Page 65 of Love and Other Disasters

“Let’s see them,” Nash said, snatching up the papers.

Ravenswood glanced Jasper’s way with a proud smile. “Well done, little brother. I’m impressed.”

Jasper felt his face grow warm at the praise. He hadn’t really imagined the duke would be impressed. After all, what could a third son know about running an estate of this size? No one in his family. “I’m sure you already considered many.”

“A handful only,” the duke admitted. “I knew leaving you in charge would prove beneficial.”

Jasper squirmed a bit as he waited for the duke to dismiss him. The duke and Nash would discuss his ideas thoroughly when he was gone. He didn’t need to stay for that. Most decisions were usually made while he was elsewhere anyway.

He sat his coffee cup down, deciding it was time to leave the room and seek Sophie.

“Oh, would you just let it go!” the duke barked.

Jasper looked up, startled by the heat of the demand from his brother.

But the duke was addressing Nash, rather than him.

Nash mumbled something under his breath that Jasper didn’t quite catch. The duke must have, though, because he scowled darkly and then glanced at Jasper. “Our brother has been in a foul mood since we left the house party, and I’ve grown weary of it. I didn’t ask her. There’s nothing to be done about that now. So what else is there to fret about?”

Nash glared at the duke. “I’m proceeding with the divorce.”

Jasper blinked, shocked to the core. “What?”

“Our brother has a foolish notion stuck in his head for weeks, one that will not solve anything in the end,” Ravenswood warned, sitting back in his chair. “Divorce is almost unheard of in our circle and would cause a scandal the likes of which we would not escape for years.”

Jasper leaned toward Nash. “Why now?”

But Jasper suddenly knew why—Sophie. Why else would she look so pale? Had she heard of his plans, too? Had Nash come home and the first thing he’d done was press his suit with Sophie! What had she said in answer?

Nash cleared his throat repeatedly. “It is clear to me that my wife has forfeited any claim on a place in the family. Our marriage was arranged and there was never love between us. I would rather live as a bachelor again than as an abandoned husband forever.”

“She is not the only one who abandoned the marriage bed,” Jasper threw out, appalled by Nash’s plan. “You hardly noticed the absence that first week.”

“Jasper,” the duke warned. “You know nothing of the matter.”

Until now, Jasper had kept his thoughts about Nash and Laura strictly to himself, but no more. Not when there was Isabelle to worry about. “I know enough to see my brother is trying to absolve himself of any responsibility for the failings of his marriage. He was absent when she needed him most,” Jasper complained, getting to his feet. “He left Laura alone with Father to be a victim of his whims.”

Nash sucked in a sharp breath. “You were here, too. You were her friend,” he snarled. “Her best friend.”

“Yes, I was then, but I was not her husband. I held no sway over Father’s decisions concerning her, and why should I have had any say at all? But I saw what was going on, and I wrote to you, suggesting you return more than once. You chose not to listen to me. You obeyed Father and did his bidding instead. Father separated you from Laura, and then separated Laura from the children. If you divorce her, you take away any chance those boys might have to see her again.”

“She could have come back to me any time she chose,” Nash replied so coolly, Jasper almost shivered.

He grew angry at the calm way Nash continued to speak of ending his marriage. There was no passion in him, save for his own ambitions for the family. Jasper could not fathom that they were even related by blood. “Did you tell her that? Apologize for what father was like with her.”

Nash’s jaw twitched. “It goes without saying that the mother of my children is welcome here.”

“Not while Father lived, she wasn’t,” Jasper reminded him. “Father did all he could to make her feel an outsider. She had to make appointments to visit her own children on their last birthdays!”

“Jasper, that is enough,” the duke warned again, standing up as well. He put a restraining hand on Jasper shoulder. “Leave him to make his own mistakes.”

“No, I will not! Not this time.” He turned on the duke, too. “I’ve said nothing for years and let him do as he pleases. But why divorce her now? It is not as if he’d want to be with anyone else at this point. He’s too set in his ways to bother with romance.”

Nash cleared his throat. “I will marry again. A bride has already been selected.”

Jasper shook his head, but the duke appeared surprised. “You’re making a jest.”

“No,” Nash promised. “It has been discussed, and I expect to marry as soon as the divorce is final.”