Just Jayne

by Ripley Proserpina

  “The hand is better, and I slept pretty well,” I answered, pulling my hair over my shoulder. “It took me a while to fall asleep. I thought maybe you’d stop by…” My words trailed off as I caught sight of my veil in a heap on the floor. My dream from the night before returned to me as I lifted it up. The lace had been torn from the crown to the tail, shredded like a wild animal had gotten caught in it.

  “What happened?” Lee asked. He took it from me to examine it.

  “I thought it was a dream,” I replied.

  “What was a dream?” he asked. “This? Did you do this?” He wasn’t accusing; he just sounded surprised.

  “What? No!” I took it from him and studied it. There was no way to fix it. It was ruined. “I had a dream a woman was in my room. I heard her tear something.”

  “A woman?” Lee asked.

  “Yes,” I replied. “She was tall and had long, curly hair. Lee—” Facing him, I held out the veil. “Did Grace do this?” She was tall, and while her hair had been back, I wondered if it was long when she let it down. “I thought you were going to—”

  His face was pale and he pushed his hand through his hair, clearly upset. Before he could say anything, though, Klaus walked in.

  “Lawyers are here,” he said and then taking us in, strode forward. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “Someone tore my veil to pieces,” I said. Mrs. Foster was going to be so upset. And after our exchange last night, she might even think I’d done it on purpose.

  Klaus was silent, but his hands shook as he took it from me. He didn’t even look at it, though. Dropping it, he grabbed me and took me in his arms. Beneath my ear, his heart was pounding. “Thank God you’re all right.” He kissed my head and squeezed. “The veil doesn’t matter. All that matters is you marry us.” Pushing me back suddenly, he stared down at me. “You haven’t changed your mind?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing could change my mind.” From the corner of my eye, I caught Lee let out a breath.

  “Let’s forget all about this then,” he said. “And go downstairs. The lawyers are waiting, and these things always take longer than they should.”

  We left, but Klaus locked the door behind him. I thought they had keys to all the doors, but I hadn’t seen him use it before. “We’ll deal with it later. We have more important things to do,” he said when he saw me watching.

  I nodded, took his hand, and followed him downstairs. The lawyers were waiting in the kitchen where Mrs. Foster had set the table with coffee, tea, scones, and fruit.

  “Miss Burns.” I recognized this lawyer from my interview. “We have a lot of things to cover, and not a lot of time to do it. Please sit down and we’ll get to work.”

  I took a scone and accepted a cup of coffee from Mrs. Foster as the lawyer launched into our marriage contract. It started simply enough, I was marrying Tennyson. The certificate reflected the place of my birth, my parents’ names, my birthday, as well as Ten’s. We would sign it after the ceremony.

  “Your name is now on all the same accounts as the members of the band,” the lawyer said. “You have access to the accounts and all the money in them. This is their last will and testament. You’ve been made executrix of the will, and if Sophie is under age, should something happen, you’ll be her guardian and in charge of her trust, which she receives upon the age of twenty-five. In the case of a divorce, all assets are divided equally.” He cleared his throat and shook his head. “Any children you have will receive trusts as well.”

  “Hold on.” I held up my hand. “I don’t understand. Why would you split your assets with me? And Sophie and our children should inherit your assets. Not me.”

  “That’s what I told them,” the man said, looking over his glasses to the guys.

  “You’re our wife,” Diego said.

  “Technically, she’ll be Ten’s wife. I’d advise you to be clear on that, as the UK has very clear bigamy laws.”

  “Our wife,” Diego said again. “If it was up to us, we’d never ever get a divorce. But if you’re not happy…” His gaze was so earnest, and he took my hand, kissing it lightly. “We want you to be taken care of. We don’t want you to worry about anything.”

  “This is forever,” I told him.

  “You should listen to Miss Burns.” The older man wiped a handkerchief across his bald head. “You’re putting your entire estate at risk by not having a prenuptial agreement.”

