Jasper stood his ground. “She’s important to me, too.”
“I think you may actually mean that,” Nicholas admitted softly.
Relief eased through Jasper. He did not like being at odds with Nicholas. “I do.”
He needed Juniper. He needed her blushes and her laugh. Without them, he would be forced to think about what he’d run from. Jasper looked up, wanting to explain at least part of that to Nicholas, but his friend’s face stopped him cold.
Where Jasper normally found the curving lines of a half smile, Nicholas’s face was all tense edges and censure. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe you’ll still mean it in a fortnight.”
And there it was.
He wanted to hate Nicholas for saying it, but how could he when it was the truth? Jasper was unreliable. He couldn’t be counted on not to change his mind—to not run halfway across the world on a lark. The same reasons he wasn’t fit to carry on his grandfather’s legacy were the same reasons he couldn’t have Juniper. Jasper DeVere couldn’t be counted on.
Not an admirable quality in a husband, or in one of the most powerful lords of the land.
When Julia opened the drawing room door, she stopped short. Amelia was reading a book on the settee while Nicholas and Jasper played chess in front of the windows. Nick mumbled something under his breath and they exchanged a laugh. Julia told herself to be calm. Amelia had promised Nicholas wouldn’t tell Jasper before Julia was ready. She trusted them. They were her family.
“You two look cozy.”
“Hardly,” Nick answered. “I’m fairly certain Jasper cheats.”
Amelia looked up from her book. “Everyone beats you at chess, darling. You just don’t have a very diabolical mindset.”
Nicholas turned to his wife. “Didn’t you swear some sort of loyalty to me in front of witnesses? I think there were rings involved…”
“All I swore was to take you as my husband. There was nothing about bolstering your ego.”
“So that’s why we eloped to Scotland. I’m certain an English ceremony would have covered that.”
“You caught me. That was the only reason.” Amelia returned to her book with a smile.
“Well, I give up.” Nick toppled his king. “You’ll have to challenge one of the ladies if you want to keep playing.”
Jasper turned to Julia. “Do you play?”
Julia Bishop did—with great skill and absolutely no mercy. The question was, did Juniper Fairchild? “A little. It’s been a very long time. Will you teach me?”
On the settee, Amelia fell victim to a coughing fit.
“Are you all right?” Jasper asked.
“Fine, fine,” she said. “Cousin Junie, I could swear you played more often than that. I remember you being quite good.”
“You must be mistaking me for someone else.” Julia settled herself in front of the board.
“Perhaps. My sister and I play so often, maybe I just assumed everyone does.”
“That could be.” Leave it alone, Amelia.
Jasper reset the pieces on the board. “I still haven’t met the mysterious Lady Julia.”
“No. No, you have not,” Nicholas agreed.
“I doubt you ever will,” Amelia said. “Julia’s quite the recluse. Very socially inept, I’m afraid.”
“But extremely adept at chess,” Nicholas added.
“Quite.”
Julia would strangle them both. “I’ve always found cousin Julia to be very charming.”
“You’re just being kind.” Amelia turned to Jasper. “Cousin Juniper has the temperament of a saint. Always believing the best in people.”
Jasper frowned. “You’ve only ever had glowing things to say about your sister before, Mia.”
“Really?” Julia leaned in. “What sort of things?”
“That she was beautiful, and clever, and talented. She sounded like a woman of remarkable character.”
That was more like it.
Amelia stared straight at Julia and said, “I exaggerated.”
Nicholas chimed in. “Don’t be unkind, Mia. She’s like that sometimes.”
Thank you, Nick.
“But then other times, it’s like she’s an entirely different person.”
A slow death would be too good for Nicholas Wakefield.
Jasper’s attention was bouncing between the three of them, his brow furrowing. This was it. He would figure it out. Everything would be ruined, all because Amelia and Nicholas thought they were clever.
