He left, closing the door behind him, and leaving Aaron wincing. The sight of Emily’s pain and those tears she was keeping at bay cut through him.I must speak to her. I have to mend this. I will not let this be ruined. Not now!
“I think he is right.” Hugh was the first to speak as he sat straight on the wall. “Let us talk through everything, see where the inconsistencies lie. I do not like the idea I’ve believed in lies for so long.”
“Neither do I.”
* * *
“How are you feeling?” Aaron asked as he woke his brother. They had slept in the smallest parlor in the house after they had talked into the early hours of the morning. Aaron was sat in an armchair with his feet resting on a stool, whilst Hugh was prostrate on a chesterfield settee, with a nearly empty carafe of whisky beside him.
“I will indeed,” Hugh said with a sigh as he clutched his head, clearly feeling the aftereffects of the alcohol.
“Feeling better about the world yet?” Aaron asked with a grimace as his brother’s gaze met his.
“No.” Hugh shook his head, sitting up on the settee. The conversation had been long and arduous. It took hours but they had realized together just how many lies Jane had told the two of them. “I can’t believe she so easily played me. I believed everything she ever told me. She claimed you were jealous, merely out to make the two of us miserable, and that’s why you pursued her in the first place.”
“None of that is true.”
“I know that now,” Hugh cursed another time as he reached for the whisky carafe before thinking the better of it and pushing it away. “What do I do, Aaron? I said I’d marry her.”
“Do you still want to?” Aaron shuddered at the thought. The mere idea of Hugh being beholden to someone who had manipulated them both in such a way was crushing.
“No.” Hugh’s answer was simple but powerful. “I think I’ve realized I’m betrothed to someone I don’t really know at all. How can I marry her now? Then I have a problem, don’t I? To break off our betrothal, it will be scandalous. It will drag our names through the scandal sheets.”
“The question is which would you. A life spent married to a woman who cheats you and lies to you? Or a few months with your names in the scandal sheets?” Aaron asked as he stood to his feet and rang a bell over the fireplace. They would need their valets to help them tidy up after such a heavy night of drinking.
“Put like that, you make it sound easy.” Hugh sighed as he too stood to his feet. “I need to talk to her, don’t I?”
“First, let us clean up. We’re both in such a state she’ll run away from either of us the way we are.”
“Would you come with me?”
“What?” Aaron jerked to a stop as Hugh held his gaze, with a pleading look.
“She stayed here last night in the guest chambers. She will be here somewhere. Come with me to see her. I think it’s about time we both spoke to her honestly.”
“As you wish.”
It took them a while to get cleaned up and sorted by their valets before they searched the house. They eventually found Jane in the sitting room with their mother, with the two of them bent over thank you notes they were to send out for the ball the night before.
“Mother? Could you give us a minute with Miss Drew please?” Aaron asked, watching as their mother looked up, her body instantly tense.
“Is all well?” she asked nervously.
“It will be. Hugh needs to speak to her alone. I will chaperone.”
“As you wish.” Still, Joyce looked nervous as she stood to her feet and walked out of the room.
Hugh sat down beside Jane as Aaron made his way across the room, determined to put some distance between them. Once the door closed behind their mother, Jane was the first to speak.
“What is going on? I do hope the two of you have calmed down after your incident last night.” There was something in her words that riled Aaron instantly. He looked back to her, seeing there was a smile on her face, one she was trying her best to flatten.
“You took amusement in seeing us fight like that, didn’t you?” Aaron asked, slowly stepping back toward her. At once, that smile vanished.
“How could you say such a thing, Aaron?” she wailed, as if he had truly hurt her.
Aaron was about to turn away again, unprepared to put up with anymore of her behavior when his eyes flicked down to the thank you notes she had been working on and the lettering. He snatched up one of the cards, noticing the way she tried to snatch it back, but she was too slow.
“God’s wounds,” he muttered in realization, tracing the familiar ‘f’s and s’. “You are the one who wrote all those foul letters to Emily.”