  “Enough,” Klaus said loudly enough that I—and his lawyer—jumped. “Jayne. Sign the statements. You’re ours forever. But we provide for you. No matter what.”

  With a sigh, the man held out a pen. The guys watched me, almost like they were holding their breath, until I signed the document.

  In short, brisk movements, the man collected the documents and stuffed them into a briefcase. “Mrs. Foster will witness the marriage. Sign and date and get to me asap. Congratulations.” He didn’t sound at all like he meant that, but I thanked him all the same.

  The door hadn’t closed behind him before Sophie ran into the room. “Come on!” She grabbed my hand and began to pull me to the stairs. “It’s time to get ready!”

  The guys stood, pushing back their chairs.

  “Go on,” Diego said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. His smile was tight, but not unhappy.

  The others wore similar anxious expressions. My stomach was in excited knots, too, so I couldn’t blame them. Still, a little ball of anxiety settled in my chest. “I’ll meet you in a few minutes.”

  “I get to do your hair!” Sophie yelled. I laughed and followed her upstairs. Just before I rounded the bend, I glanced back over my shoulder. The guys had huddled closer together, and though I couldn’t hear what they said, their faces told me the story. Something more than my veil being ripped, and lawyers sounding off about prenup agreements.

  Something else was wrong.

  41

  Diego

  “Reservations are made.” I told my friends. “Sophie and Flora are going right to London where my parents will meet them. From there, they go to Madrid. We’re all set for a flight out directly after the ceremony from Leeds to Amalfi.”

  “We have to get out of here,” Klaus said. He crossed his arms and frowned. “When I think about what could have happened…”

  Nausea roiled in my stomach when I considered how lucky we’d been. We’d led selfish lives, and this—this was the result.

  But I wouldn’t let anything happen to Jayne. None of us would.

  “And after?” Ten asked.

  “After—” Lee replied, “After all this, we start again. Leave Fairfax Manor and start over. Wherever Jayne wants. As long as she’s safe.”

  I pushed the heels of my hands against my eyes. What should have been the best day of my life felt like something I had to rush through now. All I wanted to do was marry Jayne.

  And then go.

  42

  Jayne

  “You look so pretty.” Sophie twirled in her dress. The guys had surprised her with a fancy dress, and she’d been so distracted by the sequins and tulle that she’d allowed me to do my own hair and makeup.

  The dress Tennyson had chosen for me fit like it’d been made, and had waited, for me. It wasn’t white, but something close to champagne and had an almost rose undertone that brought out the color in my cheeks.

  It might have been vain to admit, but I’d never been so pretty in my life.

  “It’s because I’m happy,” I told Sophie. I glanced over at her and smiled. “I’m so happy.”

  “Diego is happy,” she said. “I can tell because he smiles all the time. And Klaus! Klaus never smiled. Even Ten is a lot less annoying.”

  “And Lee?” I joked.

  “Lee’s the same. He’s always serious. But he’s happy. I can tell.” Sophie frowned at the pile of lace on my bed. “It’s too bad your veil ripped. It would have been so perfect.”

  It would have. But I’d been able to remove the material from the crown. What was
left was a simple platinum and pearl tiara. I put it on and faced Soph. “What do you think?”

  “Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.”

  There was a sharp knock on the door, and Lee opened it. “Are you ready?”

  He wasn’t smiling, and my stomach dropped. I knew that this was an unusual wedding, but I hadn’t doubted it was something he wanted before.

  Now, however, I could barely take a breath to speak. “Yes.”

  He strode inside and took my hand, fairly dragging me out of the room. Both of us were silent as we walked down the hall. Well, he walked; I had to jog to keep up. Sophie skipped in front of us, uncaring, or not noticing. The tightness in my chest had me panting, and I nearly tripped trying to keep up with him.

  He slowed at the top of the stairs. For the first time, he looked at me and his gaze seemed to soften. Pulling my arm through his, he walked me down the stairs. At the turn of the first steps, Diego met us. He took me carefully from Lee, his gaze filled with love. But his grip was hard and his palm sweaty.

