“She has asked to speak with you,” the butler continued. “Only, she wishes to do so in the music room, not in here.”
Philip was grateful for that. He had seen enough of his study over the last few days, and was eager to see somewhere else. Beyond that, he adored the music room, and he knew that Jackie was aware of that.
“Good afternoon, Lady Jacqueline,” he greeted. “How was your outing?”
“Are we to use formalities again?” She sighed.
“No! No, it was only because of… well, I did not wish to assume that you still wished to use our other names.”
“I have not told you as much, so one might assume that it would stay the same unless it was what you wanted.”
“Well, I do not, so all is quite well.”
“Philip, are you sure that you do not harbor any affections for Lady Ophelia?”
“Must we discuss this a third time?” he huffed, raking a hand through his hair. “No. I have told you this. She broke my heart years ago, and now that you are here, I am grateful to her for it. I have been meaning to discuss that matter with you. Jackie—”
“That is not what the viscount said.”
“Lucien?”
She nodded, keeping a distance from him.
“He was in the shoe shop this morning when we visited. He told me that he has been telling you for a long time to stop playing with my affections, as you are so clearly still in love with Ophelia. He said that you became so enraged at him telling you to leave me be that you attacked him.”
“That is the opposite of what happened.”
“So you did not attack him?”
“I punched him. Once.”
“That is hardly making you seem any better.”
“Jackie, that is not what was said. Do you wish to know the truth? Lucien was more than willing to cast me in a bad light because he has fallen for you. He wants to cause trouble between the two of us so that he can have you for himself.”
“That cannot be right. He was your friend.”
“Yes. He was. Now he is not. Any man that tries to force my hand when it comes to matters of my heart will not remain a friend of mine.”
“Force your hand?”
“He told me that I should accept Ophelia’s advances, even if they have caused me great discomfort, because he is the better match for you. He is not ugly and scarred like I am, and therefore there should be no competition.”
“There is no competition,” she laughed incredulously. “I would never see the viscount in such a way. I cannot believe that you would think that of me.”
“You were angry with me, and for good reason. I shouldn’t have played into it. I should have ignored Ophelia from the secondshe began doing all of these things, but I did not. I thought that you might have changed your mind about me, about us.”
“Do you still believe that?”
“You came here believing that I attacked a friend for no apparent reason.”
She was quiet for a moment. He willed her to say something, anything, but she did not.
“Jackie, I want this to work. I have felt this way for a long time, and I know you have too, and there is no reason why it should not. All we would need to do is ignore the two people trying to make it difficult and instead focus on all of the people that want it to be easy, the two of us included.”
“You sound so resolved on the matter.”
“Because I am.”
