Once and Always @FOREVER.

Chapter Twenty six.

VICTORIA LEFT FOR LONDON VERY early the next morning and started back to Wakefield at dusk. Cradled lovingly in her hands was the object she'd seen in a shop when she first came to the city weeks ago. It had reminded her of Jason then, but it had looked terribly expensive, and besides, it wouldn't have been proper to buy him a gift at that time. The memory of it had lingered in her mind all these weeks, nagging at her, until she was afraid to wait any longer and risk having it sold to someone else.

She had no idea when she would give it to him; certainly not now, when things were so hostile between them—but soon. She shuddered at the recollection of its price. Jason had given her an outrageously huge allowance, which she had scarcely touched, but the gift had cost every shilling of it, plus a good deal more, which the proprietor of the exclusive little shop was more than happy to put on the account that he eagerly opened in the name of the Marchioness of Wakefield.

"His lordship is in his study," Northrup advised Victoria as he opened the front door.

"Does he want to see me?" Victoria asked, puzzled by Northrup's quick, unsolicited information on Jason's whereabouts.

"I don't know, my lady," Northrup replied uncomfortably. "But he has . . . er . . . been inquiring whether you were home yet."

Victoria looked at Northrup's harassed expression and remembered Jason's anxiety when she had disappeared for an afternoon to Captain Farrell's. Since her trip to London had taken twice as long as it would have had she remembered the exact location of the shop, she assumed that Northrup had been called up on the firing line again by Jason.

"How many times has he inquired?" she asked.

"Three," Northrup replied. "In the last hour."

"I see," Victoria said with an understanding smile, but she felt absurdly pleased to know Jason had thought about her.

After allowing Northrup to divest her of her pelisse, she went to Jason's study. Unable to knock with the gift in her hands, she turned the handle and put her shoulder gently to the door. Instead of working at his desk where she expected him to be, Jason was standing at the window, his shoulder propped against the frame, his expression bleak as he gazed out across the terraced lawns at the side of the house. He glanced around at the first sound of her approach and instantly straightened.

"You're back," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Didn't you think I would be?" Victoria asked, scanning his features.

He shrugged wearily. "Frankly, I have no idea what you're going to do from one moment to the next."

Considering her actions of late, Victoria could understand why he must think her the most impulsive, unpredictable female alive. Yesterday alone she had treated him flirtatiously, tenderly, and then furiously walked out on him in the drawing room. And now she had an insane urge to put her arms around him and ask him to forgive her. Rather than do that and risk another cutting rejection like the last, she quelled the urge and instead reversed her earlier decision and decided to give him the gift now. "There was something I had to buy in London," she said brightly, showing him the wrapped package in her hands. "I saw it weeks ago, only I didn't have enough money."

"You should have asked me for it," he said, already heading toward his desk with the obvious intention of burying himself in work again.

Victoria shook her head. "I couldn't very well ask you for money when the thing I wished to buy was for you. Here," she said, holding out her hands. "It's for you."

Jason stopped in his tracks and looked at the oblong object wrapped in silver paper. "What?" he said blankly, as if she had spoken words he didn't understand.