She’d likely been laying out her schemes ever since the ball was announced, biding her time, and waiting for her chance. Which would have been nothing more than a nuisance, if she’d confined her antics tohim. But Selina had always had finely honed instincts about how to wreak havoc and had quickly singled out the one person she could hurt the most.
Prue.
“It seems Selina’s intention was to humiliate Prue by reminding everyone at the ball of our affair.” Not that anyone was likely to forget it anytime soon, after that incident with the hairbrush. “She was wearing the ruby and diamond necklace that a great many people recognized as one I gave her when we were . . . er, when I was her protector.”
He braced himself for his grandfather to launch into a litany of recriminations regarding Jasper’s foolishness in taking up with Selina in the first place, but the old man only said, “What else?”
“I have reason to know Prue also recognized the necklace.” Recognized it, and assumed, as of course she would do, that another half dozen scandalous paintings were hidden inside the ruby lockets.
“Yes, alright, but the duchess is no fool. She isn’t one to fall apart over a ruby necklace. There’s more to this than that, lad.”
“Of course, there is, but your guess as to what is as good as mine. Prue wouldn’t tell me what Selina said to her, but you can be sure every bloody word out of Selina’s mouth was a lie.”
A lie, a sneer, a laugh—God, he could picture every moment of how it must have unfolded, and the thought of Prue having to endure one of Selina’s rages made his stomach clench with pain and fury. “At the very least, I know she told Prue I’ve returned to her bed. She claimed I’d only just given the necklace to her this past week, and that I called it a ‘reunion gift.’”
Yes, that would be exactly the sort of lie Selina would tell, and it made his stomach turn.
“That woman’s a pure devil,” the colonel muttered. “Still, it can’t be as bad as what you’re imagining.”
Yes, it could be. “It’s bad enough that Prue’s left for Montford Park.”
“Left?” His grandfather stared at him. “What, you don’t mean to say she’sleft you, Jasper?”
Hadshe left him? She’d insisted she was coming back, but it felt . . . well, it felt very much like she’d left him. “I don’t know.” His hands clenched into helpless fists. “She promised she’d return, but I’m not sure if she . . . I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Hell, and damnation, lad.” His grandfather shook his head. “But surely you can explain to the duchess that whatever that viper said to her is nothing but a bald-faced lie? She won’t take Lady Archer’s word over yours.”
“No.” Prue wouldn’t easily have credited any of Selina’s lies, because, despite everything, his wife had more faith in him than he deserved. “But there had to have been something, some lie or tale so convincing Prue had no choice but to believe it to be true.”
His grandfather frowned. “Yes, that’s likely so. You’ve no idea what it was, eh?”
“No. Unless Prue chooses to confide in me, I may never know.”
But whatever it was, he knew this. It had struck at the very center of Prue’s heart.
It had hurt her badly. So badly she’d crept off to Basingstoke’s study without a word to him or Franny, like a wounded animal. Her face, when he’d found her there, curled up on the settee, the look in her eyes . . . dear God, would he ever be able to unsee the pain in those hazel depths? Could he ever forget—
“Listen to me, Jasper. You need to go after the duchess at once. Nothing good will come of her being alone at Montford Park. Those lies are like an infection in the bloodstream, lad. The longer it goes unchecked, the worse it will become.”
“She doesn’t want me, Grandfather.” Prue hadn’t accused him of anything. Not a single harsh word had crossed her lips, but her pain was in her every glance, her every dropped gaze, in the way she couldn’t bear to look at him, her bolted bedchamber door. “She went because she wishes to be away from me.”
“That may be, lad, but that’s not what she needs.”
“It’s precisely what she needs!” The fury that had been hovering just out of Jasper’s reach since last night suddenly sank its razor-edged teeth into his throat. “Now do you understand why I didn’t wish to marry? Because I knew this was what would come of it! I knew I could never be a proper husband, and now Prue will be the one who suffers for it.”
His grandfather stared at him, white faced. “Jasper—”
“Prue is the Duchess of Montford now, Grandfather! She will remain the Duchess of Montford for the rest of her life, and there’s not a damned thing she can do to escape me. Don’t you see? She believes I’ve betrayed her—”
“But youdidn’tbetray her, Jasper! This isn’t your fault. If it were, you know very well I wouldn’t hesitate to take you to task for it, but you’re not to blame. Not this time.”
Hewasto blame. Prue was his wife, and he’d left her vulnerable to the machinations of his jealous, vindictive former mistress. She’d been hurt, because ofhim. If he wasn’t to blame, then who was? “Of course, it’s my fault, Grandfather.”
“No, it isn’t, lad. This is the doing of that she-devil, Lady Archer.”
Jasper dropped back into his chair, the anger draining from him as quickly as it had surged. “But who’s to blame for putting Prue in Selina’s sights?”
“Why, Lady Archer is to blame for that as well, of course! You didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t lose sight of that, lad. This is a devil of a thing, and I don’t pretend otherwise, but—”
