Page 45 of Holding Onto Love

“No. I will give him the cut direct. At White’s. He will be as mortified as he made you.”

“So you will break with him? But you say he’s not a terrible person. Jasper, I don’t want for you to break with all your friends.”

“I won’t.” He smirked. Then he crossed the room to her dressing table for one of the fresh neckcloths kept in the drawer. He draped it around his neck and came back to her. “Carleton might try to apologize a second time. I will cut him again. He’ll be frantic. Hazard will take him aside. He’ll make him see that the apology must be to you.”

“Oh.” She felt chilled. Jasper might be giving this too much thought. “And am I to accept or refuse?”

“Accept, if you will. But with that same magnificent frostiness. Tell him it was no account. You understand that he was ‘not himself.’”

She smiled a little. “I am to pronounce the man unable to hold his liquor.” Then she laughed. “You don’t think that is too cruel?”

“You’ll be doing him a favor. Drink will ruin him if he lets it.”

It all sounded so clever. Too clever for her. She shook her head. “I cannot carry it off. I’ll be too aware of myself playing a role.”

“Ah, but I will stage it. I’ll allow Carleton to pay a call. Only you, I, and Hazard will be here. Even if you don’t pull it off perfectly, when Hazard repeats the tale, he’ll present it as though you did.”

She considered it. She didn’t know why Viscount Haslet would be so kind to her. Perhaps he enjoyed the chance to be malicious and kind in one turn.

“Is it worth all the effort simply to win Carleton back into the fold?”

“Unfortunately, Carleton matters. His brother is the Duke of Dorchester. Moreover, he will be an example. I wish I could say that was the first and last slight you will endure, but there will be others. Still, I daresay it won’t take too long to put a stop to it.”

But it would not put a stop to it.

“Jasper, Hilyer will not come crawling to apologize. And he is a marquess. And there were marriage contracts.”

He took her hands and rubbed them between his palms. “I went to see Wilkerson this morning. My solicitor, if you recall.”

“Yes. Will said he was tough.”

“And Wilkerson said he hoped to never cross pens with young Collingswood again. Vanessa, there was a marriage contract, but no marriage. No banns were read. You never stood up with Hilyer in front of witnesses. If he intended to take legal action, he would have had to take it against your father. It’s likely too late to do so now. At any rate, he can’t touch you. You wed someone else. And he can hardly sue Henry.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry. That was not meant to be flippant.”

“He can’t sue you?”

“What grounds could he possibly have?”

“I don’t know. But you must understand, I feel like a piece of property. First my father’s. Now yours. Hilyer must feel…” ausea swept over her. “Entitled to his share.”

Jasper flushed. “Hilyer has no claim, none, on my mistress. No matter what prior claim he may think he had on a wife.”

“Well, that’s fine, Jasper. But it addresses only the legality. Hilyer can still humiliate me. Us. And he has powerful friends who could make trouble.”

“Hilyer has not a single friend in all of Society. He has a few hangers-on, but they are not worthy men. And they would desert him without a moment’s hesitation if faced with—well, this is blatantly arrogant, but they won’t wish to incur the displeasure of the lords of Iversley. My father has far more influence than Hilyer. Reginald inspires a kind of amused awe wherever he goes. And Crispin is not a person men care to cross.”

“And you?”

Jasper shrugged. “I have vastly more friends.” Then he rolled his neckcloth and tied it in a simple knot, done perfectly. “When I am done with him, he will be cut off from Society altogether. He won’t show his face in London again.”

*

Jasper snubbed Carleton at White’s. It did not take doing twice. The next morning there was an enormous bouquet of lilies delivered to her door, with a card, humbly begging an audience.

She passed Jasper the card. He glanced at it, then nodded.

Vanessa laughed. “Oh, don’t look so smug. What next?”

“We will permit him to call next week. That is generous; it should be two weeks. But I believe he is honestly contrite. Tonight, if the weather holds clear, I will take you for a carriage ride in the park.”