The Return of Lady Jane

by Michaels, Jess

  “Curious,” Alicia said, taking the paper as Jane held it out and reading it for herself. “There is no indication as to what he wishes to discuss. Will you go?”

  Jane shuddered at the thought of spending time with yet another man who seemed to hold some unnamed crime over her head. “I don’t know.”

  Alicia drew back in surprise. “Even after all you’ve said to me today?”

  Jane stared at her. “What do you mean?”

  Her sister got to her feet and paced across the room to her. “Lord, Jane, you have been talking about all you feel for Wharton and all you do not understand about what stands between you. Has it ever occurred to you that his cousin might be exactly the person to answer that question, since your husband will not?”

  Jane shifted. “They are close. I’d call them friends as much as relations.”

  “Well, there you have it. I’m certain Mr. Wharton must know why Colin keeps you at arm’s length. He might even be calling you to his home with the intention of speaking to you on that very matter. If you go, you could find your answers and then you’ll know exactly what the right response is.”

  Jane bit her lip. Her sister was not wrong. But in that moment, she was terrified. What if the answer she sought was not one she could overcome? What if Arthur told her something that broke her heart and ended things between her and Colin forever?

  “At least you will have tried,” Alicia said softly, almost in answer to Jane’s unspoken question.

  Jane nodded slowly. “You are right, of course. I can look back with no regret if I do this. So I shall send him word that I will join him. I just hope with all my heart that whatever he wishes to speak to me about is something that can change the course of my future.”

  Jane sat in Arthur Wharton’s parlor, waiting anxiously for his arrival. She worried a handkerchief in her fist, trying not to focus too much on what he might want from her when he called her here.

  “You’re going to rend that thing in two.”

  She jumped from her seat and turned to watch the man, himself, enter the parlor. To her surprise, he reached back and closed the door nearly all the way. She wrinkled her brow, for the increased privacy was anything but proper. And it made her think this conversation was going to be very serious if he didn’t want anyone to hear it.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Wharton.”

  His lips thinned as he went to the sideboard. “Arthur, please. After all, we are family.” He emphasized that word as he motioned to the teapot. “Drink?”

  She shook her head. “No, thank you. Perhaps in a while.”

  He smirked and she drew back a fraction at the odd expression. There was something so cold in his eyes. Oh, he’d always been standoffish toward her, at the party the night before he’d been flat out rude, but this went beyond that.

  Still, she was here. She had no choice but to face him and hope he would help her out of love for his cousin in the end.

  “I was surprised to receive your summons today,” she said.

  He laughed. “My summons. I like that. As if I am a king.”

  She forced a smile. “I-I suppose.”

  “But here you are,” he said, taking a seat across from her. She retook her own chair and shifted uncomfortably as he looked her up and down. “In the flesh.”

  “Y-yes,” she said, still very confused by his demeanor. It was not what she had been expecting. “I assume that since you and I have never enjoyed a social connection, you called me here to discuss Colin.”

  “In a matter of speaking,” Arthur said, setting his glass aside. “I suppose the topic is my dear cousin. And his relationship with you.”

  “You don’t approve.”

  He caught her eye. “I do not.”

  She bent her head. “I wish I understood why. I feel as though you and Colin believe I should, but I don’t. In fact, I thought that by coming here, perhaps I could learn more about the barriers which separate me from my husband. Perhaps I could find a way to earn the trust you don’t yet have for me. That he doesn’t have for me.”

  Arthur’s eyes narrowed, and then he surprised her by breaking out into a long, chilly laugh. When he had regained his composure, he leaned forward, fingers steepled on his knees. “Even after all he’s done, you care for him still, don’t you?”

  She blinked, for there it was. Oh, Arthur mocked with his tone, of course. But he had said it nonetheless. And if she wanted to overcome what stood between her and Colin, she had to admit he was right.

  “Yes,” she said softly. “I do care deeply for your cousin. Despite all that has happened, I want our marriage to be real. To be happy. I know you care for him, Arthur—please, won’t you help me?”

  He arched a brow. “You know I care for him?” he repeated.

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  He smiled, and Jane caught her breath. There was something so sinister in his expression. And in that moment, all her nervousness rushed back to her. Not because of what she was here to do, but because of his demeanor. She suddenly felt like she was in the room with a dangerous animal, one she had underestimated.

  “Then you know only what I wish you to know,” Arthur said, his voice rough and hard.

  “I…don’t understand,” Jane said, rising slowly and backing away because it felt like the right thing to do. The thing that would protect her.

  He got to his feet too and moved toward her without hurry. “You think I called you here because I might be able to help you repair your marriage? You stupid girl, I’m the one who broke it in the first place.”

  Chapter Seven

  Colin shrugged out of his coat and handed over his gloves to Simmons with a sigh.

  “I hope your appointment went well, my lord,” the butler intoned.

