Читать книгу Tall, Dark... Collection - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 60

‘Come in, Jane, and close the door behind you.’

Jane had been sitting alone in the parlour eating a late breakfast, Arabella being still upstairs in her rooms, following the dinner party the previous evening, when one of the maids had come to inform her that the Duke wished to see her at once in the library. Jane had lingered—delayed—at the breakfast table long enough to finish her cup of tea as she contemplated the reason for Hawk wanting to speak to her again so soon after they had parted so angrily the evening before.

Perhaps to tell her she would have to leave his household?

Immediately?

If so it was the same conclusion Jane herself had come to during her long hours of sleeplessness.

The tone of his voice now—undoubtedly the Duke of Stourbridge’s voice, cold and imperious—was more than enough to compel her into stepping softly into the library and carefully closing the door behind her before once more turning to face him.

The tall, imposing, imperious man who stood so broodingly silhouetted in front of the window—dark clothing expertly tailored, hair brushed neatly back from that arrogant brow, hands linked behind his rigidly straight back—bore very little resemblance to the piratical lover of the previous evening, with his clothes in disarray and the darkness of his hair curling onto his broy.

As she, Jane hoped, bore no resemblance to the tumble-haired, half-naked woman he had aroused to such unimagined pleasure!

She quirked one auburn brow as those gold-coloured eyes continued to look at her so chillingly. ‘I have entered, sir, and I have also closed the door behind me…’

Hawk drew in a sharp breath at her barely concealed derision. ‘I warn you, Jane, do not even attempt to annoy me this morning!’

Her eyes widened with beguiling innocence. ‘By doing as you bade me to do…?’

Hawk’s mouth thinned at Jane’s display of innocent subservience, very aware that she was the least subservient woman he knew! ‘This is not a time for humour, Jane,’ he assured her harshly.

‘No?’ Her brows rose even higher before she walked gracefully across the room to sit in one of the armchairs that flanked the empty fireplace, smoothing her gown neatly into place and folding her hands demurely on her knees before lifting her head to look at him. ‘Then what is it a time for, Your Grace?’

Hawk’s hands clenched behind his back in a supreme effort to prevent himself from marching across the room and lifting Jane to her feet before shaking her unmercifully.

As he had known it would be, his night had been a disturbed rather than a restful one, as images of Jane, with her loosely curling red hair reaching to her slender waist, her breasts bared and pert, her thighs parted invitingly, had tortured and tormented him until morning light.

At which time he had finally given up all hope of sleeping and instead dressed before going down to the stables to saddle his stallion Gabriel and riding across the surrounding hillside for several hours. The brisk morning air had cleared his senses—if not his mind—of those tantalising memories of Jane in her half-naked abandon.

Not so now, as he looked at her sitting there so primly, her disapproving expression much like his old nanny’s had been when she’d wished to rebuke him for some childish misdemeanour. On Jane a totally ineffective expression—because memories of her sensual beauty the previous evening crowded his already tormented mind.

His mouth thinned, nostrils flaring, as he refused to let those memories deter him from the reason he had summoned her here this morning. ‘I have decided that it is time—past time—for us to discuss exactly why it was you decided to leave the home of your guardian so abruptly.’

Jane was so stunned by the Duke’s topic of conversation that for a moment she could think of no reply. She had thought—believed—he had asked her to come here so they might talk about the events of the previous evening. Had prepared herself for that as she had lingered in the breakfast parlour drinking her cup of tea—had even thought of several replies she might make on the subject.

She could not think of a single response to the question he had just asked her! Instead she answered with a question of her own. ‘Why, Your Grace…?’

‘Why.’ He nodded abruptly, his golden gaze totally unreadable as he looked down the long length of his nose at her.

Jane frowned. ‘But you know why, Your Grace.’

‘No, Jane, I do not,’ he rasped harshly. ‘As I recall, your only explanation at the time was that you no longer felt you could reside under the same roof as Lady Sulby.’

And that was true, as far as it went. But there was more, so much more, to Jane’s flight from Markham Park. Reasons she could not share with this stranger who looked at her so coldly. For at this moment he was every inch the haughtily superior Duke of Stourbridge.

‘I stated the truth,’ she confirmed tightly.

‘But what caused you to feel that way, Jane?’ He took two long steps so that he towered over her.

