“It is because I love you that I want to protect you. I won’t make you live in Navartania with me. I won’t make you an outcast from the family you hold dear.”
His tenderness was unmistakable, but she could also tell he was deadly serious. Sophie’s heart tensed in fear as she continued to stare at him. She should have expected this quixotic reversal from Jack. His bone-deep protective nature would allow him no other course. He was thinking of her, trying to shelter her from pain. And she loved him all the more for it.
Even so, she felt her panic rise. “Jack, there is no need for second thoughts. We could be married by special license tomorrow—”
“No, love. We cannot. We can’t marry unless we first resolve the conflict with your father and gain his permission.”
As his eyes burned through her, Sophie felt desperation, even anger, welling up inside her. “You are utterly infuriating, do you know that? What happened to the rogue who climbed through my bedroom window, intending to seduce me? The rebel who abducted me and carted me halfway across France? The one who faced his despised father so that he could offer my father a distinguished title?”
Jack’s silence made her want to scream. She’d been certain that her parents would be the greatest obstacle, but it now seemed that Jack intended to quit fighting for her. She would never know love and passion with him.
Watching the struggle on her face, Jack felt a powerful wave of remorse and longed to console her. But he forced himself to ignore the urge. Only an hour ago, when he’d seen Sophie with her parents, the realization had struck him with unrelenting force, what she would be giving up for him if he insisted on following their plan.
“So you are refusing to marry me?” she asked hoarsely.
“Sophie … yes.” If they wed, her whole life would change, much for the worse. He wouldn’t be the cause of a break with her parents. Being cast out from her family would hurt her too much. In fact, knowing Sophie, it would devastate her.
He wouldn’t let her make that sacrifice. Because he loved her. Because he cared so much.
Evidently Sophie wasn’t giving up trying to persuade him, however, for she took another tack. “Jack … please, we are meant for each other. You know we are.”
“Like the lovers in a Shakespearean tragedy?” he replied, purposely hardening his tone.
“Yes.”
He gave a humorless smile. “This is the point in the play where Romeo gets killed and Juliet takes poison, you realize.”
Her expression held hurt. “This is no laughing matter, Jack.”
“I didn’t intend it to be.”
She looked despairing.
“Sophie … love …” He started to take her face in his hands, but she stepped back, out of reach.
“Please don’t call me your love,” she reproached him more in grief than anger. “You clearly don’t mean it.”
On the contrary, he loved her deeply, Jack countered silently. And he was overjoyed to think she felt the same love for him. The emotion flooding his heart just now was as powerful as he’d ever felt before. The incontrovertible truth was that wanting to be with Sophie had become a basic tenet of his life, like needing to breathe.
But his mother had followed her heart and look what it had cost her. He wasn’t going to subject Sophie to that uncertain fate, despite the despairing way she was looking at him now. She held his gaze, practically trembling, as if her heart were breaking.
They were at an impossible impasse, but he wouldn’t give way, Jack vowed. All this time he’d been selfishly focused on what he wanted, solely concerned about what he felt. But he had to do what was best for Sophie. He had to put her welfare first.
“Let me escort you out to your carriage,” he said, taking her elbow to steer her toward the study door.
Her chin stiffened. “I am not returning home, Jack.”
“You cannot remain here.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is a bachelor’s establishment. You well know the scandal that would cause—”
“Now you have suddenly developed a sense of propriety?” she demanded.
“—and the pain it would give your mother.”
He could tell the reminder had struck a nerve, just as he’d intended, for Sophie’s eyes suddenly went bright with tears.