  Colin flinched. He wouldn’t say it had gone well. Arthur had set the entire thing up for him, convincing him that meeting with Lord Massingale was the right thing to do and that the important earl could be moved. His cousin had been wrong, though, and the exercise had been in futility. Not only did Massingale have no interest in his legislation, had never even considered it,. Worse, Colin had not been able to argue his case thoroughly because he was too distracted.

  Too distracted by thoughts of Jane. Thoughts of the past, but also thoughts of what they’d shared since she returned to London. The night before, after the ball, she had seemed truly confused by his anger toward her. Completely unaware of any reason he might have to hold her at arm’s length. She had begged him to explain it to her. To say those things that had hung between them in silence for half a year.

  He had not done that since their wedding. At first because he was too sick to say those words out loud. Later, whenever he’d been tempted to confront her, Arthur had been the calm voice of reason, guiding him away from such foolish notions.

  But Arthur was not in that carriage last night. Arthur was not in this marriage, in the end. A marriage that was beginning to feel real. If he did what she asked, if he sat down with her and told her everything he knew…he was beginning to wonder if there wasn’t some way they could work out the past. Overcome what she had done, perhaps find a way to move forward…

  Together.

  With those thoughts burning in his addled mind, he’d left the meeting hours early in order to come home and finally talk to her. Really talk to her. His heart throbbed at just the thought of it and what it could do to change his life.

  “Where is Lady Wharton?” he asked the butler.

  Simmons wrinkled his brow. “I’m sorry, sir, I thought you’d be aware. She received a message from Mr. Wharton to meet with him. She should be there now.”

  Colin drew back. “My cousin, Mr. Wharton? Arthur?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The butler withdrew from the foyer, leaving Colin to stand there in confusion. Why would Arthur wish to speak to Jane? He’d never made his contempt for her anything but plain. He’d only ever encouraged Colin to stay away from her an
d not be taken in by her wiles.

  But perhaps that was exactly why he’d called Jane to his side. Arthur wanted to protect him and now he foolishly thought he had to save Colin from her.

  “Damn it,” Colin muttered. “Simmons!”

  The butler rushed back, Colin’s things still in his hands. “Yes, sir?”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m going back out again.” He took back the items and ran to the drive. He motioned to the boy who was just trotting off with his horse and swung up on the beast.

  As he exited his drive and raced back onto the street, he couldn’t ignore the fissure of worry in his chest. And wonder at the cause, beyond a fear that Arthur would scold Jane or tell her to leave Colin alone.

  His worry felt more driven than that. It felt more serious and he couldn’t place why.

  Jane stared at Arthur, uncertain that she understood what he had just said. Praying she didn’t understand, for the alternative was just too awful.

  “What do you mean you broke my marriage?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  He rolled his eyes and turned to the sideboard a second time. He bent down and opened the cabinet below. “Do I need to use smaller words? I thought you were supposed to be clever. I interfered in your marriage, Jane. I’m the reason Colin banished you.”

  He turned back to her as he finished that sentence and Jane skittered farther away, because he now held a pistol in his hand. He leveled it on her.

  “What are you doing?” she cried out as her backside hit the wall and she had nowhere else to go.

  He smiled, a thin and empty expression. “Sit down, Jane.”

  She stared at the gun again and drew in a long breath. She’d have to run past this man to get to the door and escape. If he truly wanted to hurt her, he would shoot before she made it three steps to freedom.

  So her best option was to do exactly what he said and try to understand why he was doing this. Perhaps once she did, she could reason with him and escape.

  She moved forward in slow, wary steps, and retook her place in her chair. He did the same, never moving the pistol from its place pointing straight at her heart.

  “What is this, Arthur?” she whispered, her voice shaking. “What are you doing?”

  “This is called finally getting what I deserve.”

  His voice was cold and calm and terrifying, but she forced herself to stay in place, keep her hands folded tightly in her lap.

  “Please,” she whispered. “I don’t understand what you want.”

  He nodded. “I realize that. I realize that no one understands what I want. Which only makes me an accomplished liar and actor, I suppose. After all, you believe that I care for Colin. That alone should earn me an award.”

  “Don’t you care for him?” she asked in utter confusion.

  “With his heart that bleeds for justice?” Arthur snorted, his tone thick with contempt. “With his superior attitude? I don’t give a damn about him. I never have. I should be viscount. I should have the money and the title and the lifestyle he wastes on his so-called good works.”

  The hatred practically dripped from his voice, and Jane shook her head. “Arthur, you cannot mean that.”

  “But I do.” Arthur shook his head. “Do you know how hard I worked to twist him? To break him? First with Cassandra.”

  Her lips parted. “Cassandra?”

  Arthur grinned. “Oh, that’s right, ladies are protected from such things. I knew what she was from the beginning and I encouraged Colin to court her. Then I helped her along in entering into an affair with every man who gave her a pretty bauble.”

  Jane caught her breath. She’d known that Colin had courted a woman before her and there had been whispers it had ended badly. But she’d never imagined what she was hearing now. That Arthur would purposefully cause the kind of pain he was describing.

  “Why would you do such a thing?”

