“You’ll do me this favor,” Jacob said, the smell of liquor rolling off him. “Won’t you?”

The dark servants’ quarters of Sandston Manor were unusually quiet. Henry, Jacob’s younger brother, was due home at any moment, and the staff should have been hurrying back and forth, but only Jacob and a maid, Rachel, stood close to each other. Rachel counted the planks of wood on a table where she usually took her meals, eager to ignore him but knowing that to do so would only enrage him.

“You’re drunk,” Rachel answered, daring to look into his eyes.

“I’m aware of what I am,” he ground out, his hands gripping her arms a touch too harshly. “But you’ll do as I say.”

“Why? Because we can’t be together, you want to ruin them. It’s not right.”

“It’s not right that he was born after me and doesn’t inherit any of my responsibilities. It’s not right that he was never beat so severely he couldn’t walk for weeks. It’s not right that our father should love him more than me.”

“Jacob,” Rachel said, tears forming in her eyes. “Please don’t do this.”

“It isn’t right you’re in this condition and I can’t do what I should. Aren’t you even the littlest bit angry at this whole situation?”

“Of course I am, but to ruin them because of our problem… I’m married, Jacob. It’s not going to be a scandal. For heaven’s sake, what do you want to do? What do you think can be done? Ruining them because of your frustration is not right.”

Jacob’s hands went to her cheeks, pressing hard as if trying to make her see his way.

“Don’t talk to me about what’s right,” he bit out in anger. “Now tell me what you are going to say.”

Tears spilled over her cheeks.

“They’ve been having an affair for months now, Master Henry,” Rachel said in defeat, repeating the words Jacob had forced her to memorize. “I’ve seen them together on several occasions.”

“Good girl,” Jacob said, his eyes menacing as they flashed to the sudden noise of a closet door. In two strides, Jacob reached the door, wrenched it open, and grabbed a young boy by his collar. “What the bloody hell are you doing in here, boy?”

“Mama!” the child cried as Rachel came up behind Jacob, pulling at his arm.

“You’re hurting him, Jacob!” Rachel yelled. “Let him go!”

Jacob dropped the crying boy, and he fell to the floor with a soft thud. Rachel dropped to her knees and gathered the whimpering boy to her chest as she watched Jacob stumble out of the servants’ quarters.

* * * * *

Felicia Evans sat in the sitting room, waiting for Henry to arrive. Her nerves were on edge as she tried to read the book she held in her hands. There was no helping it. She had read the same paragraph three times, and she couldn’t recall what she was reading. The words refused to stick in her head.

Exhaling with excitement, she thought that, at any moment, her beloved Henry would return from Cambridge, and though she wasn’t the type to speculate, she was almost positive he was going to ask her to marry him.

A shaky smile curved her lips as she thought about it. Their love was something out of a fairytale. She, the daughter of the caretaker to Sandston Manor, and he, the second son of the Viscount De Sunders, madly in love with each other and blessed enough to be together. Henry’s father was a cold man, but because Henry wasn’t inheriting the title, he was free to choose anyone he wished to marry, and he had chosen her.

Her toes curled in her satin slippers, her excitement unbearable. She was so happy and eager she hardly realized someone had joined her in her solitude.

“My, Felicia,” Jacob said, walking into the room. “Might I say you look quite beautiful tonight?”

“Good evening, Jacob,” she responded, not bothering to look up from her book. She always felt uncomfortable around Henry’s brother. “And thank you.”

“Have you dressed yourself so ravishingly for my brother’s return?”

A warning flashed through her mind as she looked up.

Jacob had the same cold eyes as his father, flat and gray. He shared Henry’s coloring but was hardly the handsomer of the brothers. This night he had the look of loathing in his eyes, and from the disheveled look of his clothes, he might have been drunk.

Closing her book, Felicia stood up.

“Has Henry returned yet?”

“Patience, dove, patience,” he said, coming towards her. Too close, Felicia’s heart sounded. He was standing too close. “You know, I often wondered what Henry saw in you. Your beauty is a true gift, but you lack something I think he would prefer in a wife.”

“Which is?”

“A sense of passion.”

Felicia’s skin became terribly cold as her heart began to beat in warning. She wasn’t sure what he was up to just then but knew it was something dangerous.

“Please, Jacob. I don’t think—”

It happened so quickly Felicia wondered how he had managed to grab her with one hand holding both of her wrists behind her back.

“Don’t think what, dove? That you have it in you?”

“Are you mad? Let go of me!”

She fought considerably, managing to knock over a crystal brandy bottle in her struggle.

“Easy, dove,” he rasped. “I just want to make sure my brother has the best little country wench this bloody place has to offer. Sampling you is my brotherly duty.”

“Let go—”

His frigid, hard mouth crashed into hers, forcing her to open her lips. Panicked, Felicia struggled harder, twisting her arms until her hands found his chest. She tried with all her might to throw him off her, but his grip tightened, forcing her to still. Not knowing what else to do, she bit down hard on his lip.

He ripped his mouth from hers, still not letting go of her hands. Instead, he bent down toward her ear and whispered harshly, “Fierce little whore, aren’t you? I might be able to find some use for you now that my brother won’t have you.”

“Felicia?”

Finally, Jacob released her. She stumbled as she turned around, seeing Henry, his father, and a scullery maid known as Rachel all standing in the doorway.

“Henry!” she cried, running to him, only to have him raise his hand to stop her. “Henry—”

“Stop.”

“Henry, I—”

“Little brother, how blind you are. Your little chit here has been, how should I say, frequenting my bed for months now.” Henry’s eyes locked onto Felicia’s as tears fell down her cheeks. “Just now she tried to convince me to keep quiet. Told me she would do anything if I kept our affair hidden from you. Of course—” He looked around the room in search of something. “—I told her I couldn’t keep such a thing from you. She started to cry and, well, tried to convince me of her promise to make it worth my while.”

Felicia was barely able to breathe when Jacob finished his lie. Her eyes were on Henry, pleading that he didn’t believe his brother.

“Is this true, Felicia?” Henry asked.

“Of course it’s true,” Jacob chimed. “Rachel has seen us before, countless times. Isn’t that right, Rachel?”

Felicia looked at the maid. Her eyes seemed to be red from crying, and she had grown considerably in the last few months. She was pregnant with her second child, Felicia recalled, as she looked at the woman who seemed to hold the people in the room in anticipation. Her shoulders slumped as she looked to the floor.

“It’s true,” Rachel said in a meek voice. “They’ve been having an affair for months now, Master Henry. I’ve seen them together on several occasions.”

“That’s not true!” Felicia cried in horror. “Tell him that’s a lie—”

“Hush, you screeching harlot,” Henry’s father barked. “Henry my boy, whom are you going to believe? Your own flesh and blood or this country strumpet? There’s even a witness!”

“It’s not true, Henry,” Felicia cried. “I love you.”

But he turned his back and, without even a look, left the room and Sandston that night. Her banishment came through the post the next day. Felicia was to be removed from the property to find a life elsewhere or her father would be sacked.

Broken in more ways than she’d ever believed she could be, Felicia left Sandston the next day.