Alex followed Lady Eleanor back into the salon, allowing the door to slam behind him with unwonted ferocity. At least Francine Dennery would not rise for another couple of hours-that was one irritation that he was spared! Lady Dennery’s increasingly unsubtle hints about their relationship had aroused nothing but indifference in him and he was already regretting the impulse that had led him to invite her to Malladon. Lady Eleanor had implied that it was tantamount to a declaration and Alex was annoyed to think that she might almost be correct. It was a complication he would rather do without. For a moment his imagination compared the slender but devastatingly desirable curves of Jane Verey with the overblown charms that Lady Dennery was trying to place at his disposal. Jane would be so soft and sweet, innocent but waiting to be awakened. He felt himself suffused with so potent an desire that he had to turn away.

The door opened again to admit Jane and Lord Philip. With curiously sharpened observation, Alex noted the pink colour in Jane’s cheeks, whipped up by the breeze, the way that one windswept black curl rested in the hollow of her throat, the brightness of laughter in her eyes. His fists clenched as some nameless emotion clutched him by the throat. It was just that she had disappointed him, he told himself. She was like all the other debutantes after all, a little wilful, perhaps, but ready to see the benefits of a good match in the end. Lady Eleanor had been right when she had predicted that Jane Verey would settle down and accept the betrothal. Alex had just not believed that it would be so easy.

He told himself that his disappointment stemmed from the fact that the game was over before it had really started. He had expected that Jane Verey would been made of sterner stuff and he felt obscurely discontented to have been proved wrong. He knew that he was lying to himself. The problem was that he had already started to consider an alternative plan for Miss Jane Verey, and now apparently it would not be needed. He would have to treat her as a sister-in-law after all. Ironic, when he had promoted the Verey match so actively, but that had been before he had realised that he wanted something else-

Lady Dennery’s fluting voice suddenly impinged on his notice.

‘God damn it!’ Alex said violently under his breath and, before any of his startled relatives could utter a word, he had turned on his heel and walked straight out of the door again. They did not see him again until dinner.

‘You are perfectly sure that you are happy about this, Sophia?’ Jane asked, as they reined in their horses at the top of the hill and looked down on the roof of Malladon nestling in the valley below. ‘You do not feel uncomfortable with Lord Philip apparently paying open court to me? For if you do, you have only to say the word and we will stop at once!’

Sophia threw back her head and laughed. Her face was flushed and her blue eyes sparkling. She was in excellent looks and Jane was surprised that no one else had spotted the improvement in her friend’s spirits, but then she could only be grateful that it was so. To rouse the suspicions of Lady Eleanor-or worse, the Duke-would defeat her plan utterly.

They had been three days in Hertfordshire and matters were progressing precisely as Jane had intended. Lord Philip was playing her devoted suitor to the top of his bent in company and, whilst ostensibly monopolising his attention, Jane had in fact been engineering opportunities for him to court Sophia. Lady Verey and Lady Eleanor were lulled and off their guard, and with Jane drawing all the attention, Sophia’s actions went almost unnoticed. Lady Dennery had also proved a staunch if unknowing ally, for she had kept the Duke occupied throughout.

Jane smiled contentedly. She could see Lord Philip galloping towards them up the hill, having set off for a ride before them with the intention of meeting up once out of sight of the house. Lady Verey had felt reasonably at ease in allowing the girls to go riding together within the estate, for both Jane and Sophia were country-bred and unlikely to come to harm so near to home.

Lord Philip drew up beside them and raised his whip in salutation. He smiled at Jane before turning to Sophia and engaging her in conversation. The horses walked on slowly, with Philip and Sophia a little ahead and Jane careful to stay out of earshot. She was well pleased with her strategy, for it had the additional benefit of keeping Lord Philip in a very good mood indeed and with both him and Sophia as allies, Jane felt immeasurably stronger. The only problem was not getting caught out…

‘I saw Alex driving Lady Dennery over to Moreton Hall,’ Philip said over his shoulder, with a grin for Jane. ‘He looked in a very black mood, but he only has himself to blame for foisting that creature’s company on to us! A more ill-bred, rapacious woman would be difficult to find!’

Sophia hushed him reprovingly. ‘Philip! At the very least we may be grateful to her for keeping your brother occupied!’ She shivered. ‘It frightens me to think that he might find us out!’

