Chapter 28

Jasper got little sleep that night, but at least he managed to think of a more fitting way to propose to Eleanor. He decided he would take her to the part of the gardens where the archery range had been constructed three days ago. He would drop to one knee, professing that this was the spot he had been struck by Cupid’s arrow and little had he realized that Cupid’s quiver was loaded with bird bolts.

It was a bit trite, but it was the best he could do on three hours’ sleep.

Having risen early, Jasper had finished his breakfast before most of the house party had even started. He was therefore pacing the morning room, rehearsing what he was going to say to Eleanor, when a commotion broke out in the breakfast room.

Pippa’s voice was the one he heard first. “Give that back! It’s mine!”

Anna-Maria Robertson answered. “Tsk, tsk, Miss Philippa. It looks like someone should have been more careful with her things.”

“I was careful with it!” Pippa cried. “I don’t know how you got hold of my journal, but I insist that you return it right now!”

Jasper was storming down the hallway toward the breakfast room, blood boiling, fully intending to demand that Anna-Maria Robertson return Pippa’s journal, when her brother, Lucas, uttered words that stopped him in his tracks. “Here’s a telling passage—listen to what Miss Philippa wrote about Lord Felix.”

Jasper staggered to a halt just shy of the doorway. Not that he truly believed Pippa would have written something unkind about Felix.

But it didn’t hurt to make absolutely sure.

Lucas Robertson continued, “‘Everyone says that Felix isn’t very clever. I suppose they must be right. In fact, I’m counting on it.’”

How his legs carried him through the doorway, Jasper would never know, because, had he been asked, he would have sworn he was at the point of collapse. It could not be true. Philippa Weatherby wasn’t like this. She loved his brother! He knew she did. She—she had to.

Felix would be crushed if she didn’t.

“It doesn’t really say that,” Jasper blurted as he crossed the breakfast room in three strides. “Tell me it doesn’t really say that!”

Inside, a frantic Pippa was reaching desperately for her journal while Anna-Maria Robertson blocked her at every turn. The other three Weatherby sisters were nowhere to be seen.

Anna-Maria tried to make her expression solemn but couldn’t conceal an undercurrent of triumph. “See for yourself, Your Grace.”

Her brother pointed to a paragraph at the bottom of the page. Jasper leaned forward, dread churning in his stomach.

Surely enough, the words were precisely what Lucas had just read aloud.

Everyone says that Felix isn’t very clever.

I suppose they must be right.

In fact, I’m counting on it.

Desperate for evidence that Pippa had been played false, he flipped through the earlier pages of the journal.

The handwriting was the same.

“No!” Pippa cried. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounds!”

Jasper staggered backward. As much as he wanted to believe her, the evidence was right there, written in her own hand.

He had been right all along. Philippa Weatherby had only been interested in his brother for the fortune he was due to inherit.

Damn it all to hell. How Jasper wished he had been wrong!

He stumbled out the door, ignoring Pippa’s protestations of innocence. He had to find Felix, had to warn him.

He encountered his brother on the stairs. “Felix!” Jasper gasped. “Lucas and Anna-Maria Robertson… they’ve somehow got hold of Pippa’s journal.”

“What?” Felix started jogging around him. “How dare they! Why didn’t you stop them, Jasp?”

Jasper seized his brother’s arm. “The passage they’re reading aloud… It’s about you.”

Felix froze. His eyes found Jasper’s, strangely blank. “About me?”

Jasper swallowed. “It’s bad, Fee.”

Worry dawned in Felix’s eyes. “Pippa wouldn’t… She couldn’t possibly…”

Jasper tilted his head toward the stairs. “I suppose you need to see for yourself.”

Felix rushed down the stairs, Jasper right on his heels. In the breakfast room, Pippa was still trying to retrieve her journal. She cried out as Anna-Maria Robertson blocked her with an elbow to the chest.

Felix rushed to Pippa’s side. “What is the meaning of this? Pippa, are you all right, sweetling?”

Pippa seized his hands. “Felix! You mustn’t listen to anything they say!”

He frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked, his voice sharpening.

“Let me explain—” Pippa began, but Lucas spoke in a booming voice, drowning her out.

“Listen to this, Lord Felix—‘Everyone says that Felix isn’t very clever. I suppose they must be right.’”

“What?” Felix cried, rounding on Pippa. The raw pain in his brother’s eyes was wrenching for Jasper to see. “You think I’m an idiot?”

“I don’t! I swear, I don’t!”

“Just wait, it gets worse,” Lucas continued. “‘I suppose they must be right. In fact, I’m counting on it.’”

Felix recoiled. He turned to face Pippa, looking betrayed. “I thought… I thought you cared for me,” he whispered.

“I do!” Pippa cried. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounds. You must believe me, Felix!”

“Here, Lord Felix,” Lucas called. “Come and read for yourself.”

Felix tore himself away from Pippa long enough to scan the paragraph for himself. The room had fallen totally silent.

After a moment, he turned to Pippa. His eyes were hard. “How could you?”

“It’s not what you think!” Pippa wrung her hands. “They’re twisting my words.”

