Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The servants said the duke and his best friend had argued.

Unfortunately, Jackie sighed, nobody else knew anything further. All that she knew was that Lord Montague was no longer coming to see them, and that the household had not been quite the same since the picnic.

“It’s strange, is it not?” Elizabeth asked, as Jackie tried to listen. “Tense, even. I am not saying that I wish it were not just the two of us in here, but it certainly is different to how it was before.”

“Yes, even the dowager duchess has been spending less time with us.”

“Perhaps she feels disloyal to her son. After all, she may like us a good deal, but she is the duke’s mother in the end, and if she had to pick sides…”

“Oh, I certainly do not blame her, I only miss how it was.”

She missed the duke. She scolded herself for doing so, because there was no need to; he was in the same household, and if she truly wanted to speak to him that much she could do so easily. However, knowing that she could do something and finding the courage to do so were two very different things.

Philip had been the best company that she had ever had, with the exception of Elizabeth of course, and that was what she missed, but each time she tried to think back to those moments in order to push herself to talk to him, she remembered him carrying Ophelia away.

He was protective, instinctive when it came to her in a way that he had never shown Jackie. She wanted to understand it, to put it all down to the fact they shared history, but if anything that only made it worse.

Ophelia would always have known him for longer than Jackie would.

“I need to not be in this household right now,” she said suddenly, and Elizabeth looked at her with a furrowed brow.

“Do you mean you wish to leave? That seems rather extreme for what I would call a misunderstanding.”

“Not permanently. I do not think so, at least. No, I wish to spend some time in the village.”

Fortunately, Elizabeth did not resist any further, and the two of them left for town under the guise of making a few purchases for the ball. It was an easy lie to tell, but Jackie had Elizabeth tell it so as not to alert any suspicions.

“Why do you suppose the duke and Lord Montague argued?” Elizabeth asked as they made their way there.

“I couldn’t say. They seemed like such good friends, and I have never heard of either of them taking issue with the other in all the time that we have stayed with them.”

“Perhaps it was something to do with Ophelia?”

“In what sense?”

“I do not know, but it is strange how they argued after what she did.”

“Who knows? Maybe the duke harbors feelings for Ophelia still, and Lord Montague had the nerve to ask him what he was doing.”

“I would not have thought so. Jackie, I know what I see when the duke looks at you. He adores you. Then again, I would be remiss if I did not admit to seeing that very same look from the viscount.”

“Lizzie, I do not have the patience for that sort of thing.”

“Very well, we shall focus on our trip instead.”

For once, her sister had listened to her without arguing, and Jackie was most grateful for it. She was not an idiot, and she knew that the viscount had been acting in quite an inappropriate manner, but she had put it all down to him being the duke’s friend and wanting to know more about her.

It had also occurred to her that it could have been a test to see if she truly did have feelings for Philip, and she hoped more than anything that it had not been the case, for she did not want her emotions called into question.

As if she had summoned him herself, Lord Montague was in the first shop that they entered. Elizabeth did not see him, instead going straight to the shopkeeper to ask about shoes, but Jackie saw him. Lord Montague also saw her, and looked away quickly.

Unfortunately, Jackie wanted answers, and upon seeing the bruising on his cheek she found that she had even more questions than she thought.

“What happened to you, My Lord?”

“I have received stranger greetings than that, I suppose.”

“Do forgive me. Good day, My Lord.”

“I said it in jest, Lady Jacqueline,” he smiled, tracing his bruise with his fingertips. “If you must know, this is the aftermath of what happens when you tell a man the truth.”

“The truth? My Lord, did the duke do this to you?”

“I should not say this to you. The two of you are courting, and it is not for me to tell you the pitfalls of him.”

“If I am to marry him then I must know what sort of man he is. It is imperative, even.”

“Very well,” he sighed. “The duke has been acting strangely ever since a certain arrival. You know who I am referring to, because I am quite sure that you have been thinking the very same thing.”

“Yes, but that is not of your concern.”

“When I am watching a good lady’s affections being taken for granted, it most certainly is. I could not sit by and watch it happen anymore. I could not tolerate it, and what he did with Lady Ophelia that day was the final straw.”

“So you do not consider him a friend because of his feelings for her?”

