When Jacob followed his sister downstairs and to the quickly arriving guests, he was prepared to keep a very watchful eye on her behavior. He needed to find out the identity of the man Amalie was sneaking off to see and warn him away. Jacob knew nothing could restore his sister’s lost purity, but he would do what was necessary to stop her falling victim to her own desires and possibly with a bastard child in her belly.
Following her throughout the evening, he took note of every man she spoke to, looking for any signs of familiarity. Nothing. All he saw was what looked to be practiced smiles and forced giggles. Whoever his sister was sneaking away to meet obviously wasn’t there tonight, or if he was, she was very good at keeping his identity hidden. Watching as Amalie now stood with Carter Dix, the man their father wanted to arrange a betrothal to, Jacob was astounded at how rehearsed her actions were. She looked almost as if she were acting in some play.
“I thought you might like a drink,” the silken voice of a woman said as she came to a stop beside him.
Jacob didn’t have to turn to see who it was. The way her words washed over him, he knew instinctively that it was Amanda Dix.
“If I have to watch much more of this, I may need several more,” he jested, taking the offered glass from her.
“Is it really going that bad?” she asked.
Taking a sip of his drink, he nodded. “Worse even. Every attempt your brother makes to get close to my sister, she just brushes him off with the greatest of ease.”
“So you don’t think Amalie has any remote interest in Carter?”
Jacob couldn’t help chuckling. “It’s not appearing that way. My father is not going to be impressed.”
Noticing Amanda glancing over her shoulder as if looking for someone, he raised his brow.
“Are you fearful someone will see us together?” he asked.
She shook her head, returning her attention to him. “There is a man following me tonight.”
Jacob smiled. “You’re a beautiful woman, Amanda, so it’s no surprise.”
Her hand rested on his forearm, squeezing it firmly. “I assure you, this man’s attentions are far from the norm.”
“You look scared,” he remarked, his hand resting on hers. “Has he hurt you?”
“No, but I fear that may be his intention.” Lifting her hand slightly, she pointed to her right. “That man there, the one with blond hair and dressed in an expensive suit, holding a glass of brandy. He’s been following me all night.”
“His name is Bastian Tanner,” Jacob told her. “I met him earlier today at the Brone station.”
“He’s been coming to the house, begging to see me, but I always refuse,” she went on to explain. “Still he continues, appearing almost desperate in his actions. And he doesn’t take no for an answer.”
“Amalie mentioned something similar to me earlier today when he came to call on her.”
“You must keep your sister away from him,” she said, her tone desperate. “There is something not right about that man.”
His thumb rubbed the back of her hand. “And what of you?” he asked. “I can’t just stand back and watch him scare you.”
Amanda squeezed his arm. “Nor can you confront him in here without drawing some much unwanted attention.”
Jacob knew she was right. “I could just tell Tristen about us and be done with it,” he suggested. “I would rather that than this continual secrecy.”
“We can tell him later. Together. Right now I need to get away from this place and from Bastian.”
He reluctantly removed his hands from her. “Go out to the old workers’ cottage. I will meet you there shortly.”
Nodding, she went to turn away, stopping when a servant came up to her and handed her a folded piece of paper. Amanda took it and, unfolding it, began to read.
“Is something wrong?” Jacob asked.
She shook her head. “Just some business I need to attend to tonight for my father. I will meet you shortly.”
Jacob watched Amanda sneak from the house in a similar manner as he’d watched his sister do many times. He should’ve already told Tristen about his relationship with Amanda, but it never seemed to be the right time. That said, when was the right time to tell your best friend that you’ve been sleeping with his fiancée? Shaking his head, he called himself a fool. These past few months Amanda had come to mean so much more to him than just a casual fling. She was his everything.