She blinked at the intensity of that golden gaze as it seemed to bore down into hers. ‘My reasons are entirely personal to me—’

‘Not when you now reside in my home!’

‘That can easily be remedied, sir!’ Jane stood up abruptly, too restless to remain seated any longer—although she had not been completely prepared for how close the Duke was now standing to her. Her arm brushed against his as she attempted to step past him, instantly sending a tingling thrill of awareness down to her fingers and up to her breasts.

The Duke reached out and curled steely fingers about one of her wrists, preventing her from moving away from him. ‘We will discuss the subject of your departure from Mulberry Hall later, Jane,’ he rasped coldly. ‘First I would like—I demand—a full explanation as to your reasons for leaving Markham Park.’

First? Hawk intended for her to go soon, then? Might even have made arrangements for her immediate departure once she had answered his questions…?

Because of what had occurred between them the previous evening? Or because of something else…?

Jane looked up searchingly into that hard, implacable face. Hawk’s gaze was coldly compelling as it met hers, his expression unreadable. ‘What has occurred, sir, to suddenly bring about the need for this conversation?’ she ventured cautiously.

Hawk had never for a moment during their acquaintance underestimated Jane’s intelligence. He did not underestimate it now. ‘This morning I received word of your guardians’ reaction to your disappearance.’

‘I did not disappear!’ Her cheeks were flushed with indignation. ‘I simply left a place where I had never been made welcome!’

‘Indeed, Jane?’

‘Indeed, Your Grace,’ she echoed impatiently. ‘I—Would you release my arm please? You are hurting me.’ She frowned up at him, and his fingers tightened briefly before he gave a disgusted snort of frustration and released her.

Hawk turned away, knowing that if he did not he might do a lot more to hurt Jane than merely grasp her wrist and hold her against her will.

He was furious. Livid. Wanted to hit out and hurt someone. Anyone. Even Jane. Especially Jane—for putting him in the untenable position he now found himself in.

He kept his back firmly turned towards her as he bit out, ‘No matter how unwelcoming, the Sulbys are nevertheless your guardians. Uncaring ones, perhaps—’

‘Perhaps?’ Jane scorned incredulously.

Hawk nodded abruptly. ‘You were fed and clothed within their home, Jane. Which is more than many other penniless orphans can boast.’

‘And I am to be grateful for that?’ she challenged contemptuously. ‘I am to bow and scrape and feel grateful for every morsel of food I have allowed to pass my lips these past twelve years?’

‘Yes!’ The Duke reached out once again to grasp her arm, his expression one of stingingly cold fury. ‘Admittedly, I too have found Lady Sulby to be a contemptible woman. I have no doubt that you felt wronged by her, but that cannot be offered as an excuse for your own actions!’

Jane blinked up at him, more than a little alarmed by the fierceness of his expression. She had seen the Duke’s anger before—had been the reason for that anger more times than she cared to remember!—but it had never been like this. Had never been underlined by this steely edge of absolute coldness.

‘My own actions…?’ she repeated slowly. ‘What did I do that was so wrong?’ She gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘Exactly what have you learned of my guardians’ reaction to my sudden departure from their home, Your Grace? And from whom?’

His mouth tightened. ‘It does not matter from whom—’

‘It matters, Your Grace!’ Jane cried emotionally. ‘Your tone is accusing, and I believe it is unfair of you to talk to me in this way without first telling me the name of my accuser.’

He looked down at her wordlessly for several long, searching seconds before abruptly releasing her arm to turn sharply away and stride over to stand in front of the window once again, his back to the room. And to Jane.

‘When we returned here four days ago I sent word to Andrew Windham, my man of business in London, asking him to make enquiries—to ascertain, if he could, your guardians’ actions following your disappearance. I felt—justifiably, I believe—that it was wrong of me to harbour you within my household without at least some effort being made on my part to discover if in fact the Sulbys were scouring the countryside looking for you.’

‘I assure you they were not!’ Jane scorned knowingly. ‘And you had no right to make such enquiries—’

‘I had every right!’the Duke grated harshly as he swung fiercely back to face her. ‘Damn it, woman, the Sulbys could have been dragging neighbouring ponds and searching the woods for miles around for your dead body!’

