Jade

by Jill Marie Landis

  As the judge droned on, she thought of the Chinese custom of buying wives, then of arranged marriages. In many cultures a man and woman met and were married on the same day. She may not have had much time to get to know Jason, but at least she knew him well enough to determine the kind of man he was. She did not find him wanting. He was gentle, kind, and understanding. He had given her no reason to fear him or the night that lay ahead.

  Jason and Jade stood before the judge and said yes to every vow. For better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. When he slipped the ring on Jade’s finger, then held both of her hands in his, their lives became inexorably entwined.

  The time came for them to seal their vows with a kiss. Jade waited to see what Jason would do. Finally, when he did not move, she peered up at him, her eyes shining through her tears. He smiled down at her, placed a finger beneath her chin, and tilted her face toward his. He took Jade’s flowers and handed them to Babs, who was fighting to hold back tears.

  Then he took his wife into his arms, and before the entire gathering left no doubt as to the depth of his feeling for her.

  Jade felt herself melting in his arms as she did each time he kissed her. Whenever he touched her, she became more than herself. As the parched soil of the desert welcomes a rain shower, so too did she welcome his kiss. Unmindful of the others, she gave herself over to him and slipped her arms about his neck. She clung to him, felt his hand at the small of her back and leaned into his embrace as close as her voluminous skirts would allow. Their kiss went on and on as Jason’s lips moved expertly over Jade’s. It was not until Matt cleared his throat that they became aware of the others in the room.

  Gradually, J.T. let her go until she was able to stand alone again. He tried to hide his amusement, but failed when he gazed down at the heightened color of her pinkened cheeks. He took both her hands in his and looked down at the gold ring on her finger. She was his. Jason felt as if he owned the world.

  THE WEDDING FEAST was elegant and the conversation subdued in the candlelit dining room. Heavy crystal goblets glittered at each place setting as they reflected the dancing flames. Babs was so elated with the French chef that she had him present each course to the gathering as if each platter was an honored guest. Babs clapped and exclaimed over the dishes. Jade could not help but smile when the chef introduced the saute cle volatile reduit with a flourish. The French words made the dish sound far more glamorous than sautéed chicken in cream sauce.

  Jade glanced up at Jason. He viewed the proceedings with an arched brow and a dubious half-smile, obviously as unimpressed as she. But Babs wanted to prove how very cultured she had become. Reggie preened each time he was asked to taste a dish. Although she owed them much, Jade could not help but be relieved to leave the Barretts’s home. Babs had changed during the time Jade had been in France, so much so that it was slowly dawning on Jade that, except for shared girlhood memories, they had very little in common.

  Whenever he was unaware of her doing so, Jade watched Jason. He stared long and hard at each selection before he tasted it. Very often he would cut into a portion and carefully inspect it before he actually put it in his mouth. Jade made note of his finicky manner for the future.

  She had little appetite, although the chicken, the potatoes Provençale, and the dessert of rum banana fritters were indeed delicious. Champagne flowed throughout the meal. Reggie and Judge Cartwright tried to outdo each other in toasts to the newlyweds. Babs, replete from the rich meal and lulled by the wine, was uncharacteristically quiet. Jade wondered when it would be polite to end the gathering, but decided it was up to Babs, as hostess, to give some sign that the celebration was over.

  One part of her wanted the meal to end. On the other hand, she knew that this night would be unlike any other. She was married to Jason now. She intended to do right by him and be a wife to him in every way.

  Although they sat side by side all evening, they had not done more than exchange polite pleasantries. Instead of being relieved by his undemanding silence, Jade became more nervous with each passing moment. It wasn’t until Matt asked Jason if he had plans for a honeymoon trip that Jade felt J.T. reach beneath the table and take her hand in his. He squeezed her fingers gently, his gaze secretive. A wave of heat suffused her, one Jade knew was not entirely from embarrassment.

  “As a matter of fact, I do. I’m taking my bride to Monterey early tomorrow morning. I’ve been meaning to go after some stock to add to the herd.”

  “And tonight?” Babs asked, glancing over at Jade.

  Jade blushed, and even Jason paused for a moment before he said, “We’re staying at Harrington House.”

  “Oh.” Babs looked disappointed, “I thought you might be staying at the Palace tonight. But then again, with a mansion like yours, who needs the Palace? By the way, Jade, when you are ready to hire help, be sure to let me know. I have contacts to all the best cooks in San Francisco. If you offer enough, you’ll surely be able to steal one away from someone.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “I’m sure we’ll manage until we go to New Mexico,” Jason said with a nod to Babs, “but thanks anyway.”

  “Surely you don’t mean she’ll have to cook herself?”

  Before Jason could answer, Matt stood up, champagne glass in hand. “How about one final toast to Jade and Jason?” He raised his glass in a salute. “To a long life together and every happiness.”

  Everyone joined in.

  Then Jason stood. Without hesitation or the self-consciousness that might have stopped another man, J.T. raised his glass. “I’d like to make a toast of my own.” He turned to Jade as everyone else lifted their stemware in salute. “To my wife.”