Turning his attention toward the crowd of guests, Jacob looked for Tristen. He had to come clean about the affair tonight. He doubted his friend would be too upset at any rate, not after his confession to carrying on a relationship with another woman. Spotting his friend, Jacob stepped toward him. Jacob thought if anything, his affair with Amanda would do Tristen a favor. At least now he would be free to pursue this woman he’d been sleeping with and seemed so very infatuated with.
As he neared his friend, he thought back to their conversation this morning. Whoever the woman was Tristen was seeing, she must be something special. In all the years they’d been friends, never had Jacob known Tristen to be so captivated by a woman, so much so that he was willing to risk everything for her. Jacob had watched all evening, but he’d seen no evidence that the young woman was there tonight. In fact, he had not seen Tristen go near any woman tonight.
No sooner did he think that than Tristen began to walk away from him. Following him at a quicker pace, Jacob watched as his best friend neared the drinks table where Amalie was standing. Tristen didn’t reach for a drink though. Who he reached out for, his fingers trailing along her bare arm, was Amalie. His gaze lifting, Jacob saw for the first time just how these two gazed at each other as if they were the only two people in the room. He had been a fool not to have seen it before.
When Tristen continued to walk past Amalie and out of the hall, Jacob quickened his steps. He reached for his sister’s arm just as she turned toward the exit.
“Jacob?” she asked, a concerned look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
He studied her, hurt that she would continue hiding something he saw with his own eyes. “When you left this afternoon, you weren’t just trying to avoid Bastian. You were going to meet Tristen, weren’t you?”
She tried to pull away from him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she uttered, fobbing off his accusation.
“Damn it, Amalie! I just saw you with him. I’m not a fool.”
Finally, she succeeded in pulling her arm free from his firm hold. “Will you keep your voice down!” she scolded him in a loud whisper. “You saw me talking to him, something you have seen many times.”
Jacob nodded. “Talking to him is one thing. Sleeping with him is something far different.”
“I don’t have to stand here and listen to this,” she huffed, about to turn away from him.
He wouldn’t relent. “Have you any idea the kind of man you’re getting involved with?” he asked.
“Who I choose to spend my time with is none of your business, Jacob.”
She tried to walk away from him, but he reached out, grabbing her arm and stopping her near the door that led outside.
“It is,” he insisted. “Especially when you’re sleeping with an engaged man!”
She pulled her arm away. “I’ve known about Amanda for months,” she uttered, her eyes averted from her brother’s.
He eyed her carefully. “How can you sleep with Tristen knowing he’s engaged to another woman?”
Her gaze returned to him. “The same way you can sleep with Amanda knowing she’s betrothed to your best friend.”
He averted his eyes from her, not ready to have this conversation. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw you with her, Jacob.”
Silence fell between them, their stares joined as if daring the other to talk. Jacob didn’t want to argue with his sister, but he couldn’t deny his need to protect her either.
“A message for you, sir,” a servant interrupted from beside him, a folded note in his hand.
Taking it, Jacob opened it and read the message. “It’s from Tristen. He wants to meet with me outside near the workers’ cottage. Apparently, we need to talk.” He raised his gaze to his sister. “I would assume this is about you?”
She stepped away from him. “We agreed to talk to you together after tonight’s gathering. We thought if we were to see you together, you would be less judgmental.”
Folding the note back up, Jacob placed it in his pocket. “I don’t want you seeing Tristen again,” he ordered her. “Think about it, Amalie. If he can sleep with you while he’s engaged to another, what’s to stop him from casting you aside when he’s had his fill of you?”
She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. “I love him,” she uttered, her words laced with tears.
Jacob knew what he said hurt her, but he could think of no other way to make her understand the consequences to such an affair. “And how can you be sure he even wants your love?” he asked.
Lifting her hand to her face, she wiped the single tear that had fallen down her cheek. She stepped back from her brother and went to leave the hall, but Jacob reached for her elbow, stopping her.
“You’re still going to meet him, aren’t you?”
She nodded.
“But why?” he asked, amazed by her persistence to disobey him.
