seemed to drape round her shapely curves rather than cling to them, and her hair had been styled into fashionable curls and escaping ringlets this evening by Arabella’s own maid.
It was difficult to imagine, as Jane looked at this pleasing image, that she was the same young lady who had been forced to wear that unbecoming yellow gown only days ago.
‘I wonder what Hawk will make of your appearance?’ Arabella mused gleefully.
Jane had been wondering the same thing—although probably not for the same reason!
Tonight she looked elegant—pretty, even—the gown giving her poise and style, and a maturity she had hitherto lacked. Completely unlike that yellow gown, which she believed had made her look like a huge piece of unbecoming fruit!
Jane could not deny, however, that her pleasure in her changed appearance was marred a little by the fact that, much against her protests, the Duke was to receive the bill for her new gown.
But how could it be otherwise when Jane had so very little money of her own? Sir Barnaby had given her a small allowance, and Jane had managed to save some of it, but she was not even sure it would be enough to pay for her passage to Somerset, let alone purchase a new gown and gloves.
Arabella’s assurances that the Duke would not even notice one new gown amongst her own costly purchases had done very little to allay Jane’s feelings of discomfort at having to accept such largesse from a man who could have nothing but the worst opinion of her.
‘Oh, what could I possibly have said to bring that frown to your brow?’ Arabella clasped Jane’s hands in her own as she looked down at her searchingly. ‘Does the mere mention of my autocratic brother make you unhappy, Jane?’
‘In all probability, the answer to that is yes, Arabella.’ The Duke spoke abruptly from behind them before Jane could make any reply, causing both women to turn—Arabella with some surprise, Jane with reluctance. ‘Well, well, well,’ he drawled as he stood languidly in the doorway. ‘I am not sure Mulberry Hall or its guests this evening will be able to accommodate two such lovely ladies.’
Jane felt the blush that warmed her cheeks and heated her body as that unfathomable golden gaze moved over her with slow deliberation. She was relieved that Arabella forestalled the need for her to respond to the Duke’s mockery as she moved to her brother’s side and smiled up at him triumphantly.
‘Have I not done well, Hawk?’ She beamed. ‘Does Jane not look beautiful?’
‘You have done very well, Arabella,’ Hawk confirmed dryly.
In truth, he was more than a little stunned by how ravishingly beautiful Jane looked in her new finery. The cream gown with its delicate lace adornment adding a lustre to the smooth perfection of her skin, her eyes were a clear, translucent green in her heart-shaped face, and a cream ribbon threaded amongst her red curls added to their fiery depth of colour.
He was aware that Jane had avoided being in his company at all these last two days, quietly leaving the room if he should enter it, her gaze averted as she did so.
Not that he did not deserve to be treated with such coldness after almost making love to her—in such a way, and in such a place, that she could not help but be insulted by it.
Oh, yes, Hawk knew he completely deserved Jane’s newly felt aversion to him. Knew it, and aided that aversion by retreating to his library when he was not working about the estate.
Unfortunately for him Jane looked every inch a beautiful and confident young lady tonight. So much so that Hawk was having trouble keeping his gaze from her.
‘I came to bring Jane these,’ he bit out abruptly, and he held up the pearl necklace and earbobs he had brought with him in the hopes of them becoming a possible truce-offering between them.
It seemed that Arabella had been far too busy these last days, organising her dinner party and ministering to Jane’s need for a new gown, to notice the coldness that now existed between himself and Jane. But Hawk did not doubt that once this evening was over his sister would not be able to help but become aware of the strain between them.
His mouth twisted ruefully. ‘But I cannot help but wonder, now that I have seen how lovely she looks already, if it would not be gilding the lily…?’
‘Oh, no, Hawk. I think the pearls are a perfect choice!’ His sister beamed her approval, herself a vision of loveliness in a glowing-pink gown. ‘Do you not agree, Jane?’ she prompted warmly.
Jane could only stand and stare at the necklace and earbobs that looked so delicately lovely in the Duke’s large but elegant hands, totally stunned, after days of silence, by his making such a gesture.
She wondered where the pearl jewellery could have come from. Surely the Duke had not purposely purchased them for her…? If so, then no matter how enchanted Jane might be at the idea of his having done such a thing on her behalf, it would be the height of impropriety for her to accept.
‘Of all Mother’s jewels, these will certainly suit Jane the best,’ Arabella approved delightedly.
Jane’s startled gaze rose from the pearls to the Duke’s now unreadable expression. The necklace and earbobs had belonged to his mother? The former Duchess of Stourbridge?
Somehow that knowledge made his offer that Jane should wear them this evening an even more intimate gesture than if the Duke had gone out and purchased them for her.
She gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I am sure your offer is a kind one, Your Grace, but I really could not even think of wearing something of such a—a personal nature to your family.’
Hawk looked at her searchingly. Those green eyes were now huge in the otherwise paleness of Jane’s face. Was Jane refusing to wear the jewellery because it had belonged to another woman? Or because it was he who suggested she should do so? Was Jane so angry with him, so disgusted with him, that she would not even accept this gesture of apology on his part?
Despite Jane’s avoidance of his company since the episode in the stables, Hawk had been pleased to note the two young women were much together, and he was grateful to Jane for taking such an interest in his young sister. Remembering that Jane had no jewellery of her own to wear tonight, he had impulsively decided to bring her the pearls.
But one glance at Jane’s slightly stricken expression and he knew he had once again acted in error. Could he do nothing right where this young woman was concerned…?
‘Come now, Jane—they are only on loan to you,’ he assured her irritably as he stepped farther into a bedroom that, apart from the gown she had recently taken off, which now lay draped over a chair, showed little sign of Jane’s occupation. But then, from the little luggage she had brought away with her from Markham Park, Jane did not have many personal possessions with which to adorn it. ‘Turn around, Jane, so that I might put the necklace on,’ he instructed with impatient briskness, his inner anger directed at his own behaviour towards Jane as much as at the guardians who had treated Jane with such neglect.
Hawk did not doubt that Jane had been warm, clothed and fed during the years she had lived at Markham Park, but when those things had been so grudgingly given he felt that Jane might have been better served going to people less wealthy who might have loved her. Now that he knew Jane better—perhaps too well…?—Hawk was sure that the Sulbys’ emotional dereliction had been more cruel to someone of Jane’s temperament than any deprivation