“I saw what you wrote!” Felix snapped. “It’s written in your hand. You all but called me an idiot!”

“That’s not what I meant!” Pippa insisted.

Felix’s face remained cold, implacable. “Then what did you mean?”

“I…” Pippa tried to glance at the pages of the journal. “I’ve filled so many pages over the past few days, I don’t remember precisely what I wrote—”

Felix snorted. “A likely excuse!”

“—but I have never written anything about you that was anything less than fawning!” She made another desperate grab for the journal. “Let me show you the full passage. I know it will vindicate me—”

“I think I’ve seen enough!” Felix snapped, turning on his heel.

“No! Felix! Wait!” Pippa cried as Felix strode from the room.

Jasper hurried after his brother. “Felix—wait. Tell me what I can do.”

Felix did not slow his stride. “You can leave me alone, Jasper.”

“Alone?” Jasper didn’t care for that answer. “I don’t think that’s wise. Right now you need support—”

“Not from you!” Felix snapped. He wheeled around as he reached the bend in the stairs. “You’re probably delighted. You never thought Pippa liked me for me, because, honestly, who would? Well, congratulations, Jasper! You were right! You were right, and I was wrong. As usual!”

“I wish to God I had been wrong,” Jasper said, voice shaking. “Anything that hurts you is the last thing I would want. You have to believe me, Fee.”

Jasper watched as Felix’s flinty facade crumbled, leaving only misery behind. “I do. I do know that. You’re the only person I can trust. I thought I could trust Pippa but look how that turned out.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I feel like such an idiot, Jasp.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Jasper said in a rush. “You’re a good man, a decent man. You didn’t deserve that.”

Felix ran a hand over his face. “The gossip is going to be brutal.”

“There won’t be a word of gossip,” Jasper vowed. “I will make sure of it. Not a breath of this will get out.”

“Not a breath of what will get out?” a creaky voice asked from the top of the stairs.

Jasper and Felix looked up in unison. “Lord Oglesby,” Jasper said. “Good morning.”

The baron made his way to the landing upon which the brothers stood. “What’s this commotion all about?” he asked, glancing from Jasper to Felix and back again.

“Nothing,” Jasper said with forced lightness. “Nothing at all.”

“Oh,” the baron replied. “Judging by the doleful look on your face, I thought there might have been some unpleasant business involving your Miss Weatherby.”

“She’s not my Miss Weatherby,” Felix said vehemently. “I want nothing to do with her.”

“Oh—I hadn’t realized.” Lord Oglesby shook his head as if to clear it. “Well, it happens that I proposed to the chit last night. Just as you requested, Your Grace.”

Felix’s eyes snapped to him, brimming with betrayal, and Jasper felt his heart drop all the way to the pit of his stomach.

Felix turned to face the baron. “What do you mean, just as he requested? Jasper asked you to propose to Pippa?”

“Wait, Felix,” Jasper said in a hoarse voice. “Let me explain.”

In the same breath, Lord Oglesby replied, “Oh, yes! He suspected Miss Weatherby of having mercenary intentions, so he took me aside and asked me to issue a proposal of my own, just to see what she would say.”

“How could you, Jasper!” Felix shouted.

Jasper held out both hands. “It’s not what you think—”

“You were never in my corner! All the time you were professing to be so concerned for my future happiness, you were actively working to undermine it!”

“I wasn’t!” Jasper cried as an astonished Baron Oglesby looked on. “I swear, I wasn’t!”

“First Pippa, and now you,” Felix said, voice shaking. “I haven’t a friend in the world.”

“Felix.” Jasper seized his brother’s arm. “Felix, please.”

Felix shook him off. “Don’t touch me! I can’t stand the sight of you right now.” He turned and fled toward his room.

That was when Jasper noticed Eleanor and her two sisters hurrying down the stairs toward him.

Eleanor frowned as Felix rushed by her, pointedly ignoring her greeting. “Whatever has come over your brother?” she asked as she reached Jasper on the landing.

There was no sense in beating around the bush. “It’s Pippa. She and Felix have had a falling out.”

“A falling out?” Eleanor frowned. “Over what?”

“Come and see,” Jasper said grimly.

As the four of them jogged down the stairs, Jasper explained, “The Robertson siblings seem to have taken Pippa’s journal.”

“They what?” Clarissa snapped.

“They’ve been reading it aloud,” Jasper continued.

“And why did you not stop them at once?” Clarissa demanded.

Eleanor’s brow was creased in confusion. “Was Felix embarrassed by Pippa’s fawning descriptions of him?”

Jasper gave her a grim look. “It wasn’t fawning.”

They were rounding the door into the breakfast room. “I have difficulty believing—Clarissa! Stop!”

Clarissa stormed up to Anna-Maria Robertson. “Give me my sister’s journal, you bitch!”

Clarissa lunged for Anna-Maria’s throat, but Eleanor grabbed her around the waist. Anna-Maria flew into hysterics, in spite of the fact that Eleanor had moved quickly enough that Clarissa didn’t manage to lay a finger on her. Pippa had collapsed upon the carpet, where she sat sobbing, while Lucas was shouting for someone to control these Weatherby hoydens, and Kate?

