“Do you intend to continue your madness?” he asked, even as he climbed off the bed, stalking across the room to her gown. Picking it up, he threw it at her with mounting fury.Why wouldn’t she see reason?
Also, he was miffed she would turn down a good docking. He had thought for sure she would give in, especially when she so clearly wanted him.
“You arenotmy husband,” she seethed, wrenching the robe around her and shoving her arms in her sleeves with such force, he thought she might rip them. Jumping off the bed as if it were a distasteful place, she marched toward him. “You cannot tell me what to do.”
Jasper gritted his teeth, wishing he could, in fact, tell her exactly what to do. When she tried to pass him, he grabbed her arm. They locked gazes, and he could see she, too, was spitting angry.
“If I were your husband, would you obey me?” He hadn’t meant to ask such a question, so he quickly amended it. “When you have a husband, you shall have to obey him.”
“That is no concern of yours, Lord Marshfield. Let me go.”
He wanted to make it his concern, and that frightened him. Julia Sudbury was his house guest, already his friend, the woman he wanted more than any other. Moreover, what he felt for her was blossoming daily into the deepest emotion he had ever imagined. But she was a jewel thief, and she was trouble.
Releasing her arm, he turned away and let her leave.
At his door, she hesitated.
“If I were to have a husband, yes, of course, I would obey him, and thus, I hope I never shall have one.”
Sinking onto his bed, Jasper felt defeated. “You would give up the pleasures of a husband and babies so you can take sparklers and...,” trailing off, he shook his head. “You don’t even seem to care for jewelry. If you stole it for the passion of loving gemstones, that at least would have meaning and sense. But you take them for the money you make selling them.”
“Yes,” she said. “I do.”
She looked so pale and her eyes were so large and blue, he had a sense she was a winter sprite at his door, about to flit away. The fanciful notion made his heart ache.
“The money from the jewelry feeds and clothes and houses a small portion of London’s poor,” she continued.
“What?” Jasper straightened. She’d spoken so softly, as if the words were pulled from her, that he’d almost missed them.
“It’s true. A pair of eardrops can assure an entire orphanage has bread for a month. A bracelet buys warm coats or blankets for those suffering in a workhouse.”
Slowly, he rose to his feet. But she took a step back.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” she said. “But my father raised us to help those less well-off. My sister gives a portion of the Worthington estate, but I couldn’t let her do more, as it is not as flush as yours, not by any means, and I wouldn’t want her to get into difficulty by giving more. I never set out to steal, it simply fell at my feet one day, and seemed like the perfect answer. Take from those who have more than enough and give to those who have nothing.”
“You should have told me.” Jasper felt betrayed. She’d made a fool of him intentionally, letting him believe the worst, even though she’d never confirmed her thievery until that moment.
“Would that have made you think better of me?” She sighed. “Actually, what I do doesn’t truly make a difference anyway. There are dozens and dozens of workhouses and orphanages in London alone, and I only donate to a few of them. But I can’t sit by and do nothing.”
He felt gutted. “Don’t you think there are other ways to help?” Then he recalled her other habit. “The posies,” he said quietly.
“You know how futile that is. Mere pennies for the poor.” Her tone was bitter. “I am not a member of the nobility, nor among the wealthiest of our great nation, but those who are turn a blind eye to the suffering.”
He wouldn’t stand for her condemnation.
“Just because you and your sister have found entrance into the upper class, it doesn’t mean you know everything about us, nor should you sit in judgment.”
He paced toward her. “Don’t you dare roll your eyes. I work with others in Parliament to try to better our nation for everyone, to bring down the price of bread, for instance.”
“While you are debating, people are starving.”
“We also have charities, and I don’t know a member of my class who doesn’t give to one or the other during the course of a year.”Well,he reconsidered, maybe a few were more miserly than warranted by their affluence. “Others are the patrons of the poor,” he insisted, “sponsoring families or entire orphanages.”
“It seems to me, my lord, if you werealldoing it — every member of the nobility — then we wouldn’t see people in rags in every town and village, but the idea that children are starving in London, the richest city on this earth, is an abomination.”
He had no argument for that since he agreed wholeheartedly. When he said nothing, she walked out, leaving his bedroom door open. He supposed that was better than slamming it.
