And worse, the lie between them still remained. She stole a sideways glance at Gabriel. He sat, white lines drawn about his tightly held mouth. A faint muscle jumped at the corner. What was he thinking?
“Did you enjoy the performance, Gabriel?” Chloe’s hopelessly bad question broke into the stiltedness.
Jane peered at the young lady who wore a wide smile on her heart-shaped face.
The muscle twitched once more. “Chloe,” he bit out.
The young lady pointed her eyes to the carriage ceiling. “Gabriel has always enjoyed the opera.”
Jane stared at Chloe. Had the young lady gone mad? Did she not comprehend the implications of this evening’s debacle? For all of them.
“I thought it was a lovely performance.” Apparently, not by the cheerful pronouncement. “I—”
“That will be all, Chloe,” Gabriel snapped with such rigidity to his tone that Chloe went instantly and uncharacteristically quiet.
The carriage rattled along the remainder of the infernal trip, in absolute silence for which Jane was grateful. It gave her an opportunity to try and sort her tumultuous thoughts and put to rights some of her confounded emotions.
She could not stay here. That much was clear now. Her presence only posed a risk to Chloe’s reputation and ability to make a match. She’d given her the truth, though in actuality it was Gabriel who’d been deserving of the details that had brought her into his household. Instead, she’d infringed upon his family’s kindness and left disaster in her wake, as she was wont to do.
She dimly registered the conveyance rocking to a halt before the stucco façade of Gabriel’s townhouse. He didn’t wait for the carriage to come to a complete stop before he shoved the door open and leapt to the ground. He reached back and handed his sister down. Chloe frowned up at him and opened her mouth as though she wished to say something, but with the glower he trained on her, wisely remained silent and sprinted ahead. Gabriel turned back to the carriage and held his hand out.
Jane hesitantly eyed it, and then avoiding his gaze, allowed him to hand her down. She scurried ahead.
“Mrs. Munroe?” he said quietly, momentarily halting her retreat.
She froze.
“Await me in my office.”
This was to be her sacking. They all began with a call to the nobleman’s office. And this time, like the others before it, there would be no reference. Jane gave a jerky nod and then raced ahead. What household would retain her for their daughters’ care—she a woman, discovered with her employer atop her, with her skirts rucked about her lower legs, her lips swollen from a kiss? A sob escaped her lips as she sailed through the entrance, avoiding Joseph’s gaze and made her way through the house to Gabriel’s office. She turned the corner and collided with Chloe.
The young woman caught her about the shoulders and steadied her. “Forgive me,” she insisted. “I do not have much time.” She glanced about. “I suspect Gabriel will arrive any moment to speak with you.”
To sack her.
She claimed Jane’s hands and gave them a gentle squeeze and met her gaze with a seriousness she’d not before seen in Chloe’s eyes. “He will do right by you.” What did that mean to a woman such as her, a whore’s daughter? Then Chloe clarified. “He will not see you ruined.”
“Ruined?” she parroted back. A sad smile turned her lips. She’d been ruined at birth. “I am long past that.”
A momentary flash of pity lit the young woman’s eyes.
Uncomfortable with that show of support and that useless, unwanted emotion, she gave a smile. “I believe I saw to that all on my own, Chloe.”
The soft thread of boot steps sounded down the corridor. Chloe gave her hands one more squeeze and then darted down the hall. Jane turned quickly and pressed the handle. She slipped inside the darkened room and took in the space she’d stood, pleading for her post not even a week ago, feeling remarkably as though she’d come full circle.
She’d required sanctuary for two months. She’d managed to steal but a week. And for that theft, she’d sacrificed the Edgerton family’s good name.