Page 20 of The Duke's List

“You’re not exactly his favorite person right now. Maybe he thinks the only way he can get back at you is by embarrassing you with your grandmother. And as for Nana, youdidforbid her friendship with the kindly old tenant farmer.”

“Hawleywould plot to embarrassme?” When he made as if to stomp off to give the man a thumping, Jane dug her fingers into his arm.

“Don’t forget where you are and the commitment you’ve made to the Algernons. For the next few hours, you’re not simply the Duke of Sidmouth. You’re an actor, no better than anyone else on the stage. The play must go on.”

Chapter Fifteen

Jane laid backin the steaming hot water of the bath she’d had drawn after she’d finally stumbled, bleary-eyed, back to her safe haven at the end of the play.

She’d asked Carrington during intermission to have some refreshment provided for their audience at the end of the play. She was amazed at the interest and enthusiasm of the local Cornish men and their women.

It appeared the Falmouth area craved the entertainment of plays, which should make the Algernons’ venture in town a success. She’d have to see if she could help with a private investment to make sure they could sustain the theater.

Junius and Franny had promised they’d return with their troupe each year to help put on a family performance. She and Harriet had been so proud of Nicholas. He’d memorized his part flawlessly, and had hesitated or stumbled only a few times. But even then, he’d recovered smoothly as if nothing had happened.

At a light tap at her chamber door, Jane determined not to be so gullible as the night before when she’d unwittingly let Sidmouth into her chambers so that he could win a victory against her in his quest to move through her list of requirements.

He’d made her cross at first with his assumption that she’d be an easy conquest, but she couldn’t forget how the insistent warmth of his kisses had finally built to a raging inferno that threatened to consume both of them.

The third item on her list would be accomplished only at a time of her choosing, she told herself. At the quiet answer of her maid, Elsie, she uttered, “Come.”

Once inside, her maid held up a folded, sealed letter, but the seal was unfamiliar. “Miss Sparrow with the actors sent this with one of the footmen.” She laid the neatly folded square on Jane’s perfume tray. “He said she told him it was urgent, and that she needs an answer before morning.”

Jane frowned. What was wrong with Christina? Had she not understood when Jane had told her their friendship was over and she no longer wished to have anything to do with her?

Elsie stood with hesitation on her face. “Should I send for the footman to return with your answer?”

“No.” Jane stood, dripping soapy water. Please help me dry off and change into a night shift.” She waved a dismissive hand at the letter. “I’ll deal with her later.”

After Elsie left for her own quarters for the evening, Jane selected a book from one of the shelves framing the window to read herself to sleep. She was still in a state of tension from hours of performing the part of Beatrice with her husband playing an unpredictable, maddening Benedick. She still couldn’t fathom how he’d managed to memorize an entire play in less than a day. It had to be some sort of trick.

Nonetheless, they’d both made it through all four acts without making complete fools of themselves. In fact, toward the end, she’d actually enjoyed the banter with the character her husband played so well.

However, even months later after that night in Venice, her feelings still smarted from the sharp, cruel words he’d spewed when he’d accused her of not being a virgin, but a woman of loose morals. Just because she was a warm, sensual woman who refused to settle for less than his love.

When she walked back toward her bed, she paused at her tray of perfumes and gazed long and hard at Christina’s letter before snatching up the missive and tucking it inside the book.

Sidmouth re-readthe letter from Christina Sparrow a third time. He was nearly cross-eyed from fatigue and was afraid he was missing the point.

Even after a search of his foggy brain, he could not fathom the meaning of her words. She wanted him to meet her in the center of Bocollyn’s maze the next morning, because she had something important to tell him about his duchess. What the devil did tattling on Jane have to do with his damned maze?

He’d had little contact with the woman throughout the time the theater troupe had been at Bocollyn. She had brazen ways and blazing blue eyes that followed him everywhere. She wasn’t the first woman to try to ingratiate herself into an intimacy with him.

Her glittering caramel curls piled on top of her head and a lush figure were the sort of temptation he had no need for at this point in his life, especially now when he was trying so hard to win Jane’s love and respect.

Miss Sparrow claimed his wife would be there doing something he should see.

Jane fell asleep sittingup after reading only one chapter of her book. She woke with a start and knocked the book to the floor. Christina’s letter flew out of the pages and across the room to rest against the corner chaise.

Although the thought of participating in one of Christina’s intrigues annoyed her no end, she feared ignoring her would be at her own peril. After retrieving the letter, she settled onto the chaise and ripped off the seal. A quick read revealed what she’d suspected. Christina sought to sow seeds of distrust between her and Sidmouth.

By the gods, she would not allow it. She refused to let the woman who took her innocence destroy her one chance at happiness, her hope for a family of her own.

Christina’s sweeping script claimed Jane should meet her in the center of Bocollyn’s immense maze the next morning. She had something to reveal about Sidmouth.

She knew no one in their right mind wandered through the maze without a guide. Sidmouth had warned her early on to stay away from the complicated pathways through the hedges without him. A sudden inspiration came. She’d ask Sidmouth to accompany her. If he demurred and made excuses, she’d know immediately if he’d planned a rendezvous with another woman in the maze. She wouldn’t have to wander around lost and be humiliated by whatever intrigues he and Christina had plotted.

Although Sidmouth was sorely temptedto seek out his stubborn wife that night to fulfill the third of her four demands, he had more immediate problems of his own to attend to. He had to protect his grandmother from whatever the vengeful actor Hawley planned. He gave an involuntary shudder at the thought of his elderly Nana at the mercy of the demented farmer cum Romeo.