Chapter Twenty-Six #2
She opened her mouth to tell him that marrying Dulverton was the best thing that had ever happened to her but then shut it again. He didn’t deserve to know anything about her, especially nothing important.
Jasper, self-absorbed as he was, assumed her hesitation had to do with him. “I am sorry, Katie. Truly, I am,” he added when she merely stared. “I am afraid that jealousy has given me a forked tongue.”
“Jealousy?” she repeated, morbidly curious about what he would say.
“I am consumed with jealousy for Dulverton—or is it envy I am feeling?” He shrugged. “Probably both. It eats at me that he was fortunate enough to win you, even if it was through no effort of his own.”
Katie stared for a long moment, and then laughed. “As entertaining as this little tête-à-tête has been, I really must be going.”
For a moment he looked truly befuddled. And then thwarted. But his ebullient nature took control after only a few seconds. “I will ride with you.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
His smile slid away, and this time it was not so fast to rebound. “You are still angry with me?”
Was she? Katie gave his question more consideration than he deserved, but then it wasn’t really for him, but for her. And she deserved an answer, didn’t she?
“I am still angry at myself for believing you.” The relief she felt after speaking left her a bit lightheaded. How had she not realized who’d borne the blame for his duplicity until now? Five years she had punished herself.
His too-perfect features shifted into an almost convincing expression of remorse.
Almost. “I never wanted to break your heart, Katie. You have no idea how much I regret what happened. I wanted to believe that we could live on the scant allowance my father grudgingly gives me—and when I was with you anything seemed possible—but when I sat confronted by the bills I could not pay, and those just for modest bachelor rooms in London, I knew I could not marry you.” He pulled a face.
“Tragically, if I had waited just a few weeks I would have heard about the generous sum your brother-in-law, Needham, settled on you.” He frowned, visibly thwarted.
Katie thought this last expression was a great deal more authentic than his broken-hearted swain look.
“Needham was very generous, as were all my brothers-in-law. Thanks to them, I could have married a street sweeper if I’d wanted,” Katie said, unable to resist twisting the knife a little.
He looked almost excited—no doubt at the thought of all that money. “I wouldn’t have needed great wealth, darling, just your love and enough money to keep body and soul together. I will always regret I was forced to do my grandmother’s bidding.”
Katie believed that he regretted getting his hands on her dowry. “It is all long behind us now, Jasper.”
“Yes, a lifetime ago.”
She allowed him to hold her gaze for longer than she should have, looking for… something in his robin-egg blue eyes.
Once again, she experienced only relief.
Relief that she felt nothing for him. And even more relief that he had abandoned her five years ago, regardless of how much it had hurt and terrified her at the time.
Had he broken her heart? Until a few moments ago Katie would have said yes, but now she was not so sure.
She had certainly nursed her wounds as if he had.
But none of that mattered any longer.
He didn’t matter.
“Goodbye, Jasper.” Katie hoped the finality in her voice would be a gentle but firm hint that she wanted this to be the last time he sought her out.
Judging by the soulful and—she believed—smug look he cast her, she suspected she should have employed a more direct message. Perhaps a large club over his head.
“I vastly prefer to say au revoir, Katie,” he said, confirming her suspicions. He lifted his hand and set it over his heart. “I refuse to believe we have been thrown together again by fate for no reason. Not when we once meant so very, very much to each other.”
Katie held her tongue, inclined her head, and urged Robin into a walk. She felt his gaze on her back until she rounded a corner. Only then did she let out the breath she’d not been aware she’d been holding.
Please let this be the only time I see him, she prayed.
But the grim feeling that settled over her like an unpleasant London fog told Katie that she would not be so lucky.
***
Three days later Katie had just arrived home from the dig and was changing out of her habit when Becky flung open the door and hurried into the room, moving so abruptly that the steaming ewer she held in one hand slopped water over the side.
“Lord Jasper is here!” Becky hissed, slamming down the water with a sloshing thud and pushing aside Katie’s fingers to take over the task of undressing her.
Katie had hoped Jasper would come and go without anyone but her being the wiser. She should have known better “Yes, I know.”
Becky’s hands froze. “You know? Surely he did not seek you out?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Oh, Katie! When? And why did you not tell me?”
“I did not tell you because I just wanted to forget about it.” It was mostly the truth, if not all of it.
“When?”
“Three days ago. It was the day I rode to the dig alone and he was waiting for me in the woods.” Katie could not help wondering how he’d known her schedule.
“You did not stop and talk to him, did you?” Becky asked.
“What was I supposed to do? Ride him down?”
Becky’s mouth pursed tightly at her sarcasm, and she yanked on Katie’s riding coat.
“Ow! You just about pulled my arm off,” Katie groused.
Becky ignored her complaint and forcibly spun her around to access the back of her habit.
“I thought dressers were supposed to do the moving, not manhandle their employers?”