  Jade could not help but note the meaning behind the warm, suggestive glance he gave her over the rim of his glass. She lifted her glass and shyly returned his look.

  Jason drained his glass and Jade followed suit.

  IT WAS TIME to go. Jade took one last look around the guest room to be certain she had not forgotten to pack anything. Her heavier boxes of books and personal belongings had been delivered to the mansion earlier in the day. All she had to carry with her was a small tapestry valise that contained her hairbrush and other toilette articles.

  “Do you have everything?” Babs asked from the open doorway.

  Jade looked at her friend and knew that their friendship had now altered. From now on, Jason would take precedence in her life. They were no longer children. The things they once had in common might have changed, but they still shared memories of those years.

  “I think so.” Jade crossed the room and took hold of Babs’s hands. “Thank you so much, dear friend, for everything you’ve done for me.”

  A frown marred the brunette’s features for a fleeting second before Babs forced a smile and said, “Just remember that I only wanted to see you have the best. Jade. You deserve it, no matter what you think.”

  Babs’s uncustomary nervousness was all too obvious. “What do you mean?” Jade asked.

  “I can’t help but remember how lonely you were and how much you had to put up with when you were a child. I know it colored your picture of marriage. For a while I didn’t think you would ever consent to marrying anyone. That’s why I had to do what I did.”

  Jade was suddenly wary. “Are you referring to the day you left me on Jason’s doorstep?”

  Babs pulled away from Jade and twisted her hands together. “Well, that—and one other thing.”

  Despite every intention to stay calm, Jade felt her temper rise. “What other thing?”

  Babs fiddled with a stray curl. “What would you say if you knew the reason that reporter was so anxious to interview Jason the morning you were there was because I sent an anonymous note?”

  “What?”

  “Now Jade, please don’t be mad. I did it for you.”


  Jade’s mind reeled with the ramifications of Babs’s unthinking act. She remembered asking Babs if she had known the reporter, Peterson, and Babs had told her no. It was the worst kind of deception, one Jade doubted she could ever forgive. If not for Babs’s meddling, Jason would never have felt obligated to ask her to marry him.

  Jade felt dirty. A cheat.

  Even though she was not a party to the shameful plot, she intended to tell Jason the truth immediately.

  “I have to tell Jason.” Jade tried to shove past Babs, who still blocked the doorway.

  “Absolutely not. Stop and think, Jade. It will ruin everything.”

  “I don’t care! I have to tell him before this goes any farther. Now get out of my way.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The light of one star

  Illumines the mountains of many regions . . .

  So one unguarded expression

  Injures a whole life of virtue.

  MATT VAN BUREN took Judge Cartwright home, and Reggie invited Jason into the drawing room for brandy. Anxious to collect his bride, J.T. excused himself and took the stairs two at a time until he reached the upper landing. He continued down the hall past paintings in ornate, gilded frames, side tables covered with lace cloths, and vases of flowers. Following the low sound of women’s voices, he continued on until he stood just outside Jade’s room. Her words reached him before he stepped into the women’s line of vision. The frantic, angry sound of Jade’s voice made him pause.

  “Babs, I have to get downstairs. Now.” Jade sounded angrier and far more determined than he had ever heard her. “I can’t stand this anymore.”

  Jason was about to go to Jade’s aid when he heard Babs say, “You’ll be a fool if you tell Jason the truth now—not when you no longer have to worry about a thing. Everything worked out according to the plan. You’ve married your millionaire and you’ll have all the money you need to pay off your father’s debts.”

  Jason stood rooted to the floor as overwhelming reaction to Babs’s callous words ripped through him. Jade had married him for his money. The whole affair had been one great sham, and he had been fool enough to fall for it. He balled his hands into fists and stared up at the ceiling as anger, humiliation, pride, and revulsion roiled through him. Above all, Jason experienced a searing hurt—one that tore through his heart before it compelled him to move, forced him to step into the open doorway and face the conniving beauty he had just taken as his wife.

  Unaware of him, Babs stood in the doorway. She whirled around as he pushed past her. J.T. grabbed Jade’s arm and pulled her toward the door.

  “Jason?” Her eyes were wide and pleading. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Babs grabbed his sleeve in a futile attempt to stop him. “Jason, I don’t know what you heard, or what you think you heard, but—”

  He forced himself to speak. “I heard enough.” He was not certain he could say any more, but discovered as he ground out the words that the release helped vent his towering rage. “It seems I’ve bought myself a wife. I’ve come to collect.”

  He dragged Jade into the hallway.

  “Jason, stop!” She tried to break away, tried to pull her arm out of his grasp. “Let me explain,” she cried out. “I was just coming down to tell you—”

  He spun around and glowered down at her. His eyes were dark and wild with anger. “Oh, really? And just what were you planning to tell me, Jade? How big a fool I’ve been? How easy I was to trap? Were you going to tell me now, or after you were well-ensconced in Harrington House? After you’d slept with me?”

  She finally jerked out of his grasp and fell back against the wall. “I didn’t know, Jason! Believe me, I didn’t know Babs sent that reporter to your home!”