She let out a shaky sigh. “I’m pregnant, Jacob.”
Her words came as such a shock to him, his hand fell away from her and he took a step back. Watching as she hurried from the hall, he couldn’t help but wonder what was to become of his family now. His father had already dwindled away most of the finances, and now his only sister was unwedded and with child.
They were ruined.
* * * *
Tristen walked out of the hall and toward the old workers’ cottage. It had been bold of him to approach Amalie as he had, but he could keep his distance from her no longer. It had been torture watching her with Carter, hanging on his every word. Enough was enough. That was why he’d gone to her, begging her to meet him outside as soon as she could safely sneak away. He needed to tell her how he felt about her, and convince her that they needed to tell both Jacob and her father the truth about their relationship.
There was more though. He had to tell Amalie about Amanda and pray she understood he had no choice in the engagement. He needed her to understand that it was her he wanted to marry and no one else.
“You really have a nerve,” he heard Jacob’s gruff tone behind him. “I saw you inside with my sister. Now tell me what the hell is going on between you two.”
Tristen took a deep breath. This wasn’t how he wanted to do this, but he knew Jacob wouldn’t let him escape without some kind of explanation. Turning around slowly, he faced his friend.
“Amalie is the woman I told you about this morning,” he finally confessed, the words feeling heavy as he spoke them.
Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “You’re sleeping with my sister and you never thought to tell me?”
“It’s not like that,” Tristen tried desperately to explain. “I wanted to tell you. We wanted to, but we were frightened how you would react. Amalie didn’t want to lose her brother, and I didn’t want to lose my best friend.”
Jacob clenched his jaw, and Tristen could see the anger filling his face.
“That’s why you saw me with her a few moments ago. I asked her to meet me out here so we could figure out how to tell you and your father the truth about our relationship,” he explained quickly.
“So why tell us now?” Jacob asked. “You’ve kept this affair a secret for so long, why unveil it now?”
Tristen’s hands went to his hips as he let out a heavy sigh. “I was watching Amalie in the hall with Carter. It tore me up inside. I know if I don’t do something soon, then your father will sell her off to one of the eager men he keeps bringing home to meet her.”
“You can’t bear the thought of my sister being engaged to another, yet you already are,” Jacob scoffed.
“Then help me change that.”
“You are mad,” Jacob told him. “And exactly what am I supposed to do? Put a good word in for you with my father?”
Tristen didn’t reply, only gave his friend a hopeful look.
Jacob shook his head. “I won’t do it. I can’t do it.”
“Please,” Tristen begged him. “Maybe if you talked to him, explained about Amalie and me. He will listen to you.”
“Not about this he won’t,” Jacob stated. “My father needs Amalie to marry for money and profit to save the business. He won’t change his mind because you’ve been sleeping with her. All that will achieve is shaming my sister and most likely banishing her to some convent somewhere.”
“Damn it!” Tristen cursed. “There has to be a way I can explain how much Amalie means to me without disgracing her in your father’s eyes.”
“Is this why you sent for me to join you out here?” Jacob asked. “Did you think I would have the answers for you?”
Tristen was confused. “I never sent for you. The only person I asked to meet me out here was Amalie.”
Jacob pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to Tristen. “Are you saying you didn’t send me this?”
Tristen took the piece of paper and glanced down at it. Shaking his head, his gaze shifted back to his friend. “I didn’t write this.”
“Then who did? And why would they put your name on it?”
The two men stared at each other, both confused. Tristen didn’t know how to answer Jacob. All he could tell him was the truth about Amalie.
“I love her,” he confessed, his words soft and heartfelt as he folded the note he was holding and placed it in his trouser pocket. “She is everything to me.”
“Amalie’s pregnant,” Jacob said.
“What?” Tristen asked, shocked by what he was hearing.
“You’ve been sleeping together for eight months, a baby is hardly a surprise,” Jacob stated.
Tristen knew what his friend said was true, but still...a baby? Why had she not told him yet?
