Chapter 31

The first thing Jasper did the following morning was to inform Lady Milthorpe that he was going to cause a dreadful disturbance in the breakfast room.

The countess clutched the pearls she wore, but all she said was, “Whatever Your Grace deems necessary.”

He took up a position in an alcove in the hallway where he could watch the guests come and go. When Eleanor came down with her sisters, he wanted to offer a greeting, and an apology to Pippa. But he needed the element of surprise on his side, so he stayed hidden in the shadows.

He was a bit surprised when Lucas and Anna-Maria Robertson strode into the room, looking entirely unconcerned that they might face consequences for their actions. Were they more clever, they would have fled the house party yesterday.

Of course, they had underestimated Eleanor and her sisters. They had assumed that no one would stand up for the lowly Weatherby Wallflowers.

They had assumed wrong.

Jasper waited long enough for them to fill their plates, then stormed into the breakfast room.

Lucas froze with a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth. The expression on Jasper’s face must have been terrible to behold because the fork began to tremble in his hand.

Coming to stand directly across from Lucas, Jasper slammed his black leather riding gloves down on the table. Teacups clattered in their saucers and the two dozen guests who had been breaking their fast fell silent.

At the far end of the table, Jasper saw the four Weatherby sisters look up from their plates.

“I assume you know why I’m here,” Jasper began, voice full of malice.

Lucas gave a high-pitched laugh. “I’m sure I do not.”

Jasper did not beat around the bush. “I’m here to call you out.”

“C-call me out?” Lucas squeaked. “Why would you do that?”

Jasper leaned forward, placing both fists on the table. “For attempting to dishonor my future sister-in-law.”

Lucas attempted a breezy chuckle. “Given the fact that your brother has run off, I’m not sure Miss Philippa is going to be your sister-in-law after all.”

Jasper loomed closer, and Lucas physically recoiled, in spite of the fact that they had a table between them. “I have asked Miss Eleanor Weatherby to be my bride, and she has done me the honor of accepting. Miss Philippa will therefore be my sister by marriage regardless of whom she does or does not marry.”

Lucas’s face had taken on a greenish tinge. “Surely you jest. Your Grace cannot mean to marry a Weatherby Wal—”

Jasper snarled, and Lucas squealed.

“You will be very careful,” Jasper ground out, “in how you refer to the future Duchess of Norwood. But as I said, I demand satisfaction. Name your second.”

Lucas glanced around the room. There were a dozen men present, but not one of them would meet his eye.

“Pistols or swords?” Jasper growled. “How would you prefer to die?”

“I see now that an apology is in order,” Lucas said in a rush. “At the time, I believed it to be a lighthearted jest—”

“You believed nothing of the kind,” Jasper snapped.

Lucas was blinking rapidly, looking everywhere but at Jasper. “I see now that I have erred and erred severely.” He turned to face Pippa. “I apologize, Miss Philippa. My behavior yesterday was, er—”

“Execrable,” Jasper supplied.

“Execrable. Yes, exactly,” Lucas agreed. “I regret it most sincerely.”

Jasper’s voice was thick with irony. “Oh, I’m sure you do. But you are missing an important point.”

Lucas had the weaselly look of a man who would agree to almost anything to get himself out of his current predicament. “What’s that?”

“That you did not merely make a mistake. You lied. You took the passage out of context in such a way that it sounded like Miss Weatherby was deriding my brother, when in fact she was praising him. Because that’s what you did.” Jasper leaned forward, bending his elbows so he loomed in front of Lucas. “Isn’t it?”

Lucas swallowed. “It is.”

“Not only did you perpetrate a gross invasion of Miss Weatherby’s privacy, you made the deplorable and false insinuation that my brother is less than intelligent.” Jasper narrowed his eyes. “I should call you out for that alone.”

Lucas looked like he was going to cry. “I do apologize, Your Grace, and I would be most willing to apologize to Lord Felix as well.”

Jasper straightened. “The best apology you could give him is never to inflict your presence on him again.” He gave Anna-Maria Robertson a hard look. “That goes for both of you.”

