The Duke's Cinderella Bride (22 page)

‘Stop, My Lord!’ Jane instructed breathlessly when finally she found her voice. ‘Are you saying—?’ She swallowed hard. ‘Janette was
sister
to Sir Barnaby?’

‘His young half-sister from his father’s second marriage.’ The Earl looked surprised by the question. ‘But you must know that already, Jane? Did you not say that Sir Barnaby has been your guardian in the twelve years since your father died?’

She had said that—yes. And for all of those years she had believed—had been led to believe—that she was merely a distant poor relation of the Sulbys.

Someone who had been foisted upon them and whom they had taken into their household only because there was nowhere else for her to go, no one else who wanted her…

Sir Barnaby was her
uncle
? Truly her uncle? By blood? Had been Janette’s older half-brother?

‘Drink, Jane.’

She looked up dazedly at the Duke as he stood in front of her, holding out a glass of what looked to be brandy, knowing by the compassion she could read in his gaze that he too realised the deception that had been practiced upon her all these years. That he pitied her for that deception.

First obligation.

And now pity.

Neither emotion was what Jane wanted from him.

And she was sure, once Hawk had heard the whole story of her claim to existence, those would probably no longer exist either!

‘Thank you.’ She accepted the glass and took a restorative sip of what was indeed the finest brandy, her fingers remaining curved about the cut glass as if even its delicacy might give her the strength she needed to continue this conversation. ‘I did not know of the connection, My Lord,’ she informed the Earl dully.

‘You did not know…?’ The Earl frowned darkly. ‘But how can this be? How can you not have known, Jane?’

Her smile contained no humour, only sadness. ‘For the simple reason that no one ever thought to inform me.’

‘That makes no sense, Jane.’ The Earl looked angry now.

‘It does if you are acquainted with Lady Sulby.’ Jane sighed heavily. She was sure—had no doubts—that it was at that lady’s instigation that the deception had been made. That Sir Barnaby, a meek and mild man who wanted only a quiet, untroubled life, had simply been too weak to fight against his much stronger-willed wife.

Was there nothing that Lady Sulby was not capable of?

Remembering the deceptions of the last twelve years, the accusations Lady Sulby had levelled at Janette that last morning, and the lies the other woman had told about Jane concerning the theft of her jewellery, Jane truly did not believe there was…

‘Dear God!’ the Earl grated harshly, as he finally seemed to realise what had been done to Jane.

‘Indeed.’ Jane inclined her head in acknowledgement.

The Earl was very pale now. ‘Jane, was Janette happy with her parson?’

‘I believe she was—content,’ Jane replied carefully. ‘Sir, you said earlier that you know the exact date and time of day that you last saw my mother…?’

‘I do indeed, Jane,’ he confirmed grimly.

‘And it was…?’

He frowned. ‘Jane…’

‘For God’s sake answer her, Whitney!’ Hawk interjected harshly, the tension of this conversation becoming altogether too much to endure.

He could not pretend to understand all that was taking place here, knew only that he could not bear Jane’s pain a moment longer. Although he would dearly have liked at that moment to have Lady Gwendoline Sulby in his clutches!

‘I—But—’ The other man shook his head as Hawk continued to look at him compellingly. ‘Janette was but nineteen years of age, and the existence of my marriage had never sat well with her. I had told her that I would leave Beatrice, that the two of us would go abroad, live together there. But Janette would not hear of it. She insisted that I must stay with my wife and young son—that she must be the one to go. I last saw Janette on the day she informed me that we would not meet again, that she was to—to marry a parson, a young man she had known from childhood, and retire from Society.’

‘Whitney!’ Hawk grated forcefully, as Jane seemed to pale more with every word the other man spoke.

‘I last saw Janette at ten o’clock in the morning of the tenth of November, 1793.’ Whitney’s voice broke emo
tionally. ‘I tried to do as Janette wished me to do. I tried to make a life with my wife and young son. But I could not do it. I could not, Jane! I loved Janette—was only half alive without her. And so, out of desperation, I went to Norfolk to ask for news of her. Sir Barnaby was away from home, but Lady Sulby was there. She took great delight in telling me that I was too late—that Janette was already dead. She had died after giving birth to her parson’s child. You, Jane.’ He looked at her hungrily.

Hawk was no longer looking at Whitney, but instead watched as incredible joy lit Jane’s features, to be quickly followed by sudden tears that brightened her eyes as she stared at the Earl.

‘She lied, My Lord,’ Jane told him breathlessly.

Whitney looked bewildered. ‘Janette was not dead…?’

