I sigh and stare back out into the garden. “It is.”
“It must be hard to read people.” I can tell he’s mocking me, challenging me.
“It’s easy once you figure it out. Take your family, for instance: Your father is reckless, and he’s never been good at doing what he’s told. But he can’t be caught doing them, so he does a lot of bad things on the sly. I assume he has mistresses and scandals, but they’re buried deep—not because he’s smart, though, but because he knows how to work the system. His whole family is made up of cheating men.” The words hurt on the way out as I realize Dash is one of them. “Your mother knows about it all. She’s smarter than your father is, far smarter. She wasn’t as wealthy as he was growing up. She’s more rigid than he is because she had to learn the rules and doesn’t want any of her poverty or lack of breeding accidentally showing.”
I turn and look at him. “You are like your father in the desire to be a free spirit, but at the same time you are smarter than he is. You have never allowed them to stifle you so you have no need to rebel the way he does. You joke of rebelling, but you don’t do it. You just live according to the rules that matter, the ones people talk about. The rest you ignore and love the fact it creates a slight bad-boy air about you.” I turn back to the garden with a smirk when he looks shocked. “And then there is the ever-fair Melody, who dumped Dash because you and she were having an affair, which is why your brother doesn’t really like you. She loved Dash, with all her cold heart, but you are the heir so she broke up with him, in hopes you would love her back. But that’s not your style. The sad part is that your mother invited her here in hopes of her and Dash reconnecting so he would break it off with me, not knowing how much it would hurt Dash to actually see the first girl who broke his heart. And ironically, she forced you to come in hopes that you and Dash would mend fences, but obviously with seeing Melody here that isn’t going to happen. The wound is now fresh in Dash’s heart, even with me here.” I pause, turning and looking at him again. “But that’s not the only problem with you two, is it? Everything that’s legacy in your family is going to go to you, and Dash resents that a little, I think, even if he doesn’t want to admit it to himself. He doesn’t think you are worthy of any of it. He sees the real you.”
His jaw drops. “Blimey!” He takes his drink back and finishes it. “You are good at whatever it is they pay you for. I hope they pay well.”
“Not really.” I shake my head. “But sitting back and watching will always get you further than talking. People say the things they want themselves to believe. They are saying it aloud to convince themselves only. Their actions are who they are.”
“Well, Jane Spears, I hate to say it, but I think my baby brother has bitten off more than he can chew.”
I sigh, knowing it isn’t true; it’s quite the opposite, in fact. “Being good at parlor tricks doesn’t make you desirable, Henry. It just makes you good at guessing the next move out of everyone else in the room.”
His eyes dazzle in the moonlight. “The answer I want, Jane Spears, is what your next move will be.”
I nod to the right. “A quick getaway if I’m lucky, between courses.”
He winks. “We can get away now if you like.”
I laugh right in his face. “Not a chance.”
His smile fades away, and I think he feels sorry for me. “You love him, don’t you?”
“My entire heart and soul, though unable to be much more than pathetic, are his.” I say it so matter-of-factly I feel sorry for me too. I don’t even think I meant to say it aloud, but the night has gotten the best of me.
“I will arrange a car out front for you. You can play at being Cinderella, and may leave when you wish. Tell no one, and slip out the office near the foyer. There is a door there for my father to smoke his cigars without the lady of the house busting his chops, as you Americans say.”
“Thank you.”
He nods. “Ben is an idiot to let you go, but I fear his bringing you here was his way of scaring you off. If he ends up with that ditz Melody I might have to just give him the title so I can run away with you.”
I stand, completely uncomfortable with the forward way he is acting. “I don’t run away, Henry. I either fit or I don’t.” Which is why I have one friend and one cat and nothing else. Because I never fit. I grew up in a house of people unlikely to fit. We rubbed off our awkward and discomfort all over each other. I walk back into the house to find the red wine and pour myself a glass.