  “To have what I wanted, of course.” Arthur shrugged, as if his actions were harmless, meaningless, understandable. “I thought I had him then. I thought certain he’d never marry. I encouraged that path. Hell, there were times in I even thought he might end it all.”

  Jane jerked her hand to her lips at that idea and the pain it caused her. “You cannot mean that.”

  He nodded. “He was very upset. And if he had put a bullet in his own brain, it certainly would have been less messy than all this.”

  “You are a monster,” Jane whispered.

  He smiled. “And you are a fool. But a frustrating one. You see, your family came along, his mother became involved and this arranged thing between you was set. So I had to break that, too.”

  She blinked. “I still don’t understand. What do you mean, break it?”

  “Do you remember the terrace, the night of your wedding?”

  She thought back and her eyes went wide. There had been one thing that happened at her wedding ball that she’d never told a soul.

  “There it is,” Arthur chuckled. “You know what I’m talking about. Todd Martin.”

  Jane gasped. Her old childhood friend, Todd Martin, who had not been invited to the soiree, had approached her in the ballroom, demanding to speak to her.

  “I went out with him,” she murmured. “Wondering why in the world he was there. He was acting like there was something urgent that could not wait. But when I got outside, he changed his mind.”

  “And then you were waylaid by another guest,” Arthur encouraged. “A lady who drew you into an adjoining parlor to talk to you.”

  She nodded. It had been an odd series of events, but one that had hardly stuck in her mind when she was so anxious to get back to Colin’s arms.

  “Your husband saw you exit the ballroom with Martin,” Arthur said. “And then he saw you two kiss.”

  “I never kissed him.”

  “Of course you didn’t. You were being kept busy elsewhere. But another lady, one with honey-blonde hair and a gown exactly like yours, kissed him.”

  Her mouth dropped open as she understood the full horror of what he was saying. She was now beginning to understand not just Arthur’s motives, but everything that had transpired between her and Colin since their wedding. “You invited a man to whom I had once been linked, and then you created a situation where Colin would believe I betrayed him.”

  “I did invite Martin. Well, smuggled him in is a better description.” Arthur chuckled, like the whole thing was a wonderful joke. “He and the lady of the night who was so easily mistaken for you were paid well to do exactly what they did at the exact moment they did it.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes and she blinked to clear them. She would not give this monster her tears. “You wanted Colin to believe I was no better than this Cassandra woman who broke his heart.”

  His smile grew. “You are not as stupid as I thought. Brava, Jane. Exactly. Now I thought this would make him annul the marriage, but it had not occurred to me that he would have already bedded you.”

  Jane flinched, turning her face as heat flamed into her cheeks.

  “That threw me off. Disrupted my plans. But I adjusted, as any true man of intelligence must do from time to time. I switched tactics, and it was easy as child’s play to convince him to send you away. To convince him to hate you.”

  Jane’s stomach rolled and she covered her mouth in horror. “You…you…”

  “Arthur.”

  He jumped to his feet and swung around, turning his gun toward the door. Jane looked in the direction of the voice, that voice she knew so well, and gasped as she looked at Colin, standing in the entrance to the parlor, his face pale and his hands shaking.

  “Arthur,” he repeated, his voice hollow. “How could you?”

  Colin stared in disbelief at his cousin. He’d come to the house, thinking he might encounter a scene, but this was not the one he’d pictured. No one had been at the door when he entered, no servant even seemed to be in the house. So he’d come down the hall, looki
ng for Arthur and Jane. He’d overheard Arthur’s confession in the hallway, about Cassandra, about Jane and the bitter lie he’d believed since their wedding day.

  But when he entered and saw the gun trained on his wife, his world had come crashing down around him.

  Arthur sneered. “Don’t get so self-righteous, Colin. You never gave a damn about her or else it wouldn’t have been so easy to convince you to throw her away.”

  Colin winced at the statement, at the way Jane trembled as she looked at him in fear and horror. He had done so much wrong to her. He had lost faith in her, hurt her, and now when she needed him most, he hadn’t kept her safe.

  “Keep the gun on me,” he said softly as he edged into the room. It took everything in him not to rush Arthur, to pour out the rage that now bubbled within him.

  But that would result in getting shot. Or worse, Jane being shot. And he couldn’t risk it no matter how much he wanted to pummel Arthur to the floor.

  “Did you truly make me believe Jane was unfaithful?” he asked, though he recognized already that it was true. The fact that he’d let himself be so easily manipulated by such lies was another thing entirely.

  “Yes,” Arthur hissed. “But you ruin everything, Colin, just as you’ve always ruined everything. But this time I was careful. I planted the seeds, I took my time. And it worked for a while. You sent Jane away and it bought me time. But then she showed back up in London and you were tripping over yourself to reconcile with her even though you thought she was little better than a whore.”

  Jane sucked in her breath through her teeth. Colin met her eyes, praying she would be comforted by his expression. That she would believe he would fix this.

  He had to fix this.

  “Arthur, put the gun down,” he said softly. “What is done is done. It’s in the past. You don’t have to do something you will regret.”