Jane frowned at his vehemence. ‘And were they?’ she finally ventured, with a return of her earlier caution.

He flexed his tensed shoulder muscles. ‘The report I received this morning claims that Lady Sulby has suffered a complete collapse of the nerves following your disappearance, and has had to be removed to her brother’s home in GreatYarmouth in order to take advantage of the bracing air to be found there.’ His tone was grim.

Jane’s frown became scathing. ‘Are you saying that I am the cause of Lady Sulby’s supposed collapse?’

Hawk’s mouth was a thin, uncompromising line. ‘You doubt the information acquired by my man of business?’

‘Not at all.’ Jane gave a weary shake of her head, sure that anyone the Duke employed was certain to be impeccably meticulous in his duties. ‘What I doubt is that Lady Sulby would feel anything but jubilation at having finally rid herself of my unwanted presence in her household!’

The Duke did not speak for several long, tense seconds. ‘Perhaps,’ he finally rasped icily. ‘But I am given to understand that it was not only your own departure that caused that lady’s collapse, but the loss of her jewellery.’

Jane stared at him blankly. Lady Sulby’s jewellery? Could Hawk possibly be referring to the only jewels that Lady Sulby possessed of any value? The Sulby diamond earrings and necklace given to her by Sir Barnaby on the event of their marriage twenty-five years ago?

But what relevance did they have to Jane?

‘Several of Lady Sulby’s jewels disappeared on the same day you did, Jane,’ the Duke continued flatly.

Her eyes widened incredulously, her face paling. Was Hawk saying—? Could he possibly be accusing her of—?

‘I know absolutely nothing of their disappearance!’ Jane burst out incredulously, her expression anxious. ‘Hawk, you do not seriously believe that I—’

‘What I do or do not believe about this matter does not signify, Jane.’ His mouth was set grimly.

Her hands clenched at her sides. ‘It matters to me!’

He shook his head. ‘The fact is that on the day you left the Sulby household Lady Sulby’s jewels also disappeared. The matter has been reported to the appropriate authorities and an order issued for their recovery. And for your arrest. Do you understand what that means, Jane?’ he prompted impatiently.

Jane understood exactly what it meant. But the fact that the authorities were actively looking for her, that they would arrest her for the theft of Lady Sulby’s jewels when they found her, paled into insignificance when compared to the fact that Hawk obviously did not believe her when she told him she had no knowledge of the disappearance of Lady Sulby’s jewels…

Hawk’s frustrated anger with the situation increased as he looked upon Jane’s bewildered countenance. If she thought for one moment that he was enjoying this conversation…

‘I know how upset you were that day, Jane.’ His tone gentled slightly. ‘I appreciate that Lady Sulby had deeply wounded you in some way—’

‘How dare you?’ Jane cut in furiously, angry colour having returned to her cheeks now, and the green of her eyes glittering with that same anger. ‘How dare you stand there as my accuser and my judge on the word of a woman who on the last occasion we met expressed nothing but hatred towards me?’

The last thing Hawk wanted to do was judge Jane, or condemn her. He wished only to help her. But he could not do that if Jane would not tell him why she had left the Sulbys’ that day.

‘It is not only Lady Sulby’s word, Jane,’ he told her softly.

‘Who else accuses me?’ she demanded angrily.

‘Miss Olivia Sulby—’

He was interrupted by Jane’s dismissive snort. ‘She is of the same mould as her mother, and her opinion does not count.’

‘In that you are wrong,’ Hawk told her impatiently. ‘I can assure you that Olivia Sulby’s testament against you is as valid as any other. And Olivia Sulby claims that on the day prior to your sudden flight she remembers accompanying her mother to her bedchamber, and that both of them chanced upon you there, in possession of Lady Sulby’s jewellery box.’

Jane thought back to that day a week ago. It was the day the guests had been arriving for Lady Sulby’s house party. The day Hawk himself had arrived…

She remembered going upstairs to collect Lady Sulby’s shawl and noticing the jewellery box had been left out on the dressing table before being totally distracted by the arrival of the magnificent black coach bearing the Duke of Stourbridge.

Then there had been that momentous first meeting with the Duke on the stairs, followed by Lady Sulby’s scathing comment that Jane had brought her the wrong shawl and she was to return to her bedchamber at once and collect the correct one—and Jane’s own embarrassment when she had returned up the stairs and realised that the Duke had stood on the gallery above as silent witness to the whole exchange.

