'Nathan, how nice you look,' Jade said, completely turning the topic when she glanced up and saw his handsome shirt and pants.
'That shirt looks damned familiar,' Caine drawled out.
'It's yours,' Nathan answered with a grin. 'Fits well, too. Colin has also borrowed a few of your things. We hadn't packed sufficiently when we were tossed into the ocean. Why hasn't anyone tried to get to
you since that first day?' he added with a scowl.
Nathan started to pace the room like a tiger. Caine continued to lean against the edge of the desk. 'They have.'
'What?' Nathan asked. 'When?'
'They have not,' Jade interjected. 'I would have known.'
'In the past ten days, four others have tried.'
'And?' Nathan asked, demanding more of an explanation.
'They failed.'
'Why wasn't I informed?' Jade asked.
'I didn't want to worry you,' Caine explained.
'Then you had to have known Matthew and Jimbo were here,' Nathan said.
'I knew,' Caine answered. 'I left them alone, too, until they burned down my stables. Then I had a little talk with them. Couldn't you have come up with another plan to keep me busy while you went to see my father?'
He was getting all worked up again. Jade guessed he still wasn't over the fire yet. Sterns had said the stables were brand new. 'I should have been more specific with Matthew,' she announced. '1 left the diversion up to him. Still, he was very creative, effective, too. You were busy.'
'You took a needless risk going off on your own like that,' he snapped. 'Damn it, Jade, you could have been killed!'
He was shouting at her by the time he'd finished that statement. 'I was very careful,' she whispered, trying to placate him.
'The hell you were!' he roared. 'You were damn lucky, that's all.'
She decided she needed to turn his attention. 'I'm never going to finish this task if you two don't leave
me alone.' She tossed her hair over her shoulder and returned to her letter writing. She could feel his
glare on her. 'Why don't you both go see how Colin's doing. I'm sure he'd like the company.'
'Come on, Caine. We've just been dismissed.'
Caine shook his head. 'Promise me you won't take needless risks again,' he ordered Jade. 'Then I'll leave.'
She immediately nodded. 'I promise.'
The anger seemed to drain out of him. He nodded, then leaned down to kiss her. She tried to dodge him. 'Nathan's here,' she whispered.
'Ignore him.'
Her face was bright red when he lifted his mouth away from hers. Her hands were shaking, too. 'I love you,' he whispered before he straightened up and followed Nathan out of the room.
Jade stared at the desktop a long while. Was it possible? Could he really love her? She had to quit thinking about it in order to calm the trembling in her hands. Richards and his friend wouldn't be able to read the letters otherwise. Besides, it didn't matter if he loved her or not. She still had to leave him. Didn't she?
Jade had worked herself into a fine state of nerves by the time dinner hour was over. Nathan had decided to eat his supper upstairs with Colin. She and Caine, and Sterns, of course, ate at the long table. They got into a heated debate about the separation between church and state. In the beginning, when Caine stated he was in favor of the separation wholeheartedly, she took the opposite opinion.
Yet when he deliberately argued the opposing view, she was just as vehement in her rebuttal.
It was a thoroughly invigorating argument. Sterns ended up acting as referee. The debate made Caine hungry again. He reached for the last slice of mutton only to have it snatched out of his reach by Sterns.
'I wanted that, Sterns,' Caine muttered. 'So did I, mi'lord,' the butler answered. He picked up his
utensils and proceeded to devour the food. Jade took sympathy on Caine and gave him half of her portion. Both Sterns and Caine looked at each other when the sudden pounding on the front doors
echoed through the room. Caine lost the staring contest. 'I'll get it,' he announced.
'As you wish, mi'lord,' Sterns agreed between bites of his mutton.
'Be careful,' Jade called out.
'It's all right,' Caine called back. 'No one could have gotten to the doors without my men noticing.'
A good ten minutes elapsed before Sterns finished his second cup of tea. 'I believe I shall go and see who's calling,' he told Jade.
'Perhaps it's Caine's papa.'
'No, mi'lady,' Sterns countered. 'I have ordered the Duke and Duchess to stay away. It would draw suspicion if they began to pay daily visits to their son.'
'You really ordered them?' she asked.