  Babs had followed them into the hall. She began shouting in an effort to make him believe Jade. “It’s true, Jason. She had nothing to do with Peterson finding out she spent the night at your house. It was all my idea.”

  “No?” His brow rose sardonically. “And I suppose she doesn’t know how she arrived at my doorstep alone that first day! You two orchestrated the whole thing, and I was stupid enough to believe her when she told me you had just up and left her there, Babs.”

  He turned back to Jade, who was still pressed up against the wall. J.T. shook his head. She was a consummate actress. Her expression of wide-eyed innocence was still convincing, even now that he knew the truth. Jade had paled to the color of her dress and her lips were parted. One hand rested at the base of her throat while the other was braced against the wall.

  He turned his fury on Babs and she took a step back into the guest room. “Were you behind the trap door that closed poor, defenseless Jade in the cellar at the adobe? Oh, yes! How could I forget? Hiring the thugs that dragged her through Little China was very inspirational. I fell for that one like a rock off a cliff.”

  Jade laid her hand on his sleeve in an attempt to calm him. He stared down at the fingers that clutched the dark material as one might stare at a venomous snake.

  “You choreographed the whole thing so that I’d feel sorry for her,” he said as he shot a glance at Babs and then stared hard at Jade, “so that I would feel protective, chivalrous.” He brushed her fingers off his sleeve. “God, what a farce.”

  Jade was trembling so hard she did not think her legs would hold for another second. As she stared up at him, she realized this was a nightmare she couldn’t, wouldn’t, let herself believe in. Her Jason Harrington was kind and gentle. He was like no man she had ever met. But the man he had become in the last few seconds reminded her all too much of her father. She refused to accept what she saw.

  She spoke in slow, even tones as she tried to soothe him to some degree of calm. “Jason, I don’t know what you heard, but you have this all wrong. Please, let’s go home so that I can explain it all to you. Please!”

  “Home? My home is in New Mexico. Not here.”

  J.T. stared down at her, his pulse racing, as he tried to think of a way to hurt her as much as she had hurt him. She had struck where he had always been the most vulnerable—when he had only wanted to do the honorable thing by her and make up for the hurt he had done her reputation. Instead he had made a fool of himself by marrying a woman who had no scruples, a creature who had duped him into falling into her trap. His smile twisted as he stared down at her in the dimly lit hallway. Jade was still as beautiful to him as she had been moments ago when they exchanged their vows, but now he saw her for the callous, conniving bitch she really was. He wanted nothing more than to walk away from her without another glance, to turn away from the stricken look she feigned and hide from the glistening emerald eyes and full lips that still made his traitorous body ache. But unable to leave her there, he pinned her to the wall with his stare.

  “It wasn’t like that, Jason. Believe me! I was going to the bank tomorrow to settle my father’s debts. I’m giving up the adobe and the land. I don’t even want Grandfather’s things.”

  “Shut up,” he snapped, holding up his hand in warning, refusing to listen, afraid to listen to her honeyed words. “It was all a lie,” he whispered, not caring whether she heard or not. “The visit to the bank—nothing was settled that day, was it? You’re still deep in debt and figured I was the only way out. But, that’s the way you planned it all along.”

  “I don’t want your money.” She shook her head in denial as her tears began to fall. “I never did,” she whispered.

  “She didn’t, Jason,” Babs interjected. “She never wanted to trick you.”

  J.T. glanced at Babs with a look of hatred that most men would have feared. He had forgotten the woman was still there. He knew that if he did not leave now that his anger would drive him past all reason. He turned away and stalked down the long hallway. Jade ran after him. He could hear the rustle of her gown and the sound of her soft footsteps behind him.

 
She grabbed his arm. “Jason, please! At least listen to me. Give me a chance.”

  He swung around, fists clenched, legs spread.

  She did not flinch.

  “Please,” she whispered. “You have to believe me.”

  “Why should I?” he ground out.

  “Because I’m telling the truth.”

  He leaned down until he was nearly nose-to-nose with her. “You don’t know the meaning of the word truth.”

  Jade closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and drew on her inner strength. He was hurt, she knew that; she had to choose her words carefully, lest she wound him more. The swiftest horse cannot overtake the word once spoken. If ever there was a time to guard her words, this was it. She could not risk defending herself with anger. That would only drive him farther away.

  Just as surely as she refused to let him go, so too did she refuse to cower before him. He had to hear the truth.

  “Jason, I agreed to marry you because you said you loved me. Was that a lie? Is that how you can walk out on me now?”

  J.T. stared down at her, stunned. Her reminder only served to reinforce the lengths to which he had let her manipulate him. He had been fool enough to tell her he loved her, now he was fool enough to realize he still did. But he would be damned if he’d let Jade know it. He would not tell her he loved her again. Not until hell froze over. Never, ever again.

  But she was waiting for him to say something.

  So he lied.

  “Don’t delude yourself. We all play our little games. I only wanted your body, Jade. I would have said anything to get you into my bed.”