“I do not consider him a friend because he refuses to see things clearly. He is in love with her, Lady Jacqueline, and because he would let her do as she pleases with him. He is doing everything in his power to keep you around, and is only dragging you along with him in the event that she abandons him.”

Jackie did not know how the viscount could be so sure of it, but then she had also seen the same signs and she did not even know the duke as well as Lord Montague did. He had to be right about it.

“And so, after what she did at the picnic,” Lord Montague continued. “And you felt you had to leave, I told the duke that we needed to talk. I told him that I could no longer stand by and watch as he destroyed your affections because of his own apparent affections for another. He told me I was wrong, I told him that I was anything but, and then he punched me. As hard as he could.”

“Because of your accusation?”

“Because I dared to question him, to not agree. He might show himself to be the perfect man, Lady Jacqueline, but he is anything but. He is cruel when he deems you deserving of his cruelty, and it is quite apparent to me that one need not do too much to warrant it in his eyes.”

Jackie said nothing for a moment, thinking back to her very first encounter with the duke. He had thought that she was being improper, and it had led to him berating her and storming away. She couldn’t help but wonder if the viscount was right.

Not only that, but there was a pain in her chest, and she knew precisely why that was. She had been telling herself over and over that she was simply seeing things, that of course the duke only harbored any affections for her and her alone, and that Ophelia no longer had any impact on him, but the truth was right in front of her in the form of a nasty purple bruise.

Clearly, Philip’s heart was spoken for, and it had been since before she had arrived.

“I do not know what to say,” she replied at last. “Except that I am sorry. I am also grateful to you for defending my name, My Lord. I apologize that it ended the way that it did.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. You cannot help a man’s outburst.”

She wished that she could have. They said their goodbyes and she found Elizabeth immediately.

“We must go,” she explained quickly.

“But we have only just arrived. What is it?”

“I shall tell you on the way home.”

“Very well, but can I purchase these shoes first?”

Jackie sighed, nodding.

“This ought to be important,” Elizabeth huffed on their way home. “For you know how much I have been enjoying the shops here.”

“He is still in love with her.”

She fell silent in an instant.

“The viscount was there, a nasty purple mark on his cheek from the duke. They had a confrontation, Elizabeth, over the fact that he is still in love with Ophelia. How could I have been so blind?”

“If that is true,” Elizabeth said after a moment. “Then it is not due to any blindness on your part. I do not believe it, myself. I cannot believe it. I know how the duke feels about you, and I know that it is reciprocated. Something is not right about this, do not worry.”

But Jackie had no choice but to worry. The aching, burning feeling in her chest had not gone away, and it had appeared at the thought of the duke loving another. It only spelled danger, as far as she was concerned, because she knew precisely why she felt the way that she did.

She was falling in love with him, while he was falling in love with someone else.

Jackie had never been one to stand in anyone’s way, and as they returned home, she thought about returning to her home, back in Somerset. That way, the duke could be with the lady he truly did love, Lady Ophelia could be saved from her family’s clear financial situation, and she could…

Serve as a disappointment to her own family. It was not even certain as to whether or not her marriage to the duke would have secured Elizabeth’s own match, but it was their only chance at it. It was also the only way of saving themselves from their own financial ruin, and she was willing to walk away from it all because the duke did not love her, something she had expected to be the case in the first place.

He was not supposed to fall for her, just as she was not supposed to fall for him, so why was she hurt so much?

Either way, she sighed, she could not do it. She couldn’t live a lie, no matter how much she wanted to, and she could not force a man to marry her if he truly wanted her to be someone else.

It was then that she remembered their deal. If she did not want the marriage, he would still pay off her family’s debts, and restore Elizabeth’s dowry. He had given her his word, and she wondered if that would still stand if she left for home. If anything, he would have preferred that, would he not?

That way, at least he could say he did the decent thing as a gentleman and be free to marry whomever he chose, and once again there was a sharp pain in Jackie’s chest at the realization that that person was not her.

More than anything, however, she wished to keep her distance from the duke after what he had done to the viscount. It was a horrible mark, and she had not seen one like that—not since she had to help Elizabeth tend to their father after a particularly awful bet that he could then not pay off. If he was truly capable of such anger after being told that he could not do something, then perhaps he was not the man for her at all.

Which, given that she was not the lady for him, was perhaps for the best.