Jane also remembered Lady Sulby’s reaction when she had burst into the bedroom a short time later, Olivia behind her, and found Jane loitering in the room, the jewellery box still sitting on the dressing table.

Jane recalled how bewildered she had felt—how Olivia had looked at her with such triumphant satisfaction when the older woman had questioned Jane accusingly as to whether or not she had looked at the contents of her jewellery box.

But the following day Jane had learnt the reason for Lady Sulby’s sharpness when the other woman had acknowledged that she had hidden there the letters Jane’s mother had written to her married lover…

And now Hawk—the man who had made love to Jane so intimately the evening before—chose to believe the word of the two vindictive Sulby women over her own…

‘Jane, I cannot even attempt to help you if you will not be honest with me,’ he reasoned frustratedly.

Jane drew herself up proudly, determined not to show how hurt she was by his lack of faith in her complete innocence in this matter. ‘I do not remember asking for your help, Your Grace.’

‘You prefer to be arrested and imprisoned?’ Hawk could barely contain the anger he felt at her stubborn refusal to confide in him.

Her mouth twisted scathingly. ‘For something I did not do?’

Hawk was a local magistrate. He knew far better than Jane how the law worked. And with two such credible witnesses against her as Lady Sulby and her daughter, coupled with her own sudden flight from Markham Park, Jane would be found guilty before the case was even presented in a court of law.

He stepped forward to grasp her shoulders impatiently and shake her into looking up at him. ‘Can you not see, Jane, that it will not matter whether or not you are guilty of the crime?’

‘Of course it will matter!’ she assured him fiercely, the glitter in her eyes not just from anger now, but also unshed tears. ‘I know nothing of the theft of Lady Sulby’s jewellery. Nothing!’ she repeated vehemently. ‘I do know that Lady Sulby hates me, as she hated my mother before me—’

‘Your mother, Jane?’ Hawk probed softly, when she broke off abruptly. ‘Did you not tell me that your mother died when you were born?’

‘She did. But—’ Jane broke off again as she realised she had been about to tell more than she wanted him to know. Bad enough that he believed her to be a thief and a liar, without adding illegitimacy to that list of sins. ‘Lady Sulby was acquainted with my mother.’Jane chose her words carefully. ‘She told me she did not like her—that she did not approve at all when Sir Barnaby accepted guardianship of Janette’s daughter.’ Jane paled as a sudden thought—truth?—hit her with the force of a blow.

Her mother’s letters to her lover confirmed Lady Sulby’s claim that he had been a married man.

Twenty-three years ago Sir Barnaby had already been married to Lady Sulby for two years. Lady Sulby hated and despised Jane, she had told her, as she had hated and despised her mother before her.

Could it be that it was Sir Barnaby who had been Janette’s lover twenty-three years ago? That Jane was his illegitimate daughter?

It would explain so many things if that were the case—most of all Jane being left to the guardianship of a man she had never even heard her adopted father mention, let alone one whom Jane had actually met before he and Lady Sulby had come to collect her from Somerset on that desolate day twelve years ago.

Could it be that Jane’s mad flight to find her real father had been completely unnecessary? That she had been living under his guardianship all along…?

It was difficult to imagine the rotund Sir Barnaby as the dashingly handsome lover who had swept her mother off her feet all those years ago, whom her mother had so described in her letters when she had expressed the hope that her unborn child would resemble him. But Sir Barnaby could have—must have—looked far different twenty-three years ago…

‘Jane…?’

She blinked dazedly as she focused on Hawk. On the condemning Duke of Stourbridge. ‘I will leave Mulberry Hall immediately.’

‘No, Jane, you will not!’ Hawk cut in forcefully, having been angered seconds ago at Jane’s sudden distraction of thought. What could possibly be more urgent for her to contemplate than the dire situation she found herself in?

And, no matter how Jane might choose to dismiss the whole incident, it was dire. An accusation of theft had been made against her, her arrest ordered, and mere claims of innocence on Jane’s part would not suffice to cancel that order.

But as the powerful Duke of Stourbridge Hawk did have some influence. ‘I am willing to help you, Jane—’

‘As I said before, I do not remember asking for your help, Your Grace,’ she cut in coldly.

