Tall, Dark... Collection. Кэрол Мортимер

shook his head impatiently. ‘Jane, if you leave Mulberry Hall without my protection you will be exposed to immediate arrest and imprisonment.’

      She gave him a pitying look. ‘I am willing to take my chances.’

      Even the thought of Jane exposed to the harshness of a prison cell, to the cold and the rats and the untender mercies of the turnkey, was enough to make Hawk shudder.

      She would rather suffer all that than accept his help…?

      His hands dropped from her shoulders before he stepped back. ‘Then you are a fool, Jane!’ he assured her harshly.

      Her eyes glittered challengingly. ‘I would rather be thought a fool than live any longer under the protection of the Duke of Stourbridge!’

      Hawk flinched as if Jane had physically struck him. Was that really how she felt? Did Jane despise him—hate him so much after what had occurred between them yesterday evening that she was willing to suffer imprisonment rather than accept his help?

      The defiant expression on her face, the scorn directed towards him that she made no effort to hide, was answer enough…

      He drew in a ragged breath before speaking again. ‘Jane, I advise you to put aside your feelings of enmity towards me and instead concentrate on the matter at hand.’ His expression was grim. ‘I can intercede for you with Sir Barnaby. I have found him to be a kind and reasonable man, and I am sure—’

      ‘No!’ Jane cut forcefully across the Duke’s reasoning speech. ‘I will speak to Sir Barnaby myself, when I return to Markham Park.’

      ‘You mean to go back there?’ The Duke looked incredulous.

      Yes, Jane intended going back to Markham Park.

      She had thought to find answers to her past in Somerset, but now it seemed that Sir Barnaby might be the person who had those answers. That he might be her real father…

      Whether he was or he was not, Jane knew she needed to return to Markham Park in order to clear her name as a thief. To expose Lady Sulby for the liar that she was.

      For Jane became more and more convinced by the second that Lady Sulby’s jewels were not missing at all—that Lady Sulby herself had hidden the jewels away somewhere, and merely taken advantage of Jane’s flight in order to blacken her name even further.

      She refocused on the Duke, her lips curving into a humourless smile at the disbelief in his expression. ‘Yes, of course I mean to go back there.’

      ‘Jane, you cannot—’

      ‘I must go,’ she assured him firmly, implacably.

      And, whether she planned to return to Markham Park or not, Jane knew that she could not remain under the Duke’s roof for a moment longer. He could not be further from the truth when he said Jane had feelings of enmity towards him. How could she possibly have feelings of ill-will towards the man she loved with all her heart?

      The man who minutes ago had broken that heart when he refused to believe in her innocence…

      Hawk looked down at Jane searchingly, knowing by the stubborn expression on her face that he would not be able to change her mind either by argument or cajolery. ‘If you insist on this foolhardy course of action—’

      ‘I do!’

      ‘Then I will come with you.’

      ‘No, you will not!’she refused with a vehement shake of her head. ‘I am grateful for the help you have given me thus far, but whatever happens next I must deal with myself. Do you not understand, Hawk, that I do not want you to come anywhere with me?’ she continued impatiently, as he would have once again protested. ‘As you have mentioned on more than one occasion—’ a slight, self-derisive smile curved her lips now ‘—you were forced into the role of my protector by my own impetuous actions. It is an obligation I now release you from.’

      He gave a weary shake of his head. ‘Have I not just explained that it is not as simple as that, Jane?’

      ‘I assure you, Your Grace, our conversation has made several things clear to me,’ she said enigmatically.

      Hawk grimaced his impatience at her stubborn refusal to listen to him. ‘Perhaps you are right, Jane, and we should talk of this again later. When you have had more time to think the matter through?’

      ‘Perhaps,’ she responded unhelpfully, giving a slight inclination of her head before turning to leave.

      Hawk’s expression was one of brooding frustration as he watched her cross the study to the door, her movements elegantly graceful, her head angled proudly.

      But how long would Jane maintain that elegance and grace, let alone her pride, if Lady Sulby had her way and Jane was imprisoned for theft…?