‘I’ll protect you, my love,’ Philip said cheerfully, and Jane saw Sophia blush becomingly at the endearment. Once again she felt a moment’s concern as she watched them ride on ahead together down the track between the beech trees. It would be a dreadful thing to be conspiring in the romance if Lord Philip was not in earnest! But surely she could not have mistaken his sincerity? Jane frowned. She was certain that it was only the need for secrecy that held Lord Philip silent and that as soon as he could he would make Sophia a declaration…

The Duke had returned in time to witness the three of them riding into the yard together at the end of their expedition, with Lord Philip very firmly at Jane’s side by this time. Alex had been leaning over the stable door and chatting to the head groom, and he straightened up as they clattered past, a frown descending on his brow. Jane noticed it and reflected that he seemed to have frowned far more since she had reached an understanding with his brother. He had been noticeably better tempered when they were at odds!

Dinner that evening was a far from comfortable meal. Lady Dennery had evidently indulged in some disagreement with the Duke and vented her spleen through sharp comments on how slow the country was and how poor the company. Alex barely bothered to respond to her barbs and, with such a lack of amity between them, the others fell quiet and ate in almost total silence. When the ladies withdrew, Jane thankfully took the opportunity to slip away to the library for a little peace. She selected a tattered copy of Tom Jones and Maria Elizabeth Jackson’s Botanical Dialogues from the shelves and curled up on a window seat.

It was a good hour and a half before the sound of footsteps recalled her from the pages and then a dry voice said,

‘Escaping into literature, Miss Verey? No doubt you find it more congenial than the atmosphere in the drawing-room!’

Alex Delahaye was standing before her, a quizzical lift to his black brows as he assessed her choice of reading matter.

‘Are you a student of botany, Miss Verey? There have been some interesting studies in recent years.’

Jane nodded. ‘I have read a few of the books and done a little studying at Ambergate,’ she admitted.

‘It is certainly an interesting contrast to Tom Jones,’ Alex observed. ‘I scarcely think that your mama would approve, Miss Verey!’

Jane put her book to one side with reluctance. ‘No, indeed she would not! She particularly told me that I should not read it before I married! But-’ She broke off, on the edge of giving herself away by saying that she believed she would never marry. That would never do, given her supposed affection for Lord Philip! She had a sudden conviction that Alex could accurately follow her every thought process and see right through the deception. A guilty blush stole into her cheeks and she stood up hastily.

‘Excuse me, your Grace. I should rejoin the ladies.’

She was about to slip past him, when he put hand on her arm. ‘A moment, Miss Verey. I will escort you back, but there is something I would like you to see first.’

He drew her across the room, to where a huge oil painting hung in a recessed alcove. Jane had noticed it when she had first entered the room but it had been wreathed in shadows and she had not paused to study it. Now, as Alex moved a lamp so that more light fell on the picture, she stood still and considered it.

The subject was a lady, fair and delicate, dressed in the high fashion of a decade before. She looked very young. She was reclining with languid grace on a chaise-longue, one white hand resting on the collar of a small dog that was gazing up at her with undisguised adoration in its eyes. Jane considered it a poor painting, studied and artificial, and yet there was something compelling about the beauty of the sitter and the sweetness of her expression. So this was Madeline Delahaye! No wonder the Duke was still so attached to the memory of so gentle and gracious a lady. Looking at the vacant, painted face, Jane wondered what had happened to change so unspoilt a girl into the selfish pleasure-seeker who had apparently betrayed her husband with such blatant disregard for his feelings and public opinion. Remembering Alex’s bitterness when they spoke at Almack’s, Jane thought she understood. Evidently he had chosen to ignore his wife’s infidelity and concentrate on the happier times they had experienced when first married. The fact that he had kept this early portrait in so prominent a position seemed to underline his attachment to her and his determination to keep her memory alive.

A sort of anger took possession of Jane that Madeline Delahaye could have taken Alex’s love and treated it with such contempt. If she had had the love of such a man…The painting shimmered in a sudden wash of tears. All Jane’s feelings locked in a tight pain in her throat. It was so unfair that Alex should still have such strong feelings for his dead wife, for how could anyone else ever compare? With a smothered sob she pulled her arm from his grasp and ran from the library.