Hawk looked down at her searchingly. Did Jane really not see how precarious her position was?

‘Neither do I ask for it now, Your Grace,’ she continued haughtily as she attempted to shake off his hold on her shoulders. ‘Release me, sir,’ she ordered coldly when she was unsuccessful in that attempt.

He shook his head impatiently. ‘Jane, if you leave Mulberry Hall without my protection you will be exposed to immediate arrest and imprisonment.’

She gave him a pitying look. ‘I am willing to take my chances.’

Even the thought of Jane exposed to the harshness of a prison cell, to the cold and the rats and the untender mercies of the turnkey, was enough to make Hawk shudder.

She would rather suffer all that than accept his help…?

His hands dropped from her shoulders before he stepped back. ‘Then you are a fool, Jane!’ he assured her harshly.

Her eyes glittered challengingly. ‘I would rather be thought a fool than live any longer under the protection of the Duke of Stourbridge!’

Hawk flinched as if Jane had physically struck him. Was that really how she felt? Did Jane despise him—hate him so much after what had occurred between them yesterday evening that she was willing to suffer imprisonment rather than accept his help?

The defiant expression on her face, the scorn directed towards him that she made no effort to hide, was answer enough…

He drew in a ragged breath before speaking again. ‘Jane, I advise you to put aside your feelings of enmity towards me and instead concentrate on the matter at hand.’ His expression was grim. ‘I can intercede for you with Sir Barnaby. I have found him to be a kind and reasonable man, and I am sure—’

‘No!’ Jane cut forcefully across the Duke’s reasoning speech. ‘I will speak to Sir Barnaby myself, when I return to Markham Park.’

‘You mean to go back there?’ The Duke looked incredulous.

Yes, Jane intended going back to Markham Park.

She had thought to find answers to her past in Somerset, but now it seemed that Sir Barnaby might be the person who had those answers. That he might be her real father…

Whether he was or he was not, Jane knew she needed to return to Markham Park in order to clear her name as a thief. To expose Lady Sulby for the liar that she was.

For Jane became more and more convinced by the second that Lady Sulby’s jewels were not missing at all—that Lady Sulby herself had hidden the jewels away somewhere, and merely taken advantage of Jane’s flight in order to blacken her name even further.

She refocused on the Duke, her lips curving into a humourless smile at the disbelief in his expression. ‘Yes, of course I mean to go back there.’

‘Jane, you cannot—’

‘I must go,’ she assured him firmly, implacably.

And, whether she planned to return to Markham Park or not, Jane knew that she could not remain under the Duke’s roof for a moment longer. He could not be further from the truth when he said Jane had feelings of enmity towards him. How could she possibly have feelings of ill-will towards the man she loved with all her heart?

The man who minutes ago had broken that heart when he refused to believe in her innocence…

Hawk looked down at Jane searchingly, knowing by the stubborn expression on her face that he would not be able to change her mind either by argument or cajolery. ‘If you insist on this foolhardy course of action—’

‘I do!’

‘Then I will come with you.’

‘No, you will not!’she refused with a vehement shake of her head. ‘I am grateful for the help you have given me thus far, but whatever happens next I must deal with myself. Do you not understand, Hawk, that I do not want you to come anywhere with me?’ she continued impatiently, as he would have once again protested. ‘As you have mentioned on more than one occasion—’ a slight, self-derisive smile curved her lips now ‘—you were forced into the role of my protector by my own impetuous actions. It is an obligation I now release you from.’

He gave a weary shake of his head. ‘Have I not just explained that it is not as simple as that, Jane?’

‘I assure you, Your Grace, our conversation has made several things clear to me,’ she said enigmatically.

Hawk grimaced his impatience at her stubborn refusal to listen to him. ‘Perhaps you are right, Jane, and we should talk of this again later. When you have had more time to think the matter through?’

‘Perhaps,’ she responded unhelpfully, giving a slight inclination of her head before turning to leave.

Hawk’s expression was one of brooding frustration as he watched her cross the study to the door, her movements elegantly graceful, her head angled proudly.

But how long would Jane maintain that elegance and grace, let alone her pride, if Lady Sulby had her way and Jane was imprisoned for theft…?