Kate seized the opportunity presented by this chaos to sneak around behind Lucas and snatch the journal right out of his hands.

“Give that back!” Lucas shouted.

“Why should she?” Eleanor demanded, as commanding as any duchess. “It’s not yours.”

Lucas recoiled in the face of her ire. “Well, no, but—”

“But nothing!” Clarissa snapped. “No one has any business reading my sister’s private thoughts.”

“You probably need to see it,” Jasper said, looking at Eleanor.

He could almost see the thoughts churning behind those intelligent eyes. “And why is that?”

Jasper rubbed his brow. “Because you need to understand precisely what Miss Philippa wrote about my brother.” He held her gaze steadily. “And why I will be taking Felix’s side.”

Eleanor frowned at him. Jasper had the sinking feeling that they had just gone right back to where they’d been for most of the house party, back when they’d hated each other.

But he didn’t look away, and neither did Eleanor. After a moment, she said, “Pippa, dear. Show me the passage.”

Kate helped Pippa up from the floor. “I want to see it, too,” Pippa said between sniffles. “I’ve no memory of writing those words, but I swear, I haven’t had a single bad thought about Felix, not since the moment I clapped eyes on him. This is all a mistake, a horrible mistake…”

Jasper sincerely doubted it, but he said nothing. The four Weatherby sisters huddled together while Pippa paged through the book.

While he watched them attempt to relocate the relevant passage, Lord Oglesby stole up beside Jasper. “Might I have a word, Your Grace?”

The baron led him to the hallway outside the breakfast room. “What is it, my lord?” Jasper asked wearily.

“Due to the outburst from your brother, I didn’t have the chance to tell you what Miss Philippa said in response to my proposal.”

Jasper had a fair idea. “Let me guess—she was delighted at the prospect of becoming a baroness.”

“Not at all!” Lord Oglesby cackled. “Turned me down flat. Very politely, mind you. But she explained that she was head-over-heels in love with your brother. I prodded her a bit, as you’d mentioned that you wanted to test her. Mentioned that Lord Felix hasn’t yet come into his fortune and isn’t yet old enough to marry without your approval. I explained that if she held out for him, she would find herself facing a year of poverty and deprivation. Do you want to know what she said?”

“What?” Jasper asked, dread pooling in his stomach.

“She said that, so long as she was with Lord Felix, she could live in the meanest hovel, and she would count herself the happiest of creatures.” The baron jabbed his bony elbow into Jasper’s ribs. “She’s better than we thought, eh?”

Jasper didn’t know what to say. Pippa’s refusal of the baron’s offer of marriage didn’t square with the passage he’d just seen in her journal.

What was going on?

Just then, Eleanor appeared framed in the doorway, eyes sparking fire. “Get in here, you idiot!”

Jasper glowered at her. “If I am an idiot, it is for trusting your sister, who has proved to be nothing but a grasping—”

“The passage was taken out of context!” Eleanor snapped. “Come and see for yourself.”

Jasper leaned down and peered at the familiar, damning words:

Everyone says that Felix isn’t very clever.

I suppose they must be right.

In fact, I’m counting on it.

But when Eleanor turned the page, the passage continued:

Because, you see, that’s exactly what everybody says about me. And, as selfish as it may seem, I despair that if Felix were the sort of man who prized cleverness above every other virtue, he would never consider the likes of me. I think being clever is rated too highly, anyway. I would much rather have a husband who is kind than clever. And no man is kinder than Felix. Sometimes it terrifies me how desperately I love him. I can’t imagine what I would do if something were to happen to him. But mostly, my thoughts are bright. We’re going to be happy together. I just know that we are. Some things are meant to be, and I am convinced that Felix and I are one of them.

Oh, God. Pippa had expressed herself clumsily, but the words were ultimately of adoration. Which tracked perfectly with what Lord Oglesby had told him and everything he had observed about Pippa.

Jasper had come so far, had made so much progress in the past few days. Yet at the first sign of doubt, he had promptly reverted to old habits.

He glanced up at Eleanor’s furious face. “I must find my brother. I will make this right. I swear it.”

Eleanor’s voice was cold as she said, “See to it that you do.”

Before hurrying after Felix, Jasper crossed the breakfast room in three strides. He noted that the Robertson siblings had slunk back to their rooms, which was fortunate for them. They would not wish to face Jasper at this, the peak of his fury.

Pippa sat ensconced between Clarissa and Kate, who were propping her up. She still managed to look pretty, even with her face blotchy and tear streaked.

“Miss Philippa,” he said, bowing over her hand. “I apologize for my conduct earlier. I should have known at once that you would never write anything in disparagement of my brother.”

Pippa glanced up at him, green eyes miserable. “Does Felix hate me now?”

Jasper chose not to answer that question. “I will find him at once and explain that it was all a misunderstanding. Keep your journal at hand. I will bring him to you if I have to throw him over my shoulder and carry him down the stairs.”

That earned him a small, miserable smile. “Thank you, Your Grace.”

Jasper rushed out and took the stairs two at a time, hurrying toward Felix’s rooms.