Page 7 of Love and Other Disasters

She glanced up at Lord Jasper apologetically. “I must warn you I’ve never played before.”

“Something tells me you’ll do admirably despite my brother’s baffling instructions,” Lord Jasper drawled. “All you have to think about is the little ball at the end. Imagine it as someone you know. In your case, I suggest it is someone you truly despise.”

One person immediately sprang to mind. “Very well. But why someone I despise?”

“Women are emotional creatures,” Lord Jasper explained, leaning a little closer. “Emotions guide your actions in everything.”

Now that was unfair. However, armed now with a little of his history, she could almost forgive his low opinion of some women. She tempered her reply to be less caustic than it might have been. “How do you know that is true for me?”

He gave her a look and went on as if the answer was self-explanatory. “Now. You want to get your ball close to that little one. Think of it as a battle. It must stop near enough that if it was your enemy, you could stab it. Close means we win.”

She couldn’t help it. She laughed. “That is an unusual way to explain a game of skill.”

“And of cunning,” he warned. “Play to win, Mrs. Radcliffe. If you dare.”

Sophie gulped. Winning wasn’t her strong point, but Jasper was clearly competitive. She would do her best not to be a complete disappointment to him.

She followed him and went where told to await her turn. She studied the other players’ techniques carefully while testing the weight of the bowl in her hand. Lord Jasper was an excellent player. His bowl came to rest less than three inches from the smaller ball. Much closer than any of his brothers had managed so far. She saw him hide his elation and pride in that achievement, though.

The spare’s spare. His achievements dismissed as unimportant. Sophie clapped for him, but he scowled at her.

When it was her turn, Sophie tested the weight of the ball in her hand again. It had a comforting weight, and she easily imagined the person she despised at the end of the green stretch of lawn, as Lord Jasper had suggested she do. She stepped up to the designated spot, but Lord Jasper was by her side in an instant, taking up her hand holding the bowl a different way.

“Turn it like so,” he told her, turning the ball on her palm with careful fingers until it was properly aligned to his liking. “Remember to bend your knees as you step forward and think vindictive thoughts. Shouldn’t be hard for someone like you.”

With that remark ringing in her ears, any sympathy for his situation as third son diminished markedly. She had done nothing to Lord Jasper besides speak her mind when he put her down. He had no other cause to think ill of her, unless he, too, suspected she was interested in capturing his older brother’s affections. Lord Nash had been determined to have her as his partner, but so had Lord Jasper.

Sophie stepped up to the designated spot, frustrated by all men yet again. She should not be playing games with her employer and his family as if she were one of them.

Sophie had made that mistake before.

She took aim and pictured the man who’d lied about loving her standing over the little ball. The man who had taken her innocence and then tossed her away like garbage. Lied and deceived his way under her skirts with promises of a happy forever.

Unfortunately, Sophie had underestimated the depths of her remaining rage for that man as she flung the bowl from her hand. The bowl sped past the smaller one and promptly disappeared into the darkness amid hoots of laughter from the other players. When Lord Jasper cursed roundly, Sophie hitched up her skirts to bolt into the dark after the bowl, her face flaming with embarrassment and wishing to disappear forever into the darkness, too.

Chapter Three

“Would you just get in the damn carriage and go,” Jasper demanded of his younger brother, Stratford, pushing him toward the open carriage door. Stratford had his lady waiting inside, and Win appeared to be growing impatient with her husband’s dawdling and babble too.

“We could stay,” Stratford offered, turning back again.

“For heaven’s sake, and do what? Till the fields yourself? If we are to have a better next year, it will not be through everyone staying behind to watch others at work. Go visit Aston, paint a portrait of him,” Jasper demanded with a laugh, then lowered his voice. “We cannot afford the expense of you home for the summer.”

That wasn’t strictly true, but it was a useful suggestion to throw out.

“We don’t eat that much,” Win grumbled just loud enough that Jasper heard her.

“But your husband eats enough for six,” Jasper informed his sister-in-law with a shrug. “I’m staying to make sure the right things are getting done and our brother is free to make his proposal. You go off and enjoy a proper honeymoon. Enjoy yourself and each other and, for heaven’s sake, do not fall out with your host, Aston. We cannot afford him to conjure up any reason to call in the remaining debt.”

“I’ll try not to,” Stratford promised solemnly, to which Win laughed. But then a bright smile flooded his face. “Try not to miss me.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “I cannot miss you if you don’t leave.”

Stratford suddenly pulled Jasper into a fierce embrace. “Be good, brother.”

“Ha,” he snorted, shoving his brother away. “That’s not my motto.”

“I know,” Stratford said, grinning. “It’s never get caught enjoying yourself too much.”