He faced her and sighed. “Yes, you and I have a great many conversations to share, I think, considering what will happen in a few short days. We might as well begin them now. What was on your mind? I will try to be as honest as I can be and hope you will be the same.”
She bent her head at his reminder that she had not begun this at all honestly.
“It is about last night, at the party,” she said, and forced herself to look at him even though she didn’t want to. “And today, I suppose, too, when you found me in the hall.”
He wrinkled his brow. “What about it?”
“Today you said hello to me as Thomasina and last night you claimed you knew who I was almost immediately after my entrance into the ball.”
“Not almost immediately,” he corrected, though not harshly. “Immediately.”
She shifted. “Very well, immediately. You know I have lived my entire life being a bit of an anomaly. Everyone is always staring at us, the Shelley Triplets. A rarity, indeed. But I don’t know anyone who can recognize me apart from the rest. What do you do to recognize me instantly?”
He let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “You think I have some trick that keeps you all separate.”
“You must,” she reasoned. “Something even those closest to us do not know.”
“Thomasina,” he said slowly, like he was letting her name roll around on his tongue. “I could not tell Anne from Juliana to save my life. The only one I can identify without assistance…is you. I always recognize you.”
She stepped away as her lips parted in pure shock. He always recognized her? What did that mean? Was it a compliment or curse? The way he looked at her right now it didn’t feel like a curse, that was for certain. It felt like a caress. Something sweet that connected them in a way she had never dared hope for.
But then he broke the stare and walked away, back to his desk.
She shifted, and then words fell from her mouth that she had not intended nor wished for. “Do you hate me for my part in all this, Harcourt? More to the point, will you forgive me for it?”
* * *
Jasper stared at Thomasina, her chin lifted, her back straight as she tried to put up a front of strength and calm. But he saw her hands trembling at her sides, saw the way her breath moved short. His answer mattered to her.
He pondered the question a moment, rolling it around in his mind. Then he drew a deep breath. “The world believes me to be a very proud man,” he said slowly, uncertain why he didn’t give her a shorter answer, but needing to explain himself somehow. “Perhaps not in the best sense. I am considered harsh by some. Cold by most. And I suppose that I do often make a judgment on someone and then never change it. I have learned, sometimes the hard way, to believe it when someone shows me who they are through their actions.”
She nodded. “Then you must think very ill of me.”
Her voice cracked when she said it and her lashes fluttered down, accepting his censure before he had even given it. Once again, he found he didn’t like that response. He would rather have her fight him, argue her case and her cause, than simply accept that she deserved punishment for a crime she’d only had a small part in.
“I don’t,” he said, a bit sharply. “Please look at me.”
She did so, lifting her gaze, making him lose himself in green depths for a moment.
“I was not happy with you last night,” he said. “Mostly because one thing I like about you, Thomasina, is that you seem to have more sense than most people. That you would trade places with your sister was a confusion to me. I don’t like being confused, because it means I cannot read a situation, and that can be dangerous. But in the end, you thought you were doing something harmless, didn’t you?”
“I thought I was helping Anne,” Thomasina said with a shake of her head. “I thought if she had a night to herself, a break from all the chaos of the upcoming wedding, that perhaps it would clear her head and help her be more ready for what was to come. I certainly didn’t think I was abetting her escape with…with… Honestly I don’t know how to describe the man she fled with in such a cowardly fashion.”
He smiled. There it was. That flash of hotter emotion, that moment of defiance of her sister. Even of him, as she explained herself.
“Yes,” he said softly. “As I’ve thought more of what happened last night, I could see your thoughts. I could recognize that you weren’t working against me, but for her. And I cannot fault that kind of loyalty in a sister. I wish I’d had the same in my own sibling.”
He flinched as he thought of his brother Solomon, dead for almost a year. He hadn’t spoken to him for a full year before that horrible day.
He never would again.
He blinked and turned away so as not to be vulnerable in front of her.
“At any rate, I don’t hate you for what you did,” he said, fiddling with papers on his desk.
“Thank you,” she said softly, and she moved to him. She reached his side and her hand came up slowly to settle on his forearm. “I appreciate your grace in a situation where you have been wronged.”
He glanced down at her hand on his body and wished for a wild moment that it were on his bare skin. He heard the catch of her breath and lifted his stare to her face. Her gaze was a little unfocused now. Unsteady with desire she likely didn’t fully understand.
Desire he very much wanted to cultivate.
“Perhaps it all worked out for the better anyway,” he murmured.
She licked her lips and his groin tightened with increasing need. Damn, but she was a temptress without even knowing it. And in less than one week she would be his, body and soul. He could drown in her if he wanted to, use her to forget his troubles.
He shook his head at that. Christ, he sounded like his father or his brother. Pleasure had always been first to them. Over duty. Over decency. He couldn’t allow that, no matter how much he wanted this woman.
He stepped away from her and broke the contact. “There is only one thing I demand from you going forward,” he said as he settled into his chair and looked up at her.
