“Then it sounds as if you already have the answer, Nell.” Maggie gave her an encouraging smile. “Your second chance is waiting for you. All you need to do is take it.”
The door to the sitting room opened then to reveal Maggie’s husband Simon, Lord Sandhurst. He grinned and bowed. “Two of my favorite ladies. Nell, you are looking regal as ever. We have missed you, and Alexander has missed his godmother.”
“I have missed you all as well,” she returned. “I have just returned from the country, rather unexpectedly, and I thought to pay a call to my dearest friends. I hope you do not mind.”
“Never,” Simon said, going to Maggie’s side and dropping an ardent kiss on her brow. “You will join us for dinner, I hope?”
She had not planned upon it, but there was no one awaiting her back at the townhouse. Suddenly, the prospect of returning to an empty home seemed daunting. She watched the unspoken intimacy passing between her two friends, the naked adoration on their expressions. Their happiness pleased her.
And it occurred to her, all in a rush, that she wanted to secure that same deep, abiding contentedness for herself.
With Jack. Always, only, with Jack. He had owned her heart from that first dance at Cowes. And he owned it still. For the first time since his return, the weight upon her heart had lifted. She saw so clearly what she needed to do.
The answer had been there all along, but she had been too stubborn to admit it.
“I would love to join you for dinner,” she decided. “It shall have to wait until another time, however. I have a husband to win back.”
RETURNING TO HIStownhouse after such a lengthy absence felt strange.
Stranger still to find it empty.
Nell was not here. She had gone directly to Sidmouth upon her return to London, and she had yet to come home. The discovery had been a weighty blow. Jack sat in the chamber that had once served as his study. The walls were cluttered with paintings she had procured. The damask wall coverings had been replaced with stripes and roses. The Axminster was equally floral, and even the divans were covered with flowery upholstery. His desk had been replaced by a rosewood escritoire, and there was a piano in the middle of the room.
He sat at the piano now, fingers resting idly on the keys.
She was with Sidmouth right now.
He had lost her.
There was a sideboard filled with spirits calling to him across the chamber. He could drown his sorrows in true fashion. Drink himself to oblivion. Numb the grief eating him alive.
The old Jack would have done so. But the old Jack had been reckless and foolish and impulsive. The old Jack should have stayed and fought for the woman he loved. He should have swallowed down his hurt and his pride. He never should have gone.
He had, however.
The past could not be undone.
He closed his eyes, bowed his head. His fingers moved over the ivory, beginning a dirge appropriate for the moment. For the agonizing loss. He would have to let her go now, grant her the divorce. He would not force her to remain his wife.
She had made her decision, and it had not been him.
He played and played. Tears were hot in his eyes, on his cheeks. And still, he played on, unleashing the torment within through the musical instrument. Until he became aware of another presence in the room. He felt suddenly as if he were being watched. His fingers stilled over the keys, the music dying.
“Jack.”
He opened his eyes at her soft voice to find her standing on the threshold of the room, watching him.
Bloody hell, he was a sniveling mess. He stood, hastily reaching for a handkerchief to dash away his maudlin tears.
Jack cleared his throat. “Nell. You have returned from paying your call to Sidmouth, I see.”
“Yes,” she agreed, moving toward him in a silken swish of skirts. “I called upon him as soon as I returned to London.”
Although he had already known, her admission still stung. His handkerchief was damp now, but he stuffed it back into his waistcoat all the same. “I am sure Sidmouth appreciated his victory. You need not fear I shall stand in your way any longer. I will agree to the divorce. It was never my intention to force you to remain my wife. I had merely hoped you might change your mind.”
She stopped before him, her blue stare unrelenting. “I told him I cannot marry him, Jack.”
He froze. “You did?”