‘Oh, yes, she was dead. But Lady Sulby lied,’ Jane repeated forcefully, and she slowly stood up, appearing strangely delicate, almost fragile, rather than the strong-willed young woman Hawk was used to seeing. ‘I believe I have some things in my bag that belong to you—that will explain…’ She smiled shakily at Whitney.

Whitney looked startled. ‘That belong to me, Jane…?’

‘Oh, yes, I believe so,’ she confirmed breathlessly, at the same time seeming unable to take her eyes from him.

Hawk felt that clenching in his chest once again as he saw the love shining in Jane’s mesmerising green eyes. Not for him. But for another man.

‘Some letters, My Lord,’ Jane continued softly.

‘Letters, Jane? For me? From Janette?’ Whitney suddenly prompted sharply.

Jane nodded. ‘You will wait here while I fetch them, My Lord?’

‘I—Yes, of course.’

Whitney looked no less confused than Hawk felt himself and he watched Jane as she hurried across the room. She halted, hesitated once she reached the door, her face still lit with that inner light as she turned back to face them all.

But once again it was to Whitney that she addressed her next remark. ‘Janette did not leave you because she wanted to, My Lord. It is my belief that she left because she felt she had to do so.’

‘Had to…?’ the Earl repeated dazedly.

‘Had to, My Lord.’ Jane nodded. ‘Perhaps it will help you to understand—to realise…I believe the contents of Janette’s letters will be less of a—a shock to you, My Lord, if I tell you that Janette was three months with child when she married Joseph Smith. That it was not his child she brought into the world before she died. You see, My Lord, I was born on the second of May in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-four.’

With a swirl of her skirts Jane quickly departed the room.

Hawk watched transfixed as the Earl of Whitney—a confirmed rake, a man who made no secret of the selfishness of the life he had led the last twenty years—collapsed white-faced into a chair, a look of shock upon his still-handsome face as he stared hungrily at the spot where only seconds ago Jane had stood.

‘Hawk, can it be…?’ Arabella had moved silently to Hawk’s side. ‘Is the Earl Jane’s father, Hawk?’

Exactly the conclusion Hawk had just come to himself!

‘A
re you not relieved now, Your Grace, that I did not so much as entertain the idea of a marriage between the two of us?’ Jane prompted teasingly a short time later, when the two of them found themselves alone in one of smaller drawing rooms at Mulberry Hall.

It was painful for Jane to realise how vicious and cruel Lady Sulby had been—both lately and in the past. But that pain was superceded by the knowledge that her father had not rejected her, or her mother. He simply hadn’t known of her existence.

She had excused both the Duke and Arabella, as well as herself, from the Earl of Whitney’s—her father’s—presence in the drawing room, sure that he would prefer to be alone when he read such private letters as her mother’s had been to her lover.

Unfortunately for Jane, once outside the library Arabella had further excused herself, on the pretext of needing to talk to Cook concerning the luncheon arrangements. Leaving Jane alone in the small room in the
icily silent company of Hawk, Duke of Stourbridge. Hence the reason for the brightness of her chatter.

‘Although it is perhaps as well that you had this opportunity to—to practise, Your Grace,’ she continued dryly, when he remained coldly uncommunicative. ‘It really was not well done, you know,’ Jane added, and he at last raised one dark, arrogant brow in the otherwise austere handsomeness of his harshly sculptured face.

The Duke—for he was every inch the loftily forceful Duke of Stourbridge at this moment!—drew in a sharp breath before answering. ‘In what way was it “not well done”, Jane?’ he encouraged coolly.

‘For future reference, Your Grace?’

He gave a haughty inclination of his head. ‘For future reference, Jane.’

‘Very well.’ She nodded. ‘Firstly, I would suggest that you do not make an offer of marriage in front of any third parties. It could not be considered in the least romantic, and is more likely to end in embarassment for everyone concerned. Secondly—’ she drew in a deep breath ‘—I do believe, no matter what your own intentions might be, that most women, of any age or temperament, would like to feel that they are at least loved a little when proposed to.’

A nerve pulsed in his jaw. ‘You believe that, do you, Jane?’

It became difficult for Jane to withstand the intensity of that piercingly golden gaze, so she busied herself with straightening the skirt of her gown instead. ‘Oh, yes, I think so, Your Grace.’ She nodded, red curls bobbing.

‘And thirdly, Jane…?’ he drawled dryly, at the same time moving from his stance in front of the empty fire
place to stand beside the chaise on which Jane sat. The muscled length of his thigh in buff-coloured breeches was visible from the corner of her eye.

She looked up. ‘Thirdly…?’

She should not have looked up! Should not have acknowledged how close Hawk was now standing. Her every nerve ending, her every sense of sight, sound and smell, was now totally aware of him. Of his masculinity. His sheer physical presence.

