lascivious intent.”
“My intentions are not lascivious.” That was where he deviated from the truth. It was only circumstantial interruption that had kept Jasper from kissing Miss Fairchild senseless, and his resolve to keep things between them purely a flirtation was crumbling further by the hour. But it was more than just a physical attraction. Jasper wanted her smile. Her sweet blush and the unexpected edges to her conversation that snuck out and revealed the vicious wit beneath. There was nothing lascivious about that. That was pure.
Nicholas’s glass connected with the surface of the table like a gunshot. “She’s important to me, Jas. She’s important to Amelia.”
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