There was no mistaking the flash of hurt that he’d pulled away, but she erased it from her face quickly enough. “And that is?”
He leaned forward. “Do not lie to me again, Thomasina.”
She considered that a moment, then nodded. “I won’t. And I hope I can expect the same from you. This is not the match you wanted, Harcourt…Jasper.”
His breath caught, for that was the first time she’s said his given name. Now it hit him in the gut like a punch and made that wanting, that out-of-control longing, all the stronger.
“I know this isn’t your choice,” she continued, oblivious to his reaction. “But if we can be honest with each other, I hope it will not be one you regret.”
He jerked out a nod and then dropped his gaze to his work. “I realize we did not finish our tour, but I should probably focus on this now. Perhaps we can reconvene at a later date and continue. After all, there is no rush.”
He glanced up and saw her lips purse a fraction. Once again, though, she shoved whatever her reaction was aside and nodded. “I understand. But I do have one thing to ask you before I leave you to your business.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Very well, ask away.”
“My sister,” she said, worrying her hands in front of her suddenly. “I know she has done nothing to deserve your help or protection, but I am very worried about her running off with some stranger we know nothing about. Are you planning to do anything to help find her?”
He saw her true terror and couldn’t help but empathize. With his own brother, he had started off the same way, wanting to help him. In time, he had learned Solomon didn’t want or need his help. But Thomasina didn’t see it that way when it came to Anne. She still had the capacity to care.
And in truth, he had his own questions about Anne’s escape and the person she had run away with. He’d been mulling over her letter all night, thinking about every word choice. If she h
ad met this Ellis person here in Harcourt, it seemed like a coincidence, indeed. He didn’t believe in those. Especially when that name…Ellis…seemed so damned familiar to him.
Yet he wasn’t ready to share that with Thomasina. If Anne’s lover had something to do with him or, God forbid, his late brother or father’s bad dealings, he needed to find that out without her interference.
“I will think about it,” he said, ducking his head so his message for her to go would be clear. “Good morning, Thomasina.”
Her mouth opened and shut, and for a moment he thought she might push. But instead she went to the door and hesitated there, watching him for what felt like an eternity before she finally whispered, “Good day, my lord.”
Then she was gone and he flopped back against his chair with a long exhalation of breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He got up, going to the door she had just exited. He could smell her perfume there, some intoxicating combination of oranges and honeysuckle.
He tugged the bell, and in a moment his butler, Willard, appeared. “May I help you, my lord?”
“Is Reynolds on the estate?” he asked, returning to his desk.
Willard nodded. “Yes, sir. I believe he was dealing with some of the issues regarding the special license.”
Jasper barely kept himself from flinching. He had reached out to several staff members early in the morning, including his man of affairs, Reynolds, about the shocking change to his engagement status. Still, he hated that the news was circulating in the staff already.
Scandal was his constant companion, he feared.
“Should I fetch him?” Willard asked blandly, seemingly unaware of Jasper’s heightened state.
“Please.”
The butler left and Jasper paced the room. His mind was racing, bouncing from topic to topic and returning often to Thomasina and their uncertain future.
“You wanted to see me, Harcourt?”
He turned and forced a smile for his man-of-affairs. Reynolds had been a friend to him for years, long before he had inherited. Reynolds was a little more than a decade older than Jasper, and had seen far more in the world thanks to his time serving in His Majesty’s Navy. He was the man Jasper trusted most.
“How go the preparations for the special license?” he asked.
“I only started a few hours ago,” Reynolds said with a bemused smile. “But your influence and Shelley’s money will get you what you desire, I’m certain.”
“And the talk?” he asked, this time softer.
Reynolds shrugged. “Not very loud for now. But as I inquire more and the servants begin to whisper…”
“Of course,” Jasper said with a shake of his head. “That blasted woman will cause me nothing but trouble. In truth, I’m pleased to make the trade with her sister for my bride. Thomasina and I seem better matched.”
Reynolds cocked his head. “You’ve certainly talked about the younger triplet more since your engagement.”
Jasper pushed to his feet and paced away from the smirk of his longtime friend and employee. “You are being ridiculous. At any rate, that isn’t why I asked you to join me. I didn’t share with you the contents of the note Miss Anne left her sister before she fled me like I was a monster at her heels. I would like to do so now.”
Reynolds shrugged. “Very well.”
“She ran off with a man with the name of Ellis. I do not know for certain if it is a first or last name. But I keep coming back to it. It is so familiar. And I have begun to fear that her finding a…well, I hesitate to call him a gentleman…but a man willing to thwart her very public engagement to be rather suspicious.”
“You are always suspicious of something,” Reynolds drawled.
Jasper pursed his lips. “The world has given me a great many reasons to be so. At any rate, do you have any theories as to why that name rings in my head?”
Reynolds paced the room, and Jasper watched as his mind spun on the question. The man had a memory like no one he’d ever known. “Wharton Ellis is the shopkeep near your London estate,” Reynolds began.
“No, I doubt that is who my until recently intended ran away with,” he said with a chuckle as he thought of the ancient shopkeep with a wife of over sixty years and a gaggle of beloved children and grandchildren.
