Chapter 6 #2
Jane’s chest tightened painfully. It looked as though he had simply stepped out for a moment. As though he might return at any instant, apologize for the interruption, and sit back down to finish his work.
Zachary slowly surveyed the room. “Hm.”
His fingertips skimmed across the edge of a bookshelf. “A respectable office.”
He sighed theatrically. “My dear niece, the world does not stop because your idiot brother managed to involve himself in criminal affairs.”
The words struck like a slap. Jane’s vision narrowed. “Watch how you speak about him.”
Zachary arched a brow. “Or what?”
Jane knew that she should hold her tongue. This man held the fate of her mother in his hands if Colin did not return, but she couldn’t. “He has done nothing to deserve your contempt.” Jane took a step closer. “My brother is an honorable man.”
“So honorable armed men carried him away in front of half the ton? Respectable gentlemen are rarely taken by masked criminals.”
Jane refused to look away. “And I know respectable gentlemen do not rejoice when their own nephew vanishes.”
Silence stretched between them.
Outside, somewhere in the gardens, birds continued singing as though nothing in the world had changed. Inside the study, the air seemed to tighten.
Zachary looked slowly around the room once more. “Your brother left quite a collection.”
Jane glanced toward the shelves lined with estate books. “He will use them again.”
“If he returns.”
Jane knew that her uncle was baiting her and yet she still said, “When.”
He smiled without warmth. “You cling desperately to certainty.”
“I have faith.” Jane needed him to leave.
“In a fool.”
“I will not permit anyone to insult Colin in his own home,” Jane said.
A laugh escaped him. “Permit?” He looked her up and down as though the very idea amused him. “My dear girl, what precisely do you imagine you can prevent?”
Jane held his gaze. “As much as I am able.”
“You speak far too much for a little chit.”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “I speak when something must be said.”
“You speak because no one has taught you restraint. Pity your father died before he could teach you manners,” he said.
“My father valued my opinions, and my brother respects me,” Jane said.
“Your father indulged you, and your brother spoiled you,” Zachary snapped.
Jane’s voice remained steady. “You mistake kindness for weakness. And you mistake cruelty for strength.”
The room fell silent again. Jane could almost hear her own heartbeat. She knew she should stop. She knew every sensible instinct urged retreat. Instead, she stepped closer.
“If you truly cared for this family,” she said quietly, “you would be helping us search for Colin.”
For the first time since entering the study, the easy smile disappeared completely from Zachary’s face. “You are becoming tiresome.”
Jane refused to yield. “And you are becoming exactly the man Father warned Colin about.”
His hand came up suddenly, not striking, but reaching to seize her arm in an attempt to silence and intimidate her.
The movement happened so quickly that instinct acted before thought. Not instinct. Training. Hector’s calm voice echoed in her memory. “Do not pull away. Turn.”
Jane pivoted exactly as he had shown her. She rotated her wrist, shifted her weight, and stepped sharply to the side. The pressure disappeared. She slipped free so cleanly that she nearly stumbled from surprise herself.
Zachary’s hand closed on empty air. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved. Jane stared at her own freed wrist. She had done it. Actually done it.
Slowly she looked back up. Zachary was still staring at her, genuine astonishment replacing his usual smug certainty.
“What—” He stopped himself. His eyes narrowed.
Jane’s pulse still raced, but for the first time since Colin’s disappearance, something unexpected stirred beneath the fear. Confidence. She straightened her shoulders.
Jane straightened every wrinkle from her sleeve before answering. “It seems I am not quite as helpless as you imagined.”
Color rose along his neck. Before he could answer, footsteps sounded in the corridor.
The family solicitor appeared in the doorway carrying several bundles of papers beneath one arm. He paused immediately.
“My apologies,” he said carefully, glancing between uncle and niece.
Jane noticed how quickly his eyes moved from Zachary’s rigid posture to her flushed face. He had clearly interrupted something.
The solicitor cleared his throat. “Lady Wynten wished me to tell you that she has retired to the morning room. She… she has signed the preliminary acknowledgements.”
“Excellent,” Zachary replied smoothly.
The transformation was astonishing. The sneering bully vanished. In his place stood the composed gentleman. “I trust Lady Wynten understands the unfortunate necessity of the law.”
The solicitor sighed. “As much as anyone can in such painful circumstances.”
“Quite.” Zachary looked toward Jane. “We have estate matters to discuss.”
“I am… very sorry, Lady Jane.” The older gentleman looked mortified. “It truly would be best if you went to your mother.”
Zachary watched the realization settle across her face. “There. Even Mr. Mulvey agrees. Now, you,” Zachary replied pleasantly, “are dismissed.”
Neither of them moved. The room seemed to shrink. Sunlight filtered through the tall windows, illuminating floating dust between them.
It had always been Colin’s favorite room. She remembered standing beside this very desk while he explained maps of the estate. He had never once told her to leave. Never once suggested she was incapable because she was a woman.
He had answered every question she asked. He had listened when she offered opinions. He had trusted her.
Now she was being turned out like an unruly child. The unfairness of it made her throat ache.
As she reached the doorway, Zachary spoke again. “Oh, Lady Jane.”
She stopped. Without turning.
“I suggest,” he said silkily, “that you devote your energies to finding a husband. You may yet secure yourself before reality catches you.”
She walked away. Only once she rounded the corner did she allow herself to breathe again. She did not hear the study door close. She did not hear the lock click into place. But, somehow, she felt it.
Jane wandered the corridor without direction. Her footsteps echoed through Wynten House.
For the first time in her life, the familiar halls felt foreign. Portraits of generations of her family lined the walls.
She stopped before her father’s portrait. The painter had captured him smiling faintly.
“I do not know what to do,” she whispered.
The portrait offered no answer. Only silence.
She rested her fingertips against the frame.
“I miss him.”
A floorboard creaked behind her. She turned.
Her mother stood several feet away, one hand clutching her handkerchief. “My darling?”
Jane forced a smile. “It is nothing.”
Lady Wynten looked unconvinced. “Your face says otherwise.”
Jane hesitated. She crossed the corridor and slipped her arm through her mother’s. “They sent me away.”
Her mother’s shoulders fell. “Oh.”
“They are discussing Colin’s estate.”
“I feared they might.”
Jane stared toward the study. “It is wrong.”
“It is.”
“I know Colin would have wanted me there.”
“I know,” her mother said.
Jane laughed quietly. It held no amusement. “It appears the law never asked for Colin’s opinion.”
Lady Wynten squeezed her arm. “The law rarely asks for women’s opinions either.”
Jane looked at her mother. There was no bitterness in her voice. Only a weary acceptance. Her stomach rolled with anger, and she felt the rush of her blood in her ears. She could not accept this anymore. She had accepted enough during these past weeks.
She would find Colin. Somehow she would prove Zachary wrong. Even if she had to ride across every mile of England beside the most infuriating duke ever born.
The thought surprised her. She had not meant to think of him. Yet she remembered the certainty in his voice—the confidence with which he had taught her to escape a man’s grasp.
Today, those lessons had mattered.
She realized that the only one who’d actually helped her in this mess was the Duke of Sunderford.