All she must do is marry him.
She would have her school. He would have…a very unsatisfactory end of the proverbial bargain. And there would be a husband, but not truly a husband.
The deal he put to her was generous and a week ago would have been the impossibility she’d never dared dream of—freedom. Until now. Now, with the perversity of her own internal weakness, something in his offer was missing. For both of them. How could he fail to see it?
Her skin prickled with awareness under the intensity of his gaze upon her person. Needing some space between them, Jane wandered to the cold, empty hearth and stared into the grate. When she spoke, she directed her attention there. “By your admission, all you require is a companion for Chloe. You would see her married, with me acting as your hostess.” Her lips pulled in an involuntary grimace. “When she is wed, what then?” She cast a glance over her shoulder.
Gabriel remained propped at the edge of the sofa, coolly elegant and refined in his masculine perfection—his powerful height, his broad muscles rippling in the fitted contours of his expertly cut jacket. He lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. “Then, it is as I said, you will have your freedom and I shall have mine.”
A chill stole through her at that detached acceptance of an empty existence. “I do not understand. You have an obligation to your title.” All the noblemen she’d ever known had put that great lineage before all else.
“I have an obligation to those I care for and beyond that, the title can go hang.”
Care for. Not love. And yet, she’d wager her soul to the devil that he loved more deeply than any other. Then his flat, emotionless words registered. She blinked several times. “Why?” Why, when the cold, calculated members of the ton prized that hereditary line more than anything, should he be different? Jane ran her gaze over him, searching for answers to solve the complex riddle of Gabriel, the Marquess of Waverly.
His thick lashes swept downward, shielding all hint of emotion from his eyes. “My father was a monster. I have no desire to carry on that line.”
That was it. Two sentences emotionlessly delivered. Fourteen words meant to convey all about why he’d wed her and why he’d given up on his line and the possibility of a family for himself.
She opened her mouth to ask a question, but the words died in her throat as he suddenly shoved back from his relaxed pose and stalked over. Jane’s feet twitched with the urge to flee but remained fixed at the hearth as he came to a stop beside her. “I venture you have your secrets,” he admonished. She’d had her secrets. He now knew more than anyone else. “I ask for the privacy of mine.”
Her throat went dry at the clipped request. She managed a shaky nod and then drew in a deep breath. “Surely, sacrificing your life is not worth the cost of a companion. Your mother—”
“Do you know where my mother is?” he cut in.
“Chloe explained she retired to the country for your sister’s confinement.”
“My sister has developed complications that have put at risk her life and the life of her baby.”
Her heart throbbed. “Oh. I…” Her useless apology faded.
He ignored her. “I will not have Chloe know that.”
In light of their circumstances, Jane really should be attending the question of her fate, marital state, and finances, and yet annoyance stirred in her belly. “You would keep that from her?” She could not keep the incredulity from creeping into her question.
Gabriel rolled his shoulders and she gritted her teeth at the infuriating nonchalance of him. “What good is there in her knowing? Is there anything to be done to change Philippa’s circumstances?”
“No, but—”
“Should she retire to the country and worry, all the while being unable to change Philippa’s circumstances?”
Jane nodded briskly. “Yes. Yes she should. That is what she’d want.” She braced for him to question her brash insolence in knowing what his own sister wanted after only a week of each other’s acquaintance. It spoke volumes that he did not.
“My family’s circumstances aside, what will you do?”