‘Oh, yes. Thirdly.’ She made a concerted effort to concentrate on the matter in hand rather than allowing herself to become enthralled—overwhelmed!—by Hawk’s brooding proximity. She moistened lips gone stiff and unresponsive. ‘Thirdly, no woman would feel happy accepting a proposal of marriage from a man who obviously makes it out of a sense of duty, of honour, rather than love.’

‘I believe we have already covered the subject of love in the second piece of advice you gave me, Jane.’

Her lids fluttered nervously at what she was sure was a deceptive mildness in his tone. ‘Oh, I would not presume to offer you advice, Your Grace!’

‘No?’ That dark brow rose once again. ‘Then perhaps it is only that you mean to help ensure that any marriage proposal I might make in future will not be met by the same rejection?’

‘I did not reject you, Hawk—Your Grace.’ Her hands shook slightly in her agitation, and she hurriedly laced her fingers together so that he might not see their trembling. ‘You were not sincere in your suggestion of marriage to me.’

‘Was I not?’

‘No!’ She eyed him exasperatedly. ‘You merely felt bound by a sense of—of—’

‘Duty and honour?’ he put in helpfully.

‘Yes, duty and honour.’ She nodded quickly. ‘Although quite how you would have explained to your family, let alone the ton, how your future bride came to be accused of theft, I cannot imagine,’ she continued, with some return of her normal spirit.

His mouth thinned. ‘I am sure I would have managed somehow, Jane.’

She gave an impatient toss of her head. ‘In any case, it is an offer you would have had to withdraw once you were made aware of my—my illegitimate connection to the Earl of Whitney.’

Silence greeted her outburst, and Jane accepted that at last she had pierced Hawk’s aloof superiority.

How could she not have done when she had just made it clear that any doubts he might have harboured in that direction were completely unfounded? That she was indeed the illegitimate daughter of Janette Sulby and the Earl of Whitney!

Her heart still ached as she recalled the way in which the Earl had taken Janette’s letters from her. How he had cradled them tenderly against his chest, almost as if they were Janette herself. How the tears had begun to fall down his cheeks as soon as he had begun to read the first of those letters.

‘Jane?’

She swallowed hard, almost undone by the husky intensity of Hawk’s tone. She could not bear it if he was kind to her. Not now! Not when she was already so close to tears.

She loved this man with every fibre of her being. Had briefly, oh-so-briefly, been offered the opportunity of becoming his wife.

Could he not see that simply being alone with him like this was torture for her? Was more painful than anything that had come before?

‘Look at me, Jane.’

She closed her eyes briefly, her heart fluttering in her chest. She had been almost completely undone the last time she had looked at him, and was not sure she could withstand another onslaught of the longing she had to simply throw herself into his arms and beg to stay in his life in any guise he wished!

‘Jane, I insist that you look at me!’

Her eyes flashed deeply emerald and she raised her head sharply, her chin high. ‘You insist, sir?’

Despite the gravity of the situation, Hawk once again felt the familiar twitch of his lips as he recognised the indignant anger in Jane’s face. The anger he had deliberately incited…

He gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘May I now be permitted to make several claims in my own defence, Jane?’

She blinked. ‘Your defence, Your Grace?’

‘Certainly, Jane.’ He grimaced. ‘For I have surely been as judged and found wanting, as you accused me of doing with you earlier this morning.’

‘Oh, but—’ She frowned, her expression one of increasing puzzlement as she gave a slow nod. ‘You may proceed, Your Grace.’

‘Thank you, Jane.’ He moved to sit beside her on the chaise, at once able to feel the warmth of her thigh only
inches from his own. ‘Firstly,’ he began determinedly, ‘you misunderstood my intentions when we spoke earlier this morning.’

‘When you accused me of being a liar and a thief?’

His mouth thinned at her too-sweet tone. ‘When I offered my sympathy and understanding that you had felt compelled to strike back at Lady Sulby by removing her jewellery before you left Markham Park!’

‘It is no more flattering to be accused of spite than of being a liar and a thief!’

Hawk sat forward tensely. ‘Why do you continue to deliberately misunderstand me, Jane?’ he demanded impatiently. ‘It was because you learnt of the existence of those letters to Whit-to your father from your mother, that you felt compelled to leave Markham Park so suddenly, was it not, Jane?’ he added gently, remembering how distraught she had looked that morning when she had pleaded with him to take her away with him in his carriage.

That Gwendoline Sulby was capable of such cruelty he had no doubts. That he intended dealing personally with Gwendoline Sulby at the first opportunity was also in no doubt!

