while he spoke with his father. He didn’t notice her at first, but then his eyes met hers and the regret darkening them made her want to rush to him. Instead, she was forced to remain on the sofa pretending happiness for the benefit of his family. It made her feel more like a trained monkey than a married woman.
When the sisters at last lost interest in discussing Jane’s married life, Olivia stood to suggest a new amusement. ‘Who’d like to join me in a game of whist?’
A noticeable quiet drifted over the room.
Mr Charton thumped his hand on the table beside him, making a statue of a shepherdess rattle on her porcelain base. ‘Not in my house you won’t.’
‘Risking a pence or two among family isn’t going to land anyone in debtors’ prison, Father,’ Olivia scoffed. ‘After all, it’s not as if I’m suggesting we establish a gambling den in the sitting room!’
Jane exchanged a wary glance with Jasper, wondering if Olivia suspected them. She didn’t believe so. Olivia had always been the most rebellious and outspoken of the three sisters and much more like Jasper than any of the other girls.
Mr Charlton levelled a warning finger at his daughter. ‘If you’d seen the many men who’ve wasted my loans and their livelihoods on cards, you wouldn’t think it so funny.’
‘Everyone understands your feelings on the matter, Henry,’ Mrs Charton gently chided from where she held court near the window, surrounded by her grandchildren. She wore her favourite red-silk gown with a matching turban her daughters called old-fashioned, but which she adored. She was still lithe, despite having borne seven children.
The subject would have been dropped if Milton hadn’t decided to step in. ‘It’s a disgusting habit and, like Father, I’d be ashamed of anyone in this family who ever resorted to such a lowly way of life.’
‘Says the man who’s proven his talent at sneaking around,’ Jasper hissed.
The room went silent—even the grandchildren stopped talking. Across from Jane, Camille lowered her eyes and her cheeks turned bright red.
‘I think you’ve been away too long and forgotten how things are done in this family,’ Milton hissed back. Beside him, Alice allowed Jacob a drink from her glass. Jacob started to hand it to Giles when a warning look from Mrs Charton made him hand it back to his sister.
‘We can chastise a man for his sins, but once they’re done they’re finished. Now on to better topics,’ Mrs Charton insisted, bringing the matter to a close. But it didn’t smooth Jasper or Milton’s ruffled feathers, or ease Jane’s guilt. The family had accepted her even after the debacle with Milton and here she was, sitting in their midst, as two-faced as Milton.
‘Let’s play musical chairs instead,’ Alice suggested. Chairs scraped over the floor as the siblings and their husbands dragged them into place and Lily struck a chord on the piano to begin the game.
Olivia participated, but appeared more bored than amused. It was clear she and her brewery-owner husband didn’t mind small amounts of gambling. Jane wondered if she’d side with her and Jasper if their secret ever came out. She didn’t know Olivia well enough to be sure.
While the elder sisters and their husbands laughed and raced around to find open chairs, Milton sulked in the corner with Giles, who rolled his eyes at having been cornered by his complaining elder brother. When he finally managed to slip away and join Jasper and Mr Charton, Milton’s wife fawned over her spouse, trying to bring him out of his sulkiness to join the game. When Milton rebuffed her to help himself to the brandy in the corner, his wife remained by the wall, ill at ease among all the laughter.
Jane felt sorry for her. It wasn’t an emotion she expected to encounter, but there it was. She had more experience than she cared to admit with a husband pushing her away.
The brewer raced around the chairs behind Olivia who reached the open one first. The activity distracted Jane from noticing Jasper’s absence. She had no idea when or where he’d gone. No one else was missing.
Did he leave without me?
She shifted nervously on her feet. She used to read in the papers about husbands sneaking out never to be seen again. There was a ship leaving for America tomorrow. She was about to ask Mrs Charton where Jasper had gone when the rustle of skirts beside her made her turn. Camille approached, as pale as always, but there was a hint of determination in her mouse-like eyes. Jane forced herself not to scurry away from her like some startled elephant.
‘Good evening, Jane. I haven’t had a chance to speak with you the last two times we’ve been at events, but I wished to congratulate you on your wedding.’
‘Thank you.’ Jane did her best to be gracious. She and Camille had never been more than passing acquaintances, her father and mother moving in the same circles as the Rathbones and the Chartons. When they were young, they’d seen one another at birthday parties and teas, but they’d never been close. Other than having stolen Jane’s fiancé, Camille had never done or said an ill thing to Jane.
The laughter of the other married siblings rang through the room. It covered the quiet conversation between the ladies, although Jane couldn’t help but notice Mrs Charton regarding them before she turned back to her youngest grandson.
‘I also want to apologise for what happened,’ Camille stated without hesitation.
Jane gaped at Camille. She hadn’t expected this. She’d prefer it to be Milton, but she’d take it from the wife.
‘I’m quite over it, as you can see.’ She would have motioned to Jasper, but he was nowhere to be found. The same awkwardness she’d experienced the first time she’d attended a party after the unexpected elopement, when everyone had cast sympathetic looks her way, draped her again. ‘We needn’t speak of it.’
‘But we must. You see, I didn’t mean to hurt you, but Milton and I were so in love we couldn’t help ourselves.’ Camille said it in such a way Jane knew it wasn’t boasting. It stabbed at her because no such driving passion had met her and Jasper’s union. It had been a bargain, a negotiation, with little promise of more. ‘He also told me you’d already broken with him.’
He would, the lying rat. ‘Then why the secrecy and the elopement?’
‘My father doesn’t share my good opinion of Milton.’
Few did, but Jane didn’t want to cast aspersions on the love of Camille’s life.
‘I would have spoken to you about it sooner, but there’s never been a good time. Since we’re sure to be together at many gatherings in the future, I don’t want any bad blood between us and I’m eager to see Milton and Jasper reconciled, too.’
The woman was a fiancé-stealing saint. ‘I’m afraid it isn’t up to us.’
She couldn’t settle the current tension between her and Jasper, much less work a miracle between the two brothers.
‘We can certainly help. If you’ll agree to do it, so will I.’
She held out her hand to seal the pact with a shake. Jane stared at the ivory-satin glove covering it before she took it, Camille’s honesty and concern melting Jane’s grudge, but not her doubts about a reconciliation. It would be even harder to settle things between the brothers if Jasper turned his back on her for
