A Deal To Mend Their Marriage

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‘Lady Sedgewick?’

She blew out a breath and tried to rein in her temper. ‘I can certainly ensure that I get an invitation.’

‘And me?’

‘On what pretext?’ She folded her arms. ‘Oh, and by the way, Lady S, my soon-to-be ex-husband is in town—may I bring him along? That won’t fly.’

He pursed his lips, his eyes suddenly unreadable. ‘What if you told her we were attempting a reconciliation?’

A great lump of resistance rose through her.

‘Think about it, Caro. Your snuffbox goes missing and then the very next weekend Barbara—who’s apparently hardly left the house in months—makes plans to attend a country house party. Ten to one she has a prospective buyer lined up and is planning to do the deal this weekend.’

Hell, blast and damnation!

‘This is becoming so much more complicated than it was supposed to.’

‘If you don’t like that plan there are two other strategies we can fall back on.’

She leaned towards him eagerly. ‘And they are...?’

‘We storm into Barbara’s room now, seize her purse and take the snuffbox back by force.’

Her heart sank. Very slowly she shook her head. ‘If we do that she’ll hate me forever.’

‘And that’s a problem because...?’

‘I know you won’t understand, but she’s family.’

He was silent for a moment. ‘That was a low blow.’

His eyes had turned dark and his face had turned to stone. Her heart started to burn. ‘I didn’t mean that the way you’ve taken it.’

‘No?’

Jack had grown up in Australia’s foster care system. It hadn’t been a brutal childhood, but from what she could tell it had been a lonely one.

She glanced down at her hand, shaking her head. ‘But you won’t believe me and I’m too tired to justify myself. Let’s just say that confronting Barbara like that is a last-ditch plan.’ Exhaustion stretched through her. ‘Jack, shouldn’t we be having this conversation inside?’ Him falling off the roof would top off a truly terrible day.

‘I’m perfectly comfortable where I am.’

Which was as far away from her and her world as he could get at this current moment. ‘Fine. And this second alternative of yours?’

‘You go to your employer in the morning and explain that the snuffbox is missing.’

And lose her job? Lose her professional reputation and the respect of everyone in her industry? Through no fault of her own? No, thank you! Besides, if the police investigation—and she had no doubt that there would be one—traced the snuffbox back to Barbara...

She shuddered and abruptly cut off that thought.

‘I can see you’re even less enthused about that option.’

She hated the tone of voice he used. She hated his irksome sense of superiority. She hated the opinion he had of her.

That last thought made her blink.

‘So, will you get us an invitation to the Sedgewicks’?’

She gave a stiff nod. ‘Yes.’

‘Good girl.’

‘Don’t patronise me.’

‘And it’ll be best,’ he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, ‘if Barbara doesn’t find out that we’re planning to be there.’

‘Hmm...awkward...’

He raised an eyebrow.

‘But doable,’ she mumbled. She folded her arms and glared at him. ‘You do know we’ll have to share a room at Lady Sedgewick’s?’

Everyone would take it for granted that they were sleeping together.

He gave a low laugh. ‘Afraid you won’t be able to resist me, Caro?’

Yes! ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

‘Or are you afraid I won’t be able to control myself?’

‘If you can’t,’ she returned tartly, ‘then I suggest you rethink your plans to remarry.’

‘Never.’

A black pit opened up in her chest. The sooner Jack was out of her life for good, the better.

She flinched when he ran a finger down her cheek. ‘Never fear, sweet pea. While your charms are many and manifold, they were never worth the price I paid.’

She flinched again at his words, and when she next looked up he was gone.

‘Right. A weekend in the country. Very jolly.’

She closed the window and locked it. And then, for the first time ever, she drew the curtains.

* * *

‘Was it difficult to swing the invitation?’

‘Not at all.’

It was early Saturday morning and she was sitting beside Jack in his hired luxury saloon car. It all felt so right and normal she had to keep reminding herself that it was neither of those things. Far from it. She still didn’t know how they were going to negotiate sharing a bedroom. She kept pushing the thought from her mind—there was no point endlessly worrying about it—but it kept popping back again.

‘Tell me how you managed it.’

So she told him how on Thursday she’d ‘just happened’ to bump into her old schoolfriend Olivia Sedgewick at a place she knew Olivia favoured for lunch, and they’d ended up dining together.

The house party in Kent had come up in their idle chitchat, and Caro had confided her concerns that this would be Barbara’s first social engagement since Roland had died. A bit later she’d mentioned meeting up with Jack again after all these years, and how the spark was still there but they were wanting to keep a low profile in London in case things didn’t work out.