She nodded. “We’re triplets and the whispers about a stronger connection are, I think, true. Once when she fell off the rail of a roof and badly hurt her ankle, my own ankle hurt for days.”

His eyes widened. “I have many questions about that, including why your sister was walking the rail of a roof.”

“Our reckless Anne,” she answered with a smile. “Your scandal was not her first, I assure you.”

There was a ghost of a smile on his face, but then he waved his hand. “Do you think you feel this physical connection to her still?”

“Not as strongly since we’ve gotten older,” she admitted, trying to ignore the sadness that came along with that loss. “I know she is alive, though.”

He drew back with a sharp intake of breath. “Of course she is alive, Thomasina!”

She bent her head. “You could not be sure of that. We don’t know anything about the kind of man who would take her when her engagement was so public. I wish I could understand what kind of villain wouldn’t press his case in a more gentlemanly way. But I cannot fathom his motives or what she is enduring. Neither of us can because neither of us have laid eyes on the man to see what kind of person he is.”

Jasper’s lips tightened. “I suppose that is correct.”

She shivered. “I may be naïve, but the fact that my sister is in danger is no mystery. But I would know if she were dead. I know I would.”

Her voice broke, and she reached back to support herself on the arm of the nearest chair as all her fear mobbed her for the first time. She bent her head, trying to control her breath, trying to tame that terror once more.

He stepped forward and his arms folded around her. The fear dissipated with his touch and she sank into him, taking the strength he silently offered. The connection and the bond that she desired so greatly. She needed those things now, perhaps more than was prudent given the circumstances of their marriage.

But that didn’t change the facts. Nor her feelings.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair as he stroked his hands along her back. “I’m so sorry.”

She lifted her gaze to his. “You needn’t be sorry. Anne’s foolish decisions have nothing to do with you. You were their victim, more even than me. It could make you unkind, but here you are…and you are more than generous to me.”

His body tensed and he released her, pacing away as he ran a hand through his hair. “I doubt many others would accuse me of generosity.”

There was a harshness to his tone now. Not directed at her, but himself. As if he needed punishment for something.

“Well, perhaps they do not know you,” she said. “If they did, they couldn’t say anything less.”

“You ought not see me so highly, Thomasina,” he muttered.

She felt him pulling away, easing back toward his desk. If he reached it, she believed he would put her off and the conversation would end. She couldn’t let it happen. Not yet. “I must say that I fear what will happen when we go to London. It will be harder to track Anne from so far away.”