because I am soon to be your king, but because I am Harriet’s older brother and I care very deeply about what happens to her.”
Jacob felt that damned cravat-noose tighten once more.
But he held the prince’s gaze, refusing to drop his own.
“Do you love her?”
The question brought his heart to a dead stop.
He waited eons before answering, trying to weigh up what to say and how to say it.
In the end, he knew only honesty would do.
“I do,” he said simply, but with feeling. “Desperately.”
He expected the prince to throw him in the dungeon. Maybe challenge him to a duel. At least land him a facer.
To Jacob’s surprise, however, the other man merely smiled.
“And that is why you are the only one who can carry out this assignment,” he said. “Because what I said is true. Harriet cannot go to England with just a guard. But she can go with a husband.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harriet sank to the floor with a sigh.
It was ridiculous that she’d stayed here this long hoping to catch a glimpse of Jacob when he left again.
This was precisely why she needed to get out of Aldonia for a time.
She needed to put an ocean between herself and the memories of Jacob.
Oh, but she’d miss him.
The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted her maudlin thoughts, and she looked up to see Jacob striding toward her.
With a gasp, she sprang to her feet, hastily straightening her pale pink skirts.
He kept coming until he was only inches from her, his jaw clenched, his eyes blazing with the brightest blue flame.
“Jacob.” Her voice was breathless, but there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. “A-are you well?” she asked when he didn’t speak.
“I’ve just been in a meeting with your brother,” he said by way of answer. “He tells me you desire to travel to England.”
Harriet rolled her eyes.
“Did he also tell you that I’m going to go whether he ‘allows’ it or not?” she bit out.
Truly, if he was here to lecture her just as Christopher and her father had done, then he could turn around and march right back out.
“He did, as it happens,” Jacob answered.
“Oh.” She blinked. “Well, good.”
“You know, I have been in some of the most dangerous situations you could possibly imagine throughout my career working for your brother,” he said conversationally.
She was surprised at the change in direction of the conversation, so she just stared at him.
“I’ve been stabbed, shot, beaten to a bloody pulp.”
Harriet gasped at the horror of what he was saying.
“None of them have given me as much heartache as having to take care of you.”
Well! That was just downright insulting.
She narrowed her eyes at him, then clenched her teeth as his grin made an appearance.
“And now, I’m told I’ll have to do it all over again.”
She’d been working up to delivering a set down of epic proportions, so it took a moment for his words to sink in.
“Wait. You – what?” she asked.
“The prince has just informed me that my next assignment is to escort you to England. Deliver you safely to your brother.”
“Deliver me safely?” she asked hotly. “As though I am some package to be sent on the mail boat? How dare you? How dare he?”
Jacob leaned back against the glass, folding his arms and crossing his feet as though settling in to listen to her rant.
“When are you—all of you—going to get it through your stupid, overbearing heads that I am a woman grown? That I am perfectly capable of making my own plans and my own journeys. I don’t need Christopher telling me what to do. And I don’t need an overprotective, irritating, immature guard, for that matter.”
To her horror, she felt tears spring into her eyes.
She’d been so happy to see him, yet nothing had changed.
He’d told her he loved her, but still he was treating her as nothing more than an assignment.
It was too badly done.
“I agree.”
His words took her by surprise and stopped her ever-worsening thoughts on the spot.
“You – agree?” she repeated.
“I agree,” he said again. “And what’s more, your brother agrees.”
Harriet could only stare at him while her brain tried to catch up.
“So then—you’re not to come?”
It was foolish in the extreme to be saddened by this. Especially because only moments ago she’d been ranting and raving about having him as her guard.
But the disappointment was acute.
“Sweetheart.” He stepped closer, causing her heart to flutter alarmingly. “Your brother knows you well enough to know you’ll go to England whether he allows it