Chapter 46
Jane stood in front of the dressing table in her bedroom, a dreamy smile on her face, as Molly helped her button up the back of her dress. She had overslept, sinfully. Yet she hadn’t gone to bed until dawn. Her smile increased. She was remembering last night.
The earl had taken her for an intimate, elegant dinner at one of London’s finest restaurants. From there they had gone dancing at the Regency, then strolled along the Thames, hand in hand, and after …
Jane briefly closed her eyes. Just thinking about his lovemaking brought an instant tension and need to her body.
“There you go, mum,” Molly said. “My, ain’t you a sight this morning! A stunner if ever you were one, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so.”
Jane smiled, regarding herself openly. Her eyes were a dazzling blue, sparkling boldly, her cheeks flushed naturally, and, indeed, she was striking this day.
“I don’t mind,” she said softly, while inside her soul was singing.
She reached for her pearl-inlaid hairbrush, then paused, noticing a small wrapped, beribboned jeweler’s box next to it, with a card.
Molly saw it too. “Another one!” She gasped.
Jane tried to frown, and failed. She opened the gilt-edged card. As had all the others, it said simply “To my wife, Jane, from Nicholas.” She shook her head. Inside the box was a choker of diamonds that must have cost thousands of pounds. Molly gasped.
In the past week, since their reconciliation, he had given her a stunning sapphire ensemble, a breathtaking bracelet of rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, an exquisite rope of pearls. Not to mention all the white roses. And now this, worth a king’s ransom. He was surely out of his mind!
“He must love you very much,” Molly breathed, awed. “Ain’t you gonna try it on?”
Jane did not exactly have to be coerced, and Molly helped her don the necklace. It consisted of three tiers and a large teardrop point. It was much too much—where would she wear it?
“Where is the earl?”
“He’s still in the dining room.” Molly grinned. “He slept late too.”
Jane blushed. She hurried downstairs, her heart tripping, and trying to control it.
As usual, the sight of him stole her breath.
His dark head was bent over something he was reading.
He was utterly magnificent, bronze and ebony, and when he looked up, his eyes flashed silver.
Then he saw the necklace and he smiled. “Good morning,” he said, his tone intimate and sexy, conjuring up memories of their many shared moments of heated passion.
“Nicholas,” she tried to chide.
He was standing, coming to her, taking her shoulders and giving her a quite improper kiss. Jane lost her head, of course, and returned it, and it was he who set her apart as she clung to him. “Maybe we should go back upstairs,” he said, teasing.
Incredibly, had he been serious, she would have needed no persuasion! “Nicholas, you must not give me any more gifts!”
“You don’t like it?” he asked, hurt.
“I love it,” she cried. “But this is insane! I don’t need so much jewelery, and if you keep this up you’ll be bankrupt!”
He threw back his head and laughed. “Let me worry about our finances, Jane. Dragmore is quite in the black, thank you.”
“Please,” she said, as he seated her. “Please, no more gifts.”
“I cannot give you my word,” he said, his grin mischievous, and Jane knew she had lost. She wondered if Molly was right. If he loved her.
As he poured her coffee, automatically adding cream, she saw he was reading a letter. “Who is it from, Nicholas?”
She felt the easy carefree attitude evaporate. Seriously he replied, “It’s from my parents. In Texas.”
Jane sensed something amiss and did not understand. “How wonderful. What news?”
He smiled then, slightly. “It seems my roguish brother has finally been snared—by a suffragette, no less. He got married this spring.”
Jane knew a little bit about Nick’s younger brother, Rathe.
She had been told that he was charming, handsome, and a very successful businessman, as well as an unrepenting ladies’ man.
But, apparently, his womanizing days were over.
“It must be a romantic story,” she said, a touch wistfully.
“He doesn’t sound like the type to have fallen for one of those Bloomer girls! ”
Nick’s smile was wry. “No, he doesn’t, does he.” Then he growled, “The little bastard! He must be in love—not to write me himself!”
“You love him very much,” Jane said softly.
High up on his cheekbones, the earl reddened. “He’s my brother,” he said gruffly.
“And your sister? The one in San Francisco? Storm?”
“Happily married, two kids, just moved into another mansion.” Nick smiled. “Probably still making Brett crazy with her wild ways.”
“She’s wild?”
He softened. “She was quite the tomboy, Jane, and totally stubborn. How she ever became the lady she is today is quite beyond me.”
“You miss them.”
He avoided her gaze.
“Let’s go visit.”
The earl looked at her, saying nothing, but Jane saw something dark and disturbed in his eyes; worse, she felt it. “Shouldn’t Chad meet his aunt and uncle, his cousins, his grandparents?”
The earl toyed with his knife, eyes upon the table. “Yes.”
Jane said nothing. What was amiss? She didn’t want to pry, not yet, their relationship was too fragile, yet she sensed his need and desperation— that there was something deep and malignant which needed healing.
The earl sighed, the sound heavy. “I’ve been thinking about taking Chad to Texas. It’s his heritage as much as Dragmore.” His gaze, pain-filled, touched Jane’s. “It’s where I was born and raised.”
Jane said nothing.
“It’s been a long time,” the earl said thickly, and Jane knew he was talking about himself and the last time he’d been to his parents’.
“Are your parents well?”
“Yes.” He managed a rough smile. “They want me to come home. They’ve been begging me to make a trip west for years.”
“It sounds like they miss you very much,” Jane said. “Do you want to go?”
He hesitated, turned to look out the window at the immaculate lawn. “Yes. No.”
Jane touched his hand, covering it with her own. “Whenever you want to go, I will be ready.”
His gaze held hers, filled with relief and gratitude. “Thank you.”