“They’re being deliberately cruel,” Julia explained. “And I don’t think cousin Julia deserves it one bit.”
“She deserves it a little bit,” Amelia mumbled.
“I must admit, after everything you told me, I harbored a small infatuation for the mysterious Lady Julia,” Jasper said.
The thud of Julia’s heartbeat drowned out everything else.
“But perhaps I’m just partial to all the female members of your family.” He smiled at Julia. “Shall we play?”
Julia was more than happy to agree.
“This piece is the king. If you lose your king, you lose the game.”
“Fascinating.” Julia had no trouble pretending to be distracted and inept. She was far too busy marveling that Jasper DeVere had thought about her as she really was.
They played three games, and Julia managed to lose every single one without arousing Jasper’s suspicion. It was worth it to be able to sit across from him and watch the way the light played across his face as pondered his next move. Or as he tapped the bridge of his nose when he was thinking about making a sacrifice play. Or smiled gently when he successfully trapped her king.
This was what Amelia had. Julia had envied it throughout their childhood, watching her sister sit across from Nicholas while he looked at Mia like she was the only person that mattered in the world. Julia knew what it felt like now and no one could take it from her—no matter what happened.
“Perhaps chess just isn’t my game,” Julia announced.
Amelia made a vulgar snorting sound.
“Shall we do something else?” Jasper asked. His fingers brushed across hers on the table, tracing the lines of her knuckles. “Maybe something…just the two of us?”
The flush rose up under Julia’s skin. Her attention was riveted to his slow exploration of her hand.
“Jasper.” Nicholas’s voice held a note of warning.
Jasper’s hand pulled away like she’d burned him. It hovered in midair as he frowned down at it. When he withdrew it fully, his expression shuttered into a polite neutrality. He stood up from the table. “Excuse me a moment. I think I’d like to take a walk alone.”
When he was gone, Julia turned on Nick. “What did you do?”
If he had ruined it, if he had told Jasper after promising he wouldn’t, she would never forgive him.
“Someone is going to get hurt, and it won’t be Jasper. It never is.” Nicholas’s mulish expression told her everything she needed to know. He’d said something to Jasper.
Bloody, interfering ass. “Thank you for your unsolicited opinion.”
Julia went after Jasper. If she stayed, she would throttle her brother-in-law. He had no right, and he ought to know better. Julia made her own decisions. She did not allow anyone, no matter how well-meaning, to limit her. Perhaps Jasper would hurt her. Perhaps someday she would lose her footing on the stairs, or one of the infections that laid her low would finally be the end of her. The idea that she should wrap herself in cotton and hide away from life because of what might happen was ludicrous.
She turned the corner of a sculpted hedge and found Jasper contemplating his reflection in the water of the lake. “Jasper?”
The light shifted across his face as he turned. His initial smile at the sight of her crumbled into a frown. “You shouldn’t have come. Your ankle—”
Damn you, Nicholas. Bugger her ankle, and whatever this nonsense was. “What are you doing out here?”
He sighed and returned t
o his reflection. “Trying to decide if I’m a terrible person.”
Julia stepped forward, her skirts blending with the fabric of his trousers in their watery mirror. “Are you?”
“I think maybe I am.” His eyes closed. The lines of his face were tortured and tense. “It was never my intention to mislead you.”
“Have you?” It would be the wrong time to laugh, no matter how much Julia appreciated irony.
“I’m not certain I can offer you what you deserve.”
“And what do you think that is?”
“An honorable courtship.”
If he’d been looking, Julia’s relief would have been obvious. He was out here worrying about not being able to make her an honorable offer? That, at least, she could fix. If it was time for their flirtation to end, it would be because she chose to end it, not because of Nicholas’s interference. And maybe, just maybe…
“Jasper, if anyone is guilty of misleading, it is me.” She took a deep breath. “I am not Amelia’s cousin.”
“What?” His eyes flew open.