“I can try to talk to my father for you,” Jacob finally relented, interrupting his thoughts. “Besides, I can think of worse brother-in-laws to have than you.”
Tristen smiled. “I’m going to be a father.”
Jacob nodded. “It appears that way.”
Just then a blood-curdling scream came from inside the workers’ cottage a few yards from where they were standing.
“What the devil?” Tristen asked as he and Jacob ran toward the building.
“Jacob, help me!” the woman’s voice yelled from inside.
“Oh my God, that’s Amanda!” Jacob exclaimed.
Tristen ran with his friend to the front door of the building. “Why would she be calling for you?”
Jacob stopped at the door. “You’re not the only one who has been keeping secrets,” he confessed, opening the already slightly open door and stepping inside.
Following his friend inside, Tristen wanted to ask exactly what he meant by that. But the smoke drifting toward him on the air made the words die on his lips.
“We need to find her and get her out of here,” Jacob exclaimed as he rushed into the smoke.
Tristen reached for his shoulder, pulling him back. “Take it easy, mate. You have no idea what is in there or where the smoke is coming from.”
Hearing Amanda scream again, Jacob pulled away from him and ran into the smoke. Tristen followed, close on his heels. As the smoke got thicker, he quickly lost sight of his friend.
“Jacob!” he yelled, knowing they had to get clear of this building before the fire took over. He heard no reply.
His pace slowing slightly, he lifted his shirt over his nose and mouth to protect him from the thick smoke. Just up ahead he could hear the crackling of flames, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before this building, and anything around it, went up in flames. He didn’t want to be in there when that happened. Tristen had so much to live for now. Amalie and he were going to have a baby.
“Tristen!” he heard Jacob yell to him, and he could only hope he was getting closer to him.
Looking down at the floor, he saw the unmoving body of a woman. “Amanda?” he asked, kneeling down beside her to see how badly she’d been hurt. The smoke was too thick for him to see anything though. Dragging her toward him, he placed his hands under her arms and tried to move her out of the smoke and toward the exit.
“Help me, Tristen,” Jacob’s ragged voice yelled to him.
Laying Amanda down where the smoke was thinner, he went back into the fog to look for his friend. He saw a bloodied hand lying on the floor.
“I’ve got you.” Tristen coughed, the level of smoke now making it extremely hard to breathe.
He tried to lift Jacob’s arm up to drag him over to Amanda, but Tristen was rapidly losing strength and collapsed under the weight. He held both of Jacob’s bloodied wrists and tried to drag him that way. He succeeded in getting him to where Amanda was still lying unconscious on the floor of the building.
“Help me!” he yelled in the direction of the door, hoping that by now someone had noticed the burning building and gone for help.
Loud popping and breaking sounds began surrounding him; a few at first, but with each second there were more and more. Feeling a slicing pain on his arm, he looked down to see a jagged piece of glass sticking out of his now bloodied flesh. The fire must have reached the alcohol bottles stored in the cottage. He needed to get Amanda, Jacob, and himself out of there now.
More explosions; this time closer. Jagged pieces of glass were flying through the air everywhere around him. Tristen tried to shield himself, but it was no use. He could feel the pain as they cut his skin—his face, his chest, his arms. The flames were getting closer, the smoke so thick now he couldn’t even see the door. Hearing a loud creak coming from the ceiling, he looked up to see a cloud of flames engulfing the timber support beams.
“Help!” he yelled again, but it barely came out a whisper, his voice so thick with smoke.
A snapping sound from the support beams alarmed him, and he tried to see what was happening, but he couldn’t see anything. He felt a thudding pain as something hit him on the back. Excruciating pain shot through him both from the impact and the flames now burning his clothing and licking at his skin. He stumbled across the floor, his strength leaving him. When he heard the echo of what he thought—hoped—were voices far away, he made one last lunge in the direction of them before he fell to the ground and everything went black.