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That brought Jane up short.
“What?”
“I…”
“No! No, you shall not. I need you here!”
“But.”
“You shall not. And that is the end of it. I shall not hear any talk of –”
“– I’m in love with you –”
“– leaving.”
Silence weighed heavily in the room.
Jane swallowed.
“Oh dear,” Mister Foote said. “I never meant to admit that.”
“It’s quite all right. You did warn me it was a possibility.”
“I did at that.”
Jane gulped again.
“It’s why I must leave.” He said. “The staff will notice me making calf eyes at you. Some of them already have.”
“Shush.”
“I’ve said too much. I shall be gone by the morrow.”
“Oh, honestly, do shut up Theodore.”
“You know my first name?”
Jane stared at him. Now it was his turn to make a hard swallow. He leaned against the head of a chair, but did not sit. He was a footman, he stayed on his feet.
Bless him.
“Theodore,” Jane said. “You are a good man. A dear man. You have secured everyone’s position here, including mine.”
“But I am not an honest man.”
“Neither am I an honest woman. But circumstances demanded we make the best of a bad situation. And now, if you will allow me a moment of honesty in this world of subterfuge we have created. I have come to love you rather too dearly as well.”
Mister Foote - Theodore - looked at Jane, his mouth open in surprise and confusion. At last he said, “How are we to continue like this?”
“We continue. That is all.” Jane said. The full weight of her confession caught up with her and she sat heavily into the nearest chair. “I am only now realising that I regret nothing. I do not know if I am with child, truthfully, and I would very much like to do what is necessary to make sure that happens. And if that child is brought into the world through an act of love, well, where is the sin in that?”
“But you are married…”
Jane let the word hang in the air between them, until Theodore realised what he’d said.
“You are no longer married, are you? You are a widow.”
“Indeed. A widow who may be carrying her late husband’s heir to the estate. In many ways, the staff here all belong to my late husband. They are all part of this estate. I have not broken my marriage vows either.”
