The young woman’s smile widened. “Neither did I.” Jane furrowed her brow. “I wanted only the heart of my duke. My husband. And you,” she motioned to Jane, “shall have the heart of yours.”
There was no man. Nor would there ever be. Not a gentleman and not with the aspirations Jane had for her finishing school. “There will be no man to possess my heart,” she said, her tone flat, and she reached up to remove the gift.
Daisy took her by the hands once more and guided her through the remainder of the room to the doorway. “Ah, but you still don’t realize it?”
“Realize what, Your Grace?”
“The necklace found you. You have no other choice but to find love.” The duchess started for the door and just as the woman touched the handle, Jane called out.
“Your Grace?” The young lady turned back and looked at her. Jane folded her arms close to her chest. “Might I request a favor of you?”
The woman inclined her head. “Of course.”
“Will you have my carriage readied? I find I cannot stay.”
Chapter 28
She’d taken his damned carriage.
Seated in the confines of his brother’s carriage, Gabriel stared with sightless eyes at the passing streets. She’d left. From across the ballroom floor he’d taken in her approaching the Duke of Ravenscourt and then her flight. It was as though she’d disappeared—a task not impossible in the lavish, opulent home of the Duke of Crawford.
And if it hadn’t been for the Duchess of Crawford, he would still be wandering his host and hostess’ blasted home.
She asked for her carriage.
He fisted his hands on his lap and willed the carriage faster. What in hell had that monster said to her? Given her the cut direct? Cast aspersions upon her character and credibility as he’d done when Gabriel had approached him days earlier? While his tortured mind ran through every horrifying possibility, the grating rumble of the wheels turning over the cobbled roads punctuated the quiet.
As the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, Jane had gone through her life treated as though she were of lesser worth, a woman who’d been told by Society’s dismissal that she did not matter. In his silence, in his blasted determination to protect himself from hurting or feeling, he’d committed the most egregious offense against her—he’d fed the very same belief the lady likely carried.
Jane had given him her love.
And he’d rejected her. Pain knifed away at his insides and he rubbed the dull place where his heart beat. He’d gone through the better part of his life believing he didn’t care about anyone or anything but the obligation he had to his siblings. But he’d been so very wrong. He cared and it was as his brother said—claiming he didn’t care and believing himself incapable of love, or being loved, didn’t make it true.
The carriage rumbled ahead and he damned the infernal ride. The traffic had clogged the streets and delayed his return home.
I should have told her. I should have let her know just how much she mattered to me. He should have given her the words she’d been denied the course of her life; not because it was an obligation owed, but because they were the words she deserved, the words in his heart. He was nothing without her. He’d been nothing, an empty, cold shell of a person before her. She’d made him smile and laugh, and teased him, and—
His townhouse pulled into focus. Gabriel rapped once on the ceiling and the conveyance rocked to an abrupt stop. He planted his feet upon the carriage floor to keep from pitching across the seat and then tossed the door open.
“My lord?” his driver called after him as he sprinted the remaining distance down the street. His pulse hammered wildly in his ears and his breath came in great, gasping pants that had nothing to do with his exertions. He skidded to a stop at the base of the stairs and then took them two at a time.
God love Joseph. The servant threw the door open in anticipation and Gabriel rushed inside. He shrugged out of his cloak and tossed it to a waiting servant. “My—”
“Her Ladyship is above stairs, my lord.”
The words had no sooner left the older man’s mouth than Gabriel took the marble stairs two at a time. He stumbled over his feet in his haste and righted himself. Then he reached the landing. With his heart hammering wildly, he raced to Jane’s chamber door and tossed it open. He staggered inside and located her in the corner of the room.