That silenced her, her mouth going dry.
He was right.
He’d allowed her to reschedule appointments with Harcourt. He’d let her put off the dinner with Ulysses Lennox. He’d dressed up and played a foreign bodyguard in a stranger’s home.
She had no right to ask this of him.
“This is going to cause a scandal,” Malcolm said softly. “The whole of Brighton will hear of it, whether he goes today or a week from now.”
She turned to look at her brother, desperation in her eyes. “Harcourt has no family to speak of,” she said. “It is not as though Lem is displacing an heir.”
“Look at him,” Malcolm said gently. “And look at Harcourt. Imagine you work for the local newspaper office at this time of year. In Brighton. When no one is about and nothing much is happening.”
She felt what was left of hope in her lungs escape, a wisp of warm breath she hadn’t meant to exhale.
“Maybe they will be gone by the time he gets there,” Jasper said, evidently still inflated with a few straggling tendrils of delusion.
“Jasper,” she said, her voice gone fatigued. “They are going to find out. They will find out today by chance encounter or next week by gossip rag or the week after that when they attend the play. They are going to find out.”
He looked stunned, frozen in place, the color splotchy in his cheeks. The gold of his irises flared and flickered as he seemingly tried to find a route of escape, a means of a solution.
She walked forward and took his hand into hers, waiting for him to realize as she had.
There was no escape.
“There is one gambit left,” she said softly. “You feign ignorance and allow them to think that Lem and I were scamming you, rather than the three of us scamming them. You will save your ambitions that way.”
He stared down at her, mouth falling open. “I wouldn’t do that,” he breathed, squeezing her hand and tugging her closer. “I wouldneverdo that.”
“Jasper,” Malcolm said, his voice still even and sympathetic from the desk. “I don’t see that you have another choice.”
“I won’t do that!” Jasper said again, his brows drawing together, his head snapping up. “Who knows what they would do in retribution? I won’t leave Libba alone in the water with sharks swarming. The only reason she was eventhereis because of me.”
“Yes,” Malcolm agreed, raising an eyebrow. “And we do need to discuss that. Among… erm… other things.”
“Be reasonable,” Libba said, stroking the back of Jasper’s hands with her thumbs. “They could force your removal from East India’s roster. You could lose so much more than I could. They can’t do much to my theater. Actors are already disgraced.”
He shook his head, his hair wobbling, and squeezed her fingers tighter. “No,” he ground out. “Let them.”
Libba gave a distressed little sigh, glancing over her shoulder for Malcolm’s help, but he was staring in a way that looked worryingly like approval. She frowned at him, turning back.
Her ribs were being battered by the nerves, fluttering like wooden fans against the bones. “Jasper, you’ve made a name for yourself here,” she said. “You worked your way from cargo to factor and there is still so much more to do, room to climb. I am nothing here. I am nobody. You must let me do this.”
Lem was still hovering in the doorway.
It seemed, despite his clear expression of intent to go claim his new self, he would not leave without their blessing. His eyes were on Jasper’s and Libba’s hands, his brows high with surprise.
“Mr. Townsend,” Lem said, “she is right. We have weathered worse than accusations of fraud. Liberty and I have been to jail together more than once. It is really no matter.”
Libba grimaced, hearing her brother shift and slap his hand onto the desk behind her.
“‘Jail’?!” he hissed.
“Notnow, Malcolm,” she snapped. “Jasper, I could be ruined here and still have stages in other cities. Scandal might as well be accolade in my work. It is not the same for you.”
He frowned at her, blinking for the first time since his declaration of refusal. “‘Other cities’?” he said. “You said you would stay.”
“I can stay,” she said quickly. “I can go. I can do what is necessary to not ruin your life, my love.”
