Page 42 of The Lovers
“Jasper, why did my father leave?” she asked without preamble. There was no point beating about bush. Jasper would either know, or he wouldn’t.
“I wouldn’t rightly know, yer ladyship,” Jasper replied smoothly.
“Jasper, I have it on good authority that you know more than most.”
“I can’t imagine who’d say such a thing,” Jasper replied, a small smile playing about his lips. Elise saw his gaze stray to the small silk reticule in her hands.
She took out a coin and held it up. The sum was more than Jasper would earn in a month. “Will you tell me now?”
“Certainly, yer ladyship.” Jasper reached for the coin, but Elise pulled her hand back. She wanted the information first.
“If I don’t believe you, I won’t pay,” Elise said sternly, although she knew that Jasper had the upper hand.
Jasper inclined his head in acknowledgement. “The master was in financial difficulty, as I am sure ye know,” he said, giving her a shrewd look meant to remind her of her own hasty marriage. “Property values in Southwark have gone up, so ’e decided to sell the lot and journey to the West Indies plantation, where ’e intended to invest the money in buying more slaves and then selling them on in the American colonies for a handsome profit.”
“And my sisters?”
Jasper looked at Elise in some surprise. “They left with ’im, of course.”
“Is that all?”
Jasper stepped from foot to foot, debating whether to tell her what she wanted to know. “Amy is to wed a plantation owner. The match was arranged by yer brother.”
“But she is only fourteen,” Elise gasped.
Jasper shrugged. He didn’t care about Amy’s fate any more than he cared about hers. Elise handed over the coin and rose to leave.
“Won’t you have some spiced wine, Lady Asher?” Master Collins asked as he rejoined them.
“Thank you, but I really must be on my way. My husband will be worried,” she added for good measure. She had no explanation for coming to call unaccompanied, and she assumed Master Collins surmised that her husband had no inkling of where she was. The sooner she returned to Asher Hall, the better.
“Jasper, see Lady Asher home,” Jonathan Collins ordered.
“Really, there’s no need,” Elise protested. The last thing she wanted was to spend the next half hour in the company of the smarmy Jasper, but she could see in Master Collins’s steely gaze that resistance was futile.
“There’s every need. Please, I insist.”
“Thank you, Master Collins.”
The man bowed over her hand and wished her well, instructing Jasper to take the carriage to the riverbank rather than going on foot. Elise was grateful of the offer. She was exhausted and emotionally overwrought. She’d braced herself for an unpleasant day, but she’d never expected this. Not only had she been left behind and betrayed by the people she cared about, but she was now completely on her own, with no one but her husband to care for her. The thought made her snort with the irony of it. Jasper threw her a look of disapproval, but she didn’t care. His opinion was the least of her problems.
TWENTY-EIGHT
NOVEMBER 2013
Surrey, England
Quinn awoke later than usual. Midmorning sun shone through the stained-glass windows of her bedroom and filled the room with a colorful glow. Birds chirped happily outside, and the wind moved through the trees, the leaves rustling as they fell from the branches and twirled silently to the ground, covering the grass with a blanket of autumnal color. The room was chilly, but Quinn was warm beneath her down quilt. Her head still ached, but she felt much better. She’d tidied up the house before going to bed—against doctor’s orders, of course, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave things as they were. It was too upsetting to see her private papers and possessions strewn all over the floor. A few things were broken, but thankfully, nothing truly important—like her laptop—had been damaged.
Quinn held the ebony statue in her hands for a long time, marveling at the fact that something so beautiful and innocent could have unwittingly become a murder weapon. She knew enough about human anatomy to realize that had the blow landed about an inch lower and struck her temple, she might have been killed outright. The interesting thing about the possibility of her untimely demise was that it made her feel giddy with the joy of living. Quinn got out of bed, took a hot shower, and dressed in a new outfit, putting it together from the items she bought from Jill’s shop. She liked the way the vintage jeans fit her hips, and the peasant blouse brought out the green in her eyes. Quinn carefullylifted the corner of the bandage to see if she might be able to remove it. The wound didn’t look too bad, so she pulled off the plaster and replaced it with a much smaller one from her medicine cabinet. She even applied a bit of makeup to make herself feel better and twisted her hair into an artful bun atop her head.
Quinn was just making some toast and tea when there was an insistent knock at the door. She frowned. She wasn’t expecting anyone, and the only person who would show up at her door this morning would be Gabe. Quinn wiped her hands on a tea towel and went to answer the door.
“I’m sorry to come unannounced. Terribly rude of me, I know,” Rhys said with a guilty smile. “But I heard about what happened and needed to see for myself that you were all right.”
Quinn stepped aside to let him in. “Did Gabe tell you?” she asked, annoyed with Gabe for calling Rhys. She was quite all right; there was no reason whatsoever to alert anyone.
“No,” Rhys replied sheepishly. “I saw it on the news.”
