Nicole whirled on her brother, her blue eyes full of disgust and anger. “I pity her for being married to you,” she said, and raced out the door after Jayce.
Reese cursed silently and ran a hand through his thick locks. He lifted his gaze to find James standing in the doorway, staring at him. “What are you looking at?” Reese snapped.
James’s eyebrow rose slightly before Reese hurried past him, out of the room.
Chapter Six
Nicole knocked at the door. When there was no answer after several more knocks, she swept into the room. Jayce sat at the window, staring out over the pastures. She barely looked up, and Nicole noticed the way her shoulders sagged. Her heart ached for the woman. “I’m Reese’s sister, Nicole,” she said. “I am terribly sorry about the way my brother has been treating you.” Unnerved by Jayce’s silence, Nicole walked to stand beside her, peering out the window, following her gaze. A black horse, as black as the darkest night, ran wildly within a fenced-off area, snorting like some possessed demon. Nicole returned her gaze to Jayce. “I do so hope you like your life here,” Nicole said earnestly. “I’d like to be friends.”
Jayce turned to her, and Nicole was pleased to see she was a beautiful woman. Her eyes were startlingly blue and reminded Nicole of the richest sapphires she had ever seen. She knew they would help sway her brother to take her as his rightful wife. He had a fondness for blue eyes.
“Is it true my father kidnapped you?” Jayce wondered.
Surprised, it was all Nicole could do to keep her mouth from falling open. “Well, yes,” she finally answered, looking away from her probing gaze. “But he treated me civilly,” she added quickly.
Jayce turned to stare out the window. Nicole raised her eyes in time to notice a troubled furrow on Jayce’s once-smooth brow. “Do you know why he did it?” Jayce asked.
“His demand was for Reese to marry you,” Nicole answered.
Jayce dropped her gaze to her lap. “It makes no sense,” she murmured.
“What doesn’t?” Nicole wondered.
Jayce turned confused eyes to Nicole. “Why he lied to me. Father told me Reese wanted to marry me.”
Nicole patted her shoulder, comfortingly. “It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”
“How can I blame Reese for despising me?”
“He doesn’t despise you,” Nicole said. When Jayce turned disbelieving eyes to her, she smiled glumly and shrugged. “He just doesn’t know you.”
“And if he has his way, he never will.”
Suddenly, two female servants entered the room. They began racing about, collecting the sparse items belonging to Jayce. A feeling of dread began to prickle the back of Nicole’s neck.
Jayce slowly rose from her seat at the window, confusion etched in her furrowed brow.
“What’s going on?” Nicole demanded of the servants. “What are you doing?”
One of the women stopped before her. “Lord Reese has instructed us to gather the lady’s belongings.”
Jayce cast Nicole a look of dread.
Reese was tossing his new wife out, returning her to her father. Nicole grabbed Jayce’s hand, squeezing it tightly, reassuringly. “Reese is not that cold. There must be some misunderstanding.”
“There is no misunderstanding,” a voice thundered from the doorway.
Both women turned to find Reese standing there. He filled the doorway, his dark, hulking body blocking out the torchlight from the hallway behind him.
Jayce stepped forward, turning Reese’s cold, hard gaze from his sister to focus on her. “You have every right to turn me out,” she murmured. Then she raised her chin and added, “I would expect that from a coward.”
His teeth clenched, and he pushed himself from the wall, approaching her like a raging storm cloud. “I have been called many things, lady, but never coward.”
Jayce stood her ground. “Then, perhaps it’s time someone told you the truth. If you were brave, you would have faced me to say you were throwing me out instead of having servants tell me.”
A muscle in his cheek twitched and his eyes burned with outrage. Nicole could feel the anger emanating from his body like the heat from a hearth. She watched Jayce match his rage and was proud of her new friend.
“You are not the only one who has been duped,” Jayce proclaimed, her voice gaining strength. “I could have had my choice of husbands who would have been willing, nay, even eager to claim me as wife. And yet, I am saddled with a boorish, unchivalrous lout capable of no feelings for anyone but himself. Well, Reese Harrington, I wouldn’t want you as my husband if you were the last man in all of England!” With that, Jayce pushed past him, out into the hall.