stairway just beyond it. She hoped Jasper didn’t wake up and come downstairs. If he did, he should hear his sisters and know better than to reveal his presence. She was sure neither of them wanted to make excuses for why he was home or for his sisters to think he didn’t work as hard as their husbands, or that there was some reason Jane had lied to them about where he’d been. She didn’t like lying, but it was necessary. He did work as hard as their husbands, but not at a business they would approve of, at least not yet. It almost made her wish the sisters would leave so she could return to the organising of the club. The sooner it opened, the sooner Jasper might leave the hell and whatever had made him so aloof this morning.
‘Make sure he doesn’t work too hard,’ Lily admonished as she sat down at the small tea table near the window. ‘He always comes to Mother and Father’s appearing exhausted. I’ve seen smaller bags at the coaching inn than beneath Jasper’s eyes.’
‘Perhaps it isn’t work keeping him up...’ Olivia suggested.
The sisters threw back their heads in laughter. Jane smiled, not as amused. In the past, with them being so much older than her, they’d rarely paid her much mind. Today, they treated her like their equal, not a young naive girl to be instructed or ignored, and she was repaying their respect with fibs and falsehoods. Jasper was right, it wasn’t easy deceiving everyone they knew.
‘Johnson, tea,’ Olivia called as she joined her sisters at the tea table. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Jane. Forgive me for forgetting my place, this is your home now.’
‘I don’t mind.’ But she did mind them calling unannounced. It would be difficult to hide Jasper sleeping in the mornings if his sisters decided to make a regular habit of it.
‘When will Jasper be back? I want to chide him for making you work at all,’ Lily enquired. They’d always chipped at each other more than the other siblings, because she, being closest in age to Jasper, had felt it her place to boss him around. It appeared she still did.
‘I don’t know,’ Jane mumbled as she took hold of the back of the chair to pull it out and sit down. She didn’t want to give them a time and have them lingering here waiting for him to return and then catch him coming from upstairs.
Alice grabbed Jane’s wrist and held it up, letting out a long whistle as she admired the new gold bracelet. ‘How beautiful. Did Jasper give it to you?’
‘He did.’
‘Tristan never gives me such elaborate gifts,’ Alice complained as she took the chair beside Jane’s.
Lily eyed the bracelet with her mother’s scrutiny. ‘Uncle Patrick must have left Jasper more money than he told us about for him to be able to afford such things.’
‘Yes, he did.’ Thank goodness she wasn’t wearing the earrings. She didn’t need to raise any additional questions about Jasper’s income, ones she had no intention of answering.
‘Oh, Lily, stop being so practical and allow them to enjoy themselves,’ Olivia scolded before turning to Jane. ‘Is all going well with the club? We expect it will open soon?’
They all leaned in to hear Jane’s answer.
‘Soon.’ Jane smiled a little too wide, not liking this topic any better than the one about money or Jasper’s whereabouts. ‘There’s no end of details to deal with.’
‘Oh, don’t we know.’ They all shook their heads in agreement, each of them active in their respective husbands’ businesses, as well as minding the children and running the households. The reminder of their own responsibilities turned the conversation from Jane and Jasper’s affairs to the sisters’ second-favourite topic besides gossip: family. All during tea they discussed their husbands and children, sparing Jane from any more awkward questions, but not relieving her worry Jasper might appear and raise more. If he did, she hoped he had a good reason for why he was upstairs when Jane had said he was out, for she didn’t.
* * *
After an hour of tea and conversation, the Charton sisters rose to take their leave.
Olivia dug into her reticule and withdrew a note for Jane. ‘I almost forgot. Mother and Father have decided to hold their first dinner for you the evening after next. Say you can make it.’
‘We can.’ Jane fingered the invitation, pretending once again to be elated. She’d spent the better part of the morning deceiving the sisters about her and Jasper’s income and habits. She didn’t relish further sullying her conscience by making up more tales during an entire evening with Jasper’s parents, except there was no avoiding it.
‘I remember my first dinner after Daniel and I married,’ Lily mused, then pursed her lips in displeasure. ‘Jacob drank so much he made himself sick.’
‘If Alice hadn’t smuggled him so many glasses of port it never would have happened.’ Olivia laughed, too much like their father to mind.
‘I did no such thing,’ Alice protested as the sisters made their way out of the house and to their waiting carriage.
Johnson closed the door behind the chatting sisters, then held out a letter to Jane. ‘Mrs Charton, this arrived while you were with the ladies.’
Jane took the missive, turning the cheap and wrinkled paper over to read Jasper’s name and address written in a round and flowing hand, a woman’s hand.
Jane swallowed hard until she noticed the postmark. Savannah. Whoever this was, she was safely on the other side of the ocean.
And still writing to Jasper.
Jane turned the letter over a few times, wondering if she should open it. She wasn’t a jealous person, but the strange way he’d behaved this morning, and the distance between them as they’d lain together in bed, gripped her. She wondered if this woman had something to do with his change in attitude.
His business being hers, she saw no reason to leave it sealed except for fear. Inside the tattered missive might be a truth about Jasper she didn’t wish to discover. She wasn’t sure she could bear the humiliation of learning she didn’t have Jasper’s real affection and never would.
Stop this! She didn’t want to cower beneath her fears and worries.
‘I’ll take it up to him.’ She might keep their business from his sisters, but she would not countenance secrets between them. Whatever this was, she would face it and deal with it.
Jane marched upstairs and into Jasper’s room. She threw open the curtains and a wash of sunlight lit up the bed.
‘What are you doing?’ Jasper grumbled from where he lay in a tangle of white sheets and pillows. He sat up, blinking at her, his hair mussed, a slight stubble along his jaw. In the open collar of his shirt she caught the sheen of perspiration. Her interest in the mysterious letter began to ebb at the sight of him and she fingered the curtain, her skin warmed by more than the sun on her back. She longed to linger with him in bed, but it wasn’t her habit to be so wanton during the day, especially when there were issues to address.
‘It’s time for you to get up.’ She let go of the curtain and perched beside him on the bed, flicking the letter with the edge of one nail, reluctant to bring it up despite her former determination. ‘Your sisters were here. They said you need more sleep.’
‘Do
