Page 81 of Stolen By the Heartless Duke

A flicker of irritation crossed his face. “You arenotin control here, Lady Jane.”

Her chest tightened. “This ismyhome.”

“It is an estate under stewardship,” he said. “There is a difference.”

Jane’s voice dropped. “You are enjoying this.”

Zachary blinked once. “Excuse me?”

“You are enjoying it,” she repeated. “Standing here. Ordering people around. Taking things that have never been yours.”

For a moment, something like anger crossed his face. Then it smoothed out again.

“I am doing what your brother failed to do,” he said quietly.

That was the wrong thing to say. Jane stepped forward so quickly that the servants behind her shifted nervously. “Do not speak about Colin that way,” she said.

Lord Zachary tilted his head slightly. “Why? It is the truth. He left the estate vulnerable, and now I am repairing it.”

“He is missing,” Jane said through clenched teeth. “He didnotabandon it.”

“Functionally,” Zachary said, “there is no difference at present.”

Jane stared at him, something hot and shaking rising beneath her control. “You do not get to rewrite my family history,” she said.

Zachary held her gaze for a long moment.

Then he gave a small, almost amused exhale. “You are very emotional about objects.”

“They arenotobjects,” Jane snapped. “They are memories.”

“That is precisely what makes them saleable,” he said.

Jane went still. A colder anger settled over her now. “You are removing pieces of my father from this house,” she said slowly.

Zachary did not answer immediately. “I am stabilizing your future.”

Jane looked at him for a long moment, something steadying inside her despite the heat of her emotions.

When she spoke again, her voice was quieter. “When Colin returns,” she said, “he will removeyou.”

Zachary’s hand closed around Jane’s wrist before she could step away. It was not a casual grab. Not a warning touch, but a firm, controlling grip that stopped her mid-motion and pulled her back half a step as though she weighed nothing at all.

Jane stiffened instantly. “Uncle—” she began, her tone sharp with disbelief, but the word caught when he tightened his hold just enough to make his message clear without saying anything at all.

The corridor felt suddenly too narrow. Too quiet. Even the footsteps of the servants down the hall seemed distant, as though they belonged to another house entirely.

Zachary leaned in slightly, his voice low. “You willstopmaking a spectacle of yourself.”

Jane’s jaw tightened. “A spectacle?” she echoed. “Men are walking out of this house with my father’s things.”

His expression didn’t change. That was what made it worse—the calmness, the certainty, as if he had already decided what reality was and everyone else was simply reacting too slowly to accept it.

“I am managing what your brother failed to manage,” he said. “He did a very poor job of this, as it turns out.”

Jane’s eyes flashed. “Do not speak about Colin that way.”

Zachary gave a quiet exhale that sounded almost amused. “And yet, here we are. You are defending a man who left a crumbling estate, a missing title, and a house full of liabilities. Sentimentality is not governance, Jane.”