Page 33 of Stolen By the Heartless Duke

“No,” her friend cut in. “No, I will not be polite about this. He is actively threatening you, Jane. That isnotfamily. That is a vulture waiting for the body to fall.”

Something in Jane’s throat tightened. She looked away quickly so she wouldn’t have to feel it too sharply.

“I just need to fix it,” she said. “Find a husband. Secure stability. Then I can…”

“Then you can what?” Lavinia asked, softer now.

Jane didn’t answer because the truth was too big to say aloud.

Lavinia studied her for a long moment, then pulled her into another hug. “I’ll help you,” she said. “Whatever you need. You’re not doing this alone.”

Jane held on for a second longer than she meant to. “Thank you,” she said.

When they finally separated, Lavinia gave her a firm look. “And if any man here thinks your circumstances are an invitation to behave poorly, I will trip him into a hedge.”

Despite everything, Jane smiled, but it didn’t last long.

Back near the main lawn, the party had fully unfolded. Music. Laughter. The soft clink of glasses.

Jane and Lavinia rejoined the crowd near the refreshment table. Jane kept her posture steady, even as she felt the unease crawling under her skin again.

Lavinia leaned in slightly. “Drink something,” she murmured. “You look like you might faint purely out of spite.”

“I don’t faint,” Jane said automatically.

“That’s what they all say before they faint.”

Jane reached for a glass of lemonade.

A voice nearby said, “If I recall correctly, the Wynten situation has become quite… complicated.”

Jane’s fingers tightened slightly on the glass. She didn’t turn her head. Let them talk, she thought. Let them whisper until they were bored of it. But her stomach still knotted.

Across the lawn, the Duke of Sunderford stood surrounded by three gentlemen.

He looked like he belonged there in a way that made it feel like everyone else was visiting him. His posture was relaxed, yet Jane noticed everything about him too easily.

The way he listened instead of spoke, and the brief pauses before he answered. She saw the way the duke’s gaze flickered briefly across the lawn. Finding her.

Jane turned away quickly. Lavinia noticed immediately.

“What was that?” she asked.

“What was what?”

“That,” Lavinia said, nodding subtly. “That entire exchange. Why did the Duke of Sunderford just look at you like that?”

Jane’s grip tightened around her glass. “It wasn’t anything.”

Lavinia’s eyebrows rose. “That was not ‘nothing.’ That was… charged.”

Jane set the glass down harder than necessary. “He is simply involved in the same matter as we are,” she said crisply.

“And what matter isthat?” Lavinia asked. “How isheinvolved in Colin’s disappearance?”

After a moment of hesitation, Jane said, “He came by Wynten House after Colin was taken to offer his help. His brother is missing as well, and the duke thinks that the two may be connected somehow.”

Lavinia’s mouth formed into a startled ‘O’ shape. “That’s certainly unexpected!”