Becky did not take the bait to bicker. “Lord Jasper is in disgrace with the countess and has been banished to a cottage on her estate. Evidently, he has run through all his money and came back to beg for more.”
“Perhaps Lady Grimsby did not leave him much to begin with,” Katie said, not that she believed it.
Becky shook her head. “That is not what I heard. He might not be inheriting the title, but he is her heir when it comes to everything else.”
Katie’s eyes widened at that. “Are you sure?”
“He boasted of it at The Sleeping Boar.”
Katie knew that was the village pub.
“He is supposed to live on an allowance until the countess dies. She is evidently extremely wealthy in her own right and owns not only Elm Hall but two other estates. The Earl of Grimsby—who is Lord Jasper’s cousin—inherited Grimsby Park and very little else.
In any case, this afternoon dunners showed up from London looking for Lord Jasper, and Lady Grimsby was furious.
That is when all the servants learned that Lord Jasper was on the estate.
The countess paid off the bill collector but told Lord Jasper that was the last one. Can you guess what he said?”
Katie was astounded, and a little horrified, by the sheer amount of detailed gossip.
“I can guess that somebody has been listening at keyholes at Lady Grimsby’s house.
” She stepped out of her skirts and turned around to face her servant.
“I certainly hope our own household affairs are not so widely or accurately broadcast.”
“Of course not!” Becky said, affronted.
“I know, Becks. I was just teasing.” But not entirely. After all, somebody had told Jasper where to find her three days ago.
Becky grunted and disappeared into the dressing room. A moment later her voice drifted out. “Lord Jasper said he would take his daughter away if the countess did not give him what he wants.”
“Take her where?” Katie asked, pouring hot water into the basin and washing her face, neck, and arms.
Becky reappeared holding one of Katie’s favorite gowns, an antique gold silk with green and gold beaded embroidery around the hem and puffed sleeves.
“Does it matter where he would take the little girl?” Becky asked.
“No, I suppose not.”
Poor Lady Grimsby dotes on the child. Besides, what would a widower know about taking care of a baby girl?”
“I suspect the countess will give him what he wants rather than risk his threat.”
“As do I.” Becky cast a worried glance toward the connecting door, as if Gerrit might have his ear pressed against the door. “What did Lord Jasper want from you?” she whispered.
Katie pondered lying but dismissed it. There were already enough lies for her to clear up; it was time to stop adding to the problem. “Although he did not come out and say it, I believe he wants to resume our association.”
Becky gasped. “Why, that devil!”
That was one word for Jasper, and far kinder than the ones Katie could think of.
The man was a pathetic, greedy, manipulative, shallow cad.
She liked to believe that if she had met him for the first time three days ago, she would not be taken in, but his act was quite convincing.
Probably because he believed in it himself.
He saw himself as a thwarted lover, his choices stolen from him by cruel fate.
If what Becky had just said about him was true, then he’d frittered away the money he’d been given—at cards, horses, women it hardly mattered—and was now using his daughter as a weapon to extort more out of his grandmother.
Becky slipped the gown over Katie’s head. “What did you say to him?” she asked, meeting Katie’s gaze in the looking glass while she tugged the gown this way and that before commencing to fasten the numerous tiny buttons that ran up the back.
“I told him to leave me alone.”
Becky looked gratified. “Did you now?”
“Well, not in those exact words, but close enough.”
“What are you going to do if he accosts you again?”
“I’m going to do my best to make sure that does not happen until he leaves.”
“You think he will leave?”
“I think he will be off like a shot the moment he has money.”
Becky grunted. “You do not think you should tell His Grace about all this?”
“No! You must have heard what Dulverton did to his last wife’s lover.”
Becky’s sudden blush told her that piece of gossip had indeed come her way.
“Dulverton does not know, and I want to keep it that way. The last thing I want to do is give him a reason to shoot the man.”
“No, no of course not,” Becky murmured, fastening Katie’s pearls around her throat. “Do you really believe Lord Jasper will stay away from you?”
No.
But if he did bother her again, Katie just might have to make him regret his temerity. An idea—a very bad, dangerous one—had been slowly growing in her head over the days since their meeting. It was the sort of nasty, punitive plan that would leave his arrogant pride in tatters.
Do you never learn?
Katie grimaced. Somebody should teach him a lesson.
Why does it have to be you?
“Your Grace?”
Katie looked up. “Did you say something?”
“I asked if you thought he would leave you alone as you asked?”
“I don’t know. If he is wise, then he will.”
“Wise men do not throw all their money at horses and cards and—and other things.”
Katie smiled at the other woman’s inability to say whores. “Having lived through my father’s depredations, I heartily agree.”
Becky set a hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Are you sure keeping the truth from the master is the right decision?”
“I hope so.” Because telling Dulverton about Jasper at this point was something she could not bring herself to do.
Not now. Not when things were finally going well between them.
Telling him that she’d lied about Jasper was something he’d never forgive.
She just knew it. This was one secret she would have to keep to herself.