‘I learnt much more than that, Your Grace.’ Jane’s voice was flat. ‘Until Lady Sulby took such pleasure in informing me otherwise, I had no idea that Joseph Smith was not my father. That I was the bastard daughter of my mother’s previous lover!’

Oh, yes, Hawk intended dealing
very
personally with Gwendoline Sulby!

He drew in a ragged breath. ‘This morning, Jane, after receiving news of the Sulbys’ actions following your disappearance, I was furiously angry—’

‘No doubt at the thought that you had almost made love to such a creature.’

‘At the thought that the Sulbys, after all their previous cruelties to you—cruelties that I am only now beginning to appreciate fully—could do such a thing as demand your arrest and apprehension for a few baubles that I am sure can be of little real value anyway!’ Hawk stood up in his agitation. ‘Do you really have so little faith in my perception of people, Jane? In my perception of you?’ he rasped harshly. ‘For if you do then you were right to turn down any idea of marriage between us!’

Jane breathed shallowly as she stared up at him uncomprehendingly. Could it really be that he had
not
believed her capable of stealing Lady Sulby’s jewellery? That his anger this morning had not been directed at her but at the Sulbys?

Towards her aunt and uncle…?

She still found it incredible that Sir Barnaby had been her true uncle all along. And Lady Sulby her aunt by marriage. Olivia her first cousin.

For the last twelve years Jane had longed for a family. To belong. But now that she knew exactly who that family was—her father excepted!—Jane could not help but think she had been happier in her ignorance.

And Hawk, Duke of Stourbridge, must surely now realise what a lucky escape he had made when she had refused his offer of marriage…

She shook her head wryly. ‘Do you not see, Your Grace, that I refused your offer for your own sake rather than my own?’

His gaze sharpened. ‘
My
sake, Jane…?’

She gave a weary sigh. ‘I am accused of being a
thief, and now you have learnt—must know—that I am also the illegitimate child of Janette Sulby and the Earl of Whitney.’

‘And I am the Duke of Stourbridge—and I shall marry where I see fit!’ A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. ‘I shall marry whom I please, Jane,’ he continued huskily. ‘I shall marry where I love!’

Jane swallowed hard. ‘I—where you love, Your Grace?’

‘Jane, I swear that if you do not cease—’ He broke off his angry tirade, breathing deeply as he brought his emotions back under control. ‘You are the only person I know, Jane, who can almost drive me to my knees one moment by refusing to marry me and then totally infuriate me the next by telling me that it is for my own good! Yes, I love you, Jane. I have loved you, I believe, since the moment you threw yourself into my arms upon the staircase at Markham Park.’ His face was grim.

‘Oh, but—’

‘I loved you when you wore that hideous yellow gown. I loved you later that evening, when you stood amongst the dunes with the wind rippling through your glorious hair and the moon reflected in your eyes. I loved you when you burst into my bedchamber the following day. I loved you even more when you appeared at the inn that evening.’ He allowed a brief smile to curve his lips. ‘I loved and adored you when I held you in my arms and made love to you. Like Whitney with his Janette, I have loved everything about you in every moment of every day since the moment I first laid eyes on you, Jane!’

This could not be happening! Hawk could not have just told her that he loved her—not once, but several times!

She breathed raggedly. ‘Hawk, I—’

‘Please do not interrupt, Jane,’ he instructed her curtly. ‘Allow me the privilege of making a complete and utter fool of myself when I get down on my knees and beg you to reconsider your decision.’ He suited his action to his words and knelt on the rug at her slippered feet, taking both her hands in his. ‘Will you not marry me, Jane? Will you not forgive and forget the clumsiness of my earlier proposal? Will you not accept that I meant no insult by it? That I merely wished to secure you as my own before another minute had passed? That when I discovered you gone this morning my first and only wish was to see you returned to Mulberry Hall so that I might never let you out of my sight again? Jane, will you please agree to become my wife, my Duchess!’

Hawk loved her! He truly, truly loved her!

Nothing else mattered at that moment. Nothing!

‘I love you too, Hawk! She launched herself into his arms, knocking them both off balance so that they fell onto the rug before the fire. Jane rested lightly on his chest as she looked down at him, her face glowing. ‘I have loved you since before we met on the staircase—for you see I saw you out of the window as you arrived. You quite took my breath away! And I have loved you ever since, I am sure.’ She smiled down at him tremulously. ‘I truly, truly love you, Hawk!’

‘Oh, Jane…Jane!’ he groaned achingly, and his fingers became entangled in her hair as he tilted her head down to receive his kiss.

It was a kiss completely different from any other they had shared, as Hawk sipped and tasted, claimed and then conquered.