Anna-Maria looked startled. Jasper knew full well she had been motivated by hopes of marrying Felix herself. “But Your Grace—”

“Do not show your faces in London,” Jasper said, cutting her off. “I think you will find that every member of decent society would rather cross the street than acknowledge your acquaintance.”

The Robertson siblings exchanged a look of horror. They had clearly been banking on the assumption that Jasper would be eager to prevent a match between Pippa and Felix and would therefore overlook the contemptible means by which they drove the happy couple apart.

They had failed to recognize that the tides had turned. Now they would pay the price.

“Not go to London?” Anna-Maria sputtered. “But… for how long must we stay away?”

“For however long my ire lasts,” Jasper replied.

Anna-Maria gave a nervous laugh. “And how long might that be?”

Jasper gave her a contemptuous glare. “Who can say, Miss Robertson? All I know is that right now, I am feeling very, very angry.”

He caught Eleanor’s eye at the end of the table. She was blinking rapidly, and if he didn’t know better, he would have said her lower lip was trembling. It was a distinctly un-Eleanor-like expression, one he had never seen on her face before.

He wanted to go to her, to make sure she was all right.

But there was one thing he needed to do first.

Turning so that his gaze swept across the entire room, Jasper said in a voice that carried, “I think it goes without saying that I would be most displeased if word were to get out about this unpleasant incident, which should never have happened in the first place. Very, very, extremely displeased,” he added darkly. “Mark my words, if I hear one breath of gossip about Miss Philippa, or about Felix, I will not rest until I discover the source of the slander. And that source will share the same fate as the Robertsons.” He paused to allow his words to sink in. “Have I made myself clear?”

A veritable chorus of agreement filled the room.

Glaring at the Robertsons, he jerked his head toward the door. “Go and pack your things. I believe you are both about to recall another engagement. A most urgent one.”

Anna-Maria Robertson swiped at her eyes as the two of them hurried from the breakfast room. Jasper did not feel the least bit sorry.

Jasper rocked back on his heels. For the first time all morning, he smiled. The rest of Lady Milthorpe’s guests were decent sorts. And they all seemed intelligent enough to understand that no on dit, no matter how juicy, was worth risking a duke’s displeasure.

Jasper headed to the far end of the table, not bothering to make himself a plate. That could wait.

He needed to check on Eleanor first.

He lowered himself into the chair next to hers. “Are you well?” he murmured.

She did not answer. She was still blinking rapidly, eyes fixed upon her plate.

Jasper turned to Clarissa. “What is it?”

Clarissa poked her sister in the arm. “I think you broke her. She’s never once been at a loss for words, not in the twenty-five years I’ve known her.”

It occurred to Jasper belatedly that perhaps one or more of the Weatherby sisters would have preferred that he not make a scene. “I hope you don’t mind that I, er…”

“Not at all,” Clarissa said, waving her fork. “It was perfect.” She gazed blissfully into the distance. “I shall never forget the way Anna-Maria’s face turned puce. I fancy it will be the happy memory I call up from now on, whenever I’m feeling sad.”

Jasper wasn’t surprised that Clarissa approved. But she was not the party most directly affected. “Miss Philippa?” he asked.

Pippa lifted her chin. “I, too, did not mind in the least. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent tossing and turning last night, imagining all the horrid things they would write about me in the papers.” She gave him a smile. “At least now I don’t have to worry about that. Thank you, Your Grace.”

Air rushed out of Jasper’s lungs as he released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “That is a relief. Perhaps, as we’re to be family soon, you would do me the honor of calling me Jasper.”

Clarissa waved a hand. “Oh, all right, Jasper. I only wish you had not sent Lucas and Anna-Maria Robertson off quite so soon. How I should relish the look on their faces when they see that we’re all on a first-name basis now.”

Jasper grinned. “As enjoyable as that would have been, nothing, I think, is worth tolerating their presence.” He turned to Eleanor. “I’m still wondering how you’re faring.”

She looked at him then, and the expression in her eyes… he thought it might be wonder, but of course, he was a great lummox of a man. What did he know about these things?

“Eleanor?” he asked, trying to make his voice gentle.

Abruptly, she rose from her chair. “Let’s go someplace where we can talk.”