She took a deep breath. “My name is Julia Bishop. I am—”
“Amelia’s sister.” Realization dawned on his face. “They were teasing you, during our chess game.”
“Yes.” Julia held her breath.
His shoulders dropped and the tension fell away from his body. “Why did you lie?”
She frowned at him. He had to know—how could he not? “You were flirting with me. I just wanted…I wanted it to keep happening a little while longer.”
“I would have flirted with you anyway.”
“Would you have, really?” Her throat was tight, but the question escaped anyway.
“Yes.” No hesitation, no attempt to avoid her eyes. Everything about him screamed the truth.
She let the euphoria of the moment wash over her.
“But it doesn’t change the situation.” He shook his head, pacing as his hand drove furrows through his hair. “If anything, it makes it even more complicated. Amelia is utterly devoted to you. If I led you on somehow, or couldn’t deliver on the promises my flirtation has made—”
Amelia might be devoted, but she had her own life now; her own love affair. Julia deserved one, too.
She put her hand on his arm to make him stand still. “Jasper, even if you did ask me to marry you, I would be forced to refuse you. I am not a suitable spouse for anyone, least of all the heir to a dukedom.”
“But Nicholas—”
“Is very sweet.” Julia could think of a few other words to describe Nick just then. “But he has unrealistic notions about my prospects.”
“He wants the best for you.”
“The only person who knows what’s best for me is me.” Julia took a deep breath. Boldness had never been difficult for her, but this was different. “Jasper, do you care for me?”
“Yes.” It seemed like that was all he would say, but then he added, “You constantly surprise me, and I find myself wanting to know everything about you.”
“Then what, precisely, is the complication?” She would love nothing more than for him to learn it all.
“I’m not known for my constancy. What if it doesn’t last? At some point, I’ll have to go back to London, and I don’t know what will happen to us then.”
“I can guarantee it won’t last. I’ve known that since I met you.” She could at least ease his mind on this. “You and I are not destined to end up together. It didn’t stop me inviting you here unchaperoned, and it won’t stop me from wanting to continue what we’ve begun.”
“Are you certain?”
“My future has never been certain, Jasper. Quite the opposite.” Crickets chirped in the setting sun as she searched for the words to make him understand. “I choose to live in the moment, and I’d like to spend this moment with you, for as long as it lasts, if you’re interested.”
He took her hand in his. “Even if it doesn’t last?”
“Even though it can’t,” she corrected.
“Julia Bishop, are you asking me to embark on a scandalous affair with you?”
The thud of her heart beat in her ears. Her name on his lips. Hers, not anyone else’s. This wasn’t some fantasy in her room anymore. He hadn’t run from who she was and he wasn’t looking away. “I am.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and placed a kiss against her knuckles. “I accept.”
Chapter Seven
Jasper had never slept so well in his life. Julia had tempted him all night long in his dreams, and the compulsion to roll over and find her in his sleep again was strong. But the flesh and blood woman was just a few halls away, and Jasper had never been content to dream when he could experience something in truth.
She was exceptional. From the boldness of her lie to the frankness of her confession. There was something remarkable about the way she embraced the present—her wholehearted pursuit of the present echoed his own beliefs. The future was not guaranteed. At any moment, a carriage could careen off the road and destroy it all. Fretting over tomorrow was wasted energy, and letting today pass by could be a grave error.
Julia Bishop deserved the love affair to end all love affairs, and Jasper DeVere was just the man to give it to her.
He was whistling when he took the stairs two at a time and practically skipped his way into the dining room. The whistle died off when he saw only Nicholas at the breakfast table. Jasper’s attention shifted between the breakfast table and the footman waiting at silent attention next to the sideboard. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to leave.
“Jasper.”
…Perhaps it was. Jasper accepted a seat at the table and nodded his thanks when a cup of coffee and a laden plate were set in front of him.
After a long moment, Nicholas asked, “Did you sleep well?”
