An Earnest Favour

VII

"She has craters you didn't create and darkness you don't deserve. She's as stunning as the moon on a cloudless night, but it may take millennia for her to find and manifest her own internal sunlight." Curtis Tyrone Jones

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VII.

Jack had started away from Claire, but something inside him was pushing him to turn around. Perhaps it was his conscience worrying over the fact that he had said something unintentionally rude. And the minute he had, he saw Claire scampering away into the woods, and not toward the forge as she had claimed.

She had lied to him.

The very notion unsettled him greatly. Jack wondered in the moment, perhaps, if that was hypocritical of him, considering that they, together, were lying to both of their families.

But they were not lying to each other.

Jack followed Claire quietly, hesitantly curious as to what might have persuaded her to attempt to deceive him. When accosted with the sight of his fiancée in the arms of another man, Jack realised that he should have been able to guess her motive.

He stood frozen, hidden by brush, watching as a man he recognised ravished Claire. She was not an unwilling participant. How ... how dare she? How dare he? Who was he? Jack knew him. What was his name? Where did Jack know him from?

When the man pulled away from Claire, Jack was about to intervene, shout something, do anything, but his legs would not move. He didn't know quite what he was feeling in that moment, but a burning fury was igniting in his belly.

"I'd wager your fiancé doesn't kiss you like that."

The man's words were cold, taunting, and possessive, like those of a scorned lover, and Jack knew for certain that this blackguard was responsible for Claire's condition.

He was responsible ... he had left her ... he had made her cry ... and yet she still went to him? What wicked spell had this lout cast upon Claire?

"What do you want?" Claire asked, her voice as soft and hesitant. Jack watched as she looked up at him in an attempt to be brave.

Lord, he wanted to go to her, to take her, but he needed to see this. He needed to see what hold this man had over her. Claire was entirely at his mercy.

His voice whipped her like a cat o nine tails, as he seethed, "How dare you! How dare you flit into bed with another man."

Shock filled Claire's face at the false accusation. She was silent, and Jack yearned to know what she was thinking.

But he continued. "I don't think I meant it before, but I can see now that I was right. You would open your legs for anyone. Only, don't you know the stories, Claire? Don't you know his reputation?"

In and amongst his fury at hearing such an accusation made, Jack suddenly remembered where he had last seen this man. The winter ball three years earlier. It was where he had first met Claire ... and he was the man to claim her for the dance after Jack. He could remember seeing the look of elation on Claire's face as he accepted defeat and stepped away from her. This was the man she had spurned him for, if that was what it could be called.

Was this how long their tryst had been going on? This man had spent three years seducing an innocent young woman, only to leave her when it mattered?

"I ... I never," stammered Claire. Her voice was frightened, fragile, and filled with emotion. "What do you want from me? You sent me away. You laughed at me. You broke my heart!" Her voice finally cracked, shattered. "You fooled me into thinking you loved me. I thought you would marry me, but you left me. Arthur, you are dishonourable."