“Ellis Crowley owned an inn you stayed in once in Scotland.”
“We’re reaching, I think,” he said.
Another hesitation as Reynolds continued his search of memory. Then his eyes widened. “Wait. Wait.”
“What? You thought of something?”
“What was the name of your brother’s second in the duel that—” Reynolds cut himself off, and Jasper flinched.
“The duel that took his life?” he asked, as if there were another. “Maitland, I think. Er…oh God. Ellis Maitland.”
Reynolds nodded. “He had a bad feel to him when he came to tell you about the particulars of the previous earl’s death.”
“He did at that.” It was Jasper who paced the room now, fisting his hands at his sides. “I knew my brother had involved himself in far worse than mere reckless gambling and carousing when I met Maitland. But I paid him for his support of Solomon.”
“Far more than I thought the man deserved,” Reynolds said.
“Perhaps, but I hoped it would silence him on spreading rumor and innuendo. Also so he would not return.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Christ.”
Reynolds shook his head. “You know, he was asking so many odd questions when I had him come back to your London home for the payment delivery a week or so later.”
“He was?” Jasper asked, spinning on him. “About what?”
“Something about your brother’s travels. About any furnishings or knickknacks you wanted to rid yourself of, especially any new ones.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Reynolds shrugged. “Because it is my duty to keep those kinds of silly questions out of your sightline. You were managing a great deal as you took over the title, and I knew you wouldn’t be interested in selling off wares to a man like that. Had you spoken to me about wanting to get rid of things, I’m sure I would have brought it up, but you were storing most of the previous earl’s items.”
“Yes, here, actually,” Jasper said.
“And if it is Maitland who Anne ran away with, that means the same man showed up here,” Reynolds said. “It seems like quite a coincidence, as you said.”
“Do you think he wanted something of Solomon’s?” Jasper asked, the sick feeling in his stomach rising.
“Perhaps,” Reynold’s said. “It’s possible, of course.”
Jasper ran a hand through his hair as he thought of Thomasina and her worry over Anne. Now he felt the same concern for his former fiancée, whether he was angry with her or not. “And instead he very well could have found Anne. If she has involved herself with—”
Reynolds held up a hand. “Now wait. We have no idea if her Ellis is the same as your brother’s second, do we?”
Jasper drew in what he wished was a more calming breath. “I suppose not.”
“Ellis is common enough as both a first and last name, as we have already determined by my little exercise trying to recall where you knew it.” Reynold’s reached out and placed a hand on Jasper’s shoulder. He gave a squeeze. “Let me make inquiries. I’ll find out if Maitland is even in the area. If he isn’t, then your fears can be assuaged.”
“Yes,” Jasper said, though his racing heart didn’t calm as he pondered the horrible possibility that his brother’s history had once again come to destroy Jasper’s future. “I would appreciate that, thank you.”
“And I will be discreet as I can be about it, of course,” Reynolds said as he got up and made for the door.
Jasper laughed even though there was nothing funny about the entire situation. “You can try, my friend. But this is all a powder keg now and someone has already lit the match. An explosion is imminent. I will just have to bear it.”
Re
ynolds’ concern was clear, but he inclined his head and exited the room to begin his investigation. And as he left, Jasper immediately rested his head in his hands.
There was nothing left to do now but wait. Because that was his life. Waiting and reacting to whatever terrible turn came next on the road of a life that was never meant to be his. Including the bride who would take his name in a few short days.
Chapter 6
It was early evening when Jasper stepped into the parlor where he had first found Thomasina that morning. He stared around the room, recalling how she had stood just there looking at that miniature or smiled at him from that place by the fire. It was odd how he already associated her with his home, that he was already making memories of her in this space.
Probably foolish of him, considering their circumstances.
Ones he was sharply reminded of when Thomasina’s father entered the parlor behind him with a wide smile.
“Good evening, my lord!” he said with a jolly laugh like all was right with the world. Jasper supposed it was, after all. Shelley was in no worse a position aside from the loss of Anne. A fact that didn’t seem to bother him as much as it did Thomasina and Juliana.
“Mr. Shelley,” Jasper said with much more coldness. “You have the paperwork, I assume?”
Shelley produced a pile of folded sheets from the inside pocket of his jacket and motioned Jasper to join him at the sideboard, where a servant had left quills and ink for the very duty they were about to perform.
Jasper looked over his shoulder. “Thomasina won’t be joining us?” he asked.
Shelley laughed. “Why would she? Anne didn’t join us the first time.”
Jasper pursed his lips. “Perhaps if she had, her hesitations would have been clearer and we could have avoided all this nonsense.”
Shelley shrugged. “In the end you have not made a bad trade, you know. Thomasina is much more biddable and pleasing than Anne.”
Jasper clenched the pen tighter as he swirled his name into the marriage agreement. Nothing had changed from the original document save Thomasina’s name. The settlements were the same, which was all that mattered.
A Reluctant Bride Page 5