An olive branch. “I did, thank you. Your home is very relaxing.”
Nicholas peered over the edge of The Morning Post. “You and Juniper took dinner in your rooms last night.”
Ah. Not an olive branch—an ambush. “We did. It had been a long day—and I think you mean Julia.”
The sound of Nicholas’s exhaled breath dominated the room, and robbed his expression of its sternness. “Oh, thank God. She told you.”
Jasper grinned. “How long did you think you were going to be able pull off a lie of that magnitude?”
Nick took a bite of toast, shaking his head. “The Bishop sisters are going put me into an early grave.”
“Does this mean we’re friends again?”
“We were never not friends, but—are you still pursuing Julia, now that you know she’s Julia?”
“I am.” Jasper tried to ignore the slight inherent in the question, but he couldn’t. What sort of man Nicholas must think he was; willing to throw over a beautiful, intriguing woman purely because of a circumstance of birth? An edge crept into his voice. “Will that be a problem?”
“I don’t know!” Nicholas pinched the bridge of his nose and finally, for the first time since he’d arrived, looked like Jasper’s friend and not some disapproving uncle. “This whole thing is just… I don’t know, Jas. It’s difficult for me to process.”
“What’s difficult about it?”
He pinned Jasper with a knowing scowl. “You and I have done a great deal of troublemaking together. I have detailed knowledge of your intimate exploits.”
“And…”
“And I don’t want to think about those details in relation to my relation.”
Jasper tried to put himself in Nicholas’s shoes. If Ruby suddenly took up with one of his more hedonistic friends, then he— No. His brain immediately went blank, refusing to contemplate it. “I see the problem.”
“You do?”
“I do.”
“Then you’ll give up pursuing Julia?”
“No.” That wasn’t something he could do.
“But you just—”
“I like her, Nicholas. More than I’ve ever liked anyone, and martyrdom is not in my natur
e, but I will be more understanding of your difficulties.”
“Oh, thank you.” Nicholas’s tone was full of sarcasm.
“Any time. We are friends, after all.” They were, and would continue to be. It was a weight off Jasper’s mind. Nicholas would continue to be surly and difficult, but their friendship would survive. Jasper hadn’t quite realized how important that was to him. “So about the eldest Bishop, what can you tell me about what she likes?”
“No. I will not help you seduce my sister-in-law.”
“It must be difficult to live such a conflicted life.”
“What can I say”—Nicholas raised his coffee cup in a toast—“I’m a complicated man.”
“You’re a wonderful one,” Amelia announced as she entered the dining room. She dropped a kiss on her husband’s cheek on the way to her chair. “Don’t get up.”
Jasper stood, taking his seat when she did. “I thought married women luxuriated through the morning, taking breakfast in bed.”
“And miss all the excitement? I’m surprised I didn’t find you two battling to the death with butter knives.”
“The morning isn’t over,” Nicholas warned.
Amelia ignored him. “Jasper, I don’t think I ever thanked you for sending us Giovani.”
“It’s entirely my pleasure. I couldn’t let a great chef go to waste, and I travel too much to make proper use of him.”
“Don’t thank him, Mia. Moments ago, he was grilling me for advice on seducing your sister.”
Amelia’s eyebrows rose at sister, and Jasper nodded confirmation that he knew. Her happy laughter spilled across the table. “Why did you ask Nicholas? What would he know about it?”
“Excuse me.” Nick discarded The Morning Post. “I know things.”
“About me, certainly. But Julia? I sincerely doubt it.”
Jasper gave Amelia his most charming smile. “Where might you stand on helping me woo your sibling?”
“That depends on your intentions, Lord Bellamy. Perhaps we should take a walk after breakfast.” Her eyes twinkled behind her teacup. “But first, I’m starving and I am woefully behind on news. While I eat breakfast, tell me—how is your sister?”
Devastated, no doubt. Angry. Terrified. Mostly angry.
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