  Klaus was at the end of the aisle. A sheen of sweat across his forehead made me worry he was sick. He swallowed hard as I was passed to him, and his jaw clenched. He said nothing, nor, once I curled my arm around his elbow, did he look at me again.

  This wasn’t what I thought my wedding would be like. My heart was full of love for these men, and I wanted to tell them, but my words stuck in my throat. With each step toward Ten, whose gaze skittered over the room and then slid across mine, the wrongness of all of this grew.

  I didn’t know the man who stood at Tennyson’s side, but he seemed the most relaxed of all of us. Clearly, he didn’t notice anything amiss.

  Tennyson was stiff next to me. He stared at the officiant, not once glancing at me as the man started the ceremony. The other guys filed around us. Diego stood next to Ten, while Klaus and Lee stood on the other side of me.

  “This is a happy day,” the man began…

  A blast of cold air hit my back and then a voice yelled. “This wedding can’t continue!”

  I turned around. At the door stood the man from the band’s house party, Mason Henry. He seemed nervous and glanced around the shoulder of another man I’d never seen before. That man held up a stack of papers.

  “Keep going,” Klaus said through clenched teeth.

  “You can’t marry her, Klaus Warner! You already have a wife!”

  I stared at Klaus’s profile. He went from angry to enraged. But he didn’t move. “Go on.”

  “I can’t,” the man said. “This… This isn’t right. You have a wife?”

  “I’m the one marrying her,” Tennyson interjected. “So marry us.”

  “Not only are you married, Klaus, but your wife is here, at Fairfax Manor!”

  Somehow I remained standing. I didn’t know how I did it. Not only did my knees go weak, but the entire world seemed to drop away from me. In the few aisle seats, Mrs. Foster grabbed Sophie’s hands and dragged her out of the room. If I could have told her thank you, I would have. But along with everything else, I seemed to have lost the power of speech.

  The guys converged in front of me, shielding me from the two new arrivals.

  “What are you doing here, Mason?” Lee asked. “You got what you wanted. Your end of the bargain was to disappear.”

  “Warner called me,” he said. His voice trembled, but he straightened his shoulders. “He told me what you had planned. You can’t do that to my sister. It’s not fair.”

  “Not fair?” Klaus laughed. “You don’t know anything about fair!”

  Mason’s sister was Klaus’s wife. Klaus’s wife was here in Fairfax Manor. How did I not know about this?

  “You’ve hidden her away from the world,” Mason went on. “It’s not right. She deserves better than this.”

  “Better?” Diego spoke in a tone of voice I’d never heard before. “We protect her. Shield her. Care for her. Do you know what kind of life she’d have without us?”

  “I demand to see your wife,” the man said. He held out the bundle of papers, and Lee snatched them from his hand. “To ascertain her safety and well-being. This is an order from a judge allowing that.”

  “Fine,” Ten said, speaking for the first time since the man had dropped this bomb. “Come with us. See our wife.”

  He grabbed my hand, and I quickly lifted my dress. The guys thundered upstairs and Ten trailed behind, dragging me with him in much the same way Lee had dragged me from my room earlier. Behind me, I could hear the footsteps of Mason and the man he’d brought with them. They went past the rooms where Blanca and the house party guests had stayed into the room where I’d found Mason that fateful night.

  At the back of the room was a door I hadn’t noticed. Lee shoved a key into the lock and threw it open. Another steeper set of stairs went up to another floor. It was hard for me to follow. The stairwell was narrow, and the steps far apart. The dress shoes I wore clicked on the floor, sliding across well-worn divots in the stone.

  Once we reached the top, there was another door. Lee knocked before he opened this one, and we all stepped into a huge, well-lit room. Grace sat in an easy chair, but she stood as soon as she saw us. “Sir?”

