The other woman snapped her eyebrows together. “Well, laughter is certainly not the appropriate sentiment.”
She schooled her features. “Forgive me,” Jane murmured. “I’m unfamiliar with the proper protocol for being abandoned by one’s husband on one’s wedding night.”
Horror lit Chloe’s eyes as she registered just how her bold words about Gabriel this night might affect Jane. She slapped her palm to her forehead. “I am such a ninny. Of course you are hurt.”
Filled with a restive energy, Jane swept up her book and wheeled away from Gabriel’s sister. She carried it over to the window at the opposite end of the room. “Ours is an arranged match, Chloe. Ours was formed because I was ruined and your brother had some misbegotten sense of loyalty to do right by me.”
The snap of satin skirts indicated the young lady had moved. “As he should. Gentlemen do not go about ruining young ladies without then wedding those same ladies.” With her strict expectations, Chloe would be far better suited to any post with Mrs. Belden than Jane had ever been.
She fanned the pages of her book. “The funds settled upon me by my father were contingent upon my marriage.” She could not keep the bitterness from her words. After all these years, those three thousand pounds had represented the one thing her father had done for her that indicated he cared and worried for her future.
“What?” the young woman exclaimed, her tone that of one who’d been dealt a sharp jab in the belly.
She cast a glance back at Chloe. “Your brother offered to wed me so I might access those funds. He doesn’t want a,” her cheeks burned, “true marriage. He wishes me to serve as your companion until you are wed.”
“I will not marry. But if I did,” the young woman gave her a pointed look. “Which I will not. Ever—”
“Chloe,” she prodded gently.
“Er, yes, right…if I did, I would not tolerate my husband abandoning me on my wedding night. The lout,” she muttered that last part under her breath. She pointed a finger at Jane. “And neither should you. Furthermore,” she went on. “All he has done is fueled more gossip where you are concerned. The lout.”
“It matters not, Chloe. They will speak ill of me regardless.”
“But he can protect you where he could.” Those words burst from the young woman’s lips. Her chest rose and fell with the force of her rapid breaths. “He wedded you to protect you? And you for what? Your three thousand pounds?”
It had begun as that. Or at least she’d convinced herself as much. Jane dropped her gaze to the tips of her toes. She’d proven herself a liar in every way, now.
“It wasn’t truly about your funds though, was it, Jane?” her sister-in-law said with a maturity of one far older, who saw far more.
And because she’d grown tired of all the lies, she shook her head once.
“You love him.” As the young woman’s words were a statement, Jane remained silent, not trusting herself to speak.
She started as a small pair of hands settled upon her shoulders. Absorbed as she’d been in her own ponderings, she’d failed to hear Chloe’s quiet approach. “Win his heart,” Chloe urged softly. “He is afraid to love.” She hesitated the fraction of a moment. “We all are. But Gabriel wants it. He just doesn’t think himself worthy of that sentiment.” She wrinkled her nose. “The protective, controlling man he’s become, he likely blames himself for…for…just for,” she finished lamely. “He’s always been that way.” A sad smile turned her lips up. “Since he was a boy.”
A hungering to know more about who he’d been as a child filled Jane. She swallowed hard to keep from asking about his youth. She’d wager he would have been a serious boy with the weight of the world upon his little shoulders. “What was he like?” Alas, there was the whole business with her tongue having a will of its own.
“Serious,” Chloe said automatically. “Alex was the smiling, laughing one. Philippa the obedient one. But as he was much older, I did not truly know Gabriel. I remember him to be the serious one of our family.” She lifted her shoulders in a little shrug. “We all, each of us, learned to deal with the life we were given. Except, Gabriel, well, he took on the responsibility for what happened to us.”