  I studied the room. It was bright and open except that what I’d thought were Gothic iron-crossed leaded windows, were actually bars over the glass. The room was set up like a studio apartment without a kitchen. There was a small bathroom with a standing shower and sink visible in one corner, and a huge canopy bed with mussed sheets in the other. Thick, lush carpets covered the floor and deep, comfortable sofas were set up around the room.

  There was a bookshelf full of books but no TV. The lights were recessed into the walls and ceilings, the glass covered with more metal.

  And in the back of the room, huddled next to the bed, was a woman.

  When Lee spoke, she glanced up.

  I could see that once upon a time, she’d been beautiful. She was still for a moment. A smile broke out over her face. “Lee…” she breathed in a musical voice.

  She pushed off the floor and stood, easily six feet tall. Her body was heavier, but still willowy, and her tangled mass of blonde hair went down to her butt.

  “How has she been, Grace?” Klaus asked.

  “Well enough,” Grace answered uneasily. She glanced at me, and then over to the woman. “A quiet day, overall. But you should probably leave. You know how your presence agitates her.”

  The guys stepped around me, going to her. I wanted to call them back. It was like something out of a nightmare, watching the men I loved go to another woman.

  She was still smiling, but then seemed to notice me, hovering like a moth by the door. Her face changed, going from lovely to demonic. Launching herself toward the guys, hands like claws, she tried to get at me. “Bitch!” she screamed. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

  The guys crowded around her, holding her in place, but not hurting her. Ten pushed her hair from her face, soothing her. “Shh, Bree. It’s okay.”

  “Tennyson!” she cried, burying her face in his suit coat. “Where have you been?” She went from enraged to weeping and then back again. “You fuckers!”

  She tried to push off them, slapping Diego so hard his head whipped to one side. A bright red handprint was visible on his face as she began to scream.

  The woman was tall, and strong, and quickly losing control. Grace stood from her chair and withdrew a syringe from a pocket. In one practiced move, she stuck the needle into Bree’s arm.

  “There you go,” Diego said, like she hadn’t attacked him. “You’re okay.”

  “I hate you,” she whispered even as her eyes closed. “I’ll kill you and burn this fucking house to the ground.”

  When she’d gone to sleep, Lee lifted her into his arms and brought her to the bed, covering her like she was a child.

  “That—” Klaus said, out of breath, “is my wife. Our wife. That unbalanced, murderous creature. We keep her comfortable.” He faced his audience. In the cha
os, I’d forgotten all about Mason and the man he’d brought with him. Klaus seemed to be addressing them. “She’s in her home, not surrounded by nurses and doctors in an unfamiliar place. It’s the best we can do for her.”

  “Why don’t you divorce her?” the man asked, and Mason opened his mouth to argue.

  “Do you want to tell him?” Ten asked. “Or should I?” He stared daggers at Mason, who shut his mouth with a snap.

  I had questions, too, but I was outside my body, watching everything from afar. I could have been dreaming, I felt so distanced from everything happening around me.

  “I will,” Klaus said. “It’s my fault.”

  “Klaus…” Diego began.

  “Let me,” he said, and for the first time, looked at me. Really looked at me. His gaze went soft and sad, but he didn’t approach me. “There couldn’t be two more different people in the world. Bree had everything. She was gorgeous. Rich. She laughed the loudest and partied the hardest. I fell for her immediately. God. I had a hard time keeping up with her, and I introduced her to my friends. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” Lee said, but Klaus shook his head.

  “Maybe if I hadn’t been wasted, I would have seen her behavior for what it was. Instead, I just thought she was like me. Young. Famous. The world at her fingertips.”

  “She never said anything,” Tennyson said. “Not once. She just burned so bright, I wanted to be part of her fire.”

  Bree couldn’t have been more different from me. At least from what they were saying, but they weren’t done.

  “I’m going to bring what I’ve seen here to the judge,” the man said. “Mason has made me Bree’s guardian. I’ll admit, she seems well-cared for physically. Emotionally, I don’t understand why she doesn’t have access to doctors.”