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what Cyrus saw there, Jasper could not be sure. What he was sure of was the man’s face turned dangerous, darkness clouding his features.
    “What’re you staring at?”
    Jasper got to his feet slowly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other laborers making hastily for the kitchen, before they could get caught in whatever this was, and Jasper knew he should duck his head, mutter an apology, and follow them. He most certainly shouldn’t answer, but the blood was roaring in his ears and he could not bear the thought of Clara shackled to this man. A man who talked over her words, who looked at the farm she maintained and could only tell her what she was doing wrong.
    “Clara’s quite competent,” he said, keeping his speech as neutral as he could. He had been listening to the other laborers as they spoke amongst themselves during the days. He tried to mimic the accent now.
    “She’s an exemplary woman,” Cyrus said slowly. He had not expected this. Perhaps he was thinking Jasper would challenge him.
    “I don’t think you do,” Jasper said simply. “See that you treat her with respect.”
    It was too far—much too far.
    Cyrus’s face closed off. “You see that you learn your place,” he said, his voice low and ugly. “Whatever delusions you might have, Clara is a lady. She won’t marry some field worker.”
    He strode away to where Clara waited by the barn, her eyes flicking between the two of them. She studied Jasper for a moment, blue eyes grave, and he had the ridiculous urge to ask her to walk with him instead of this well-heeled suitor of hers.
    But he did know his place. He said nothing at all, and he watched her duck her head and turn away, slipping her hands once more into the crook of another man’s arm.

Chapter 6
    “I must say,” Cyrus said, as they walked. “That new worker of yours...”
    “Mmm?” Clara was looking over the fields, trying to imagine herself anywhere else. Every time he visited, Cyrus came closer to asking Clara outright if he might court her, and she worried what she might say—all the more so now that she knew it was his love she feared.
    The new realization did not sit quietly with her. She should make sense of it and dismiss it, she knew, but her mind with all its quick words and logic could not seem to overrule her heart. She told herself that there was an understanding between them, and that there was no way to back away from the courtship now. All was as it should be, she said sternly to herself as she lay in bed. Cyrus Dupont was a good man and she was lucky to have his regard.
    All she felt was panic. In choosing not to call on him, she had bared her heart to herself, and she could not forget what she had learned.
    “Are you quite sure he’s trustworthy?”
    “What?” Clara came back to reality with a jolt. Fool , her mind said. She should have realized earlier what Cyrus meant. If he realized what Jasper was...
    “He said some very insolent things to me,” Cyrus said, leaning down as if to share a confidence.
    “What did he say?” Clara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. No one was nearby, and there was certainly no reason for Cyrus to pull her a little closer as he talked.
    “Oh, I don’t want to trouble you with it.” Cyrus patted her hand.
    Then why did you mention it ? Clara wanted to ask. “What did he say?” She demanded instead. She stopped dead in her tracks, stubbornly and tried not to smile when Cyrus was jerked to a stop as well. Annoyance with Cyrus was far easier to bear than panic at her own unruly emotions.  “Cyrus.”
    “Don’t worry yourself,” Cyrus said infuriatingly. “I’ll get rid of him for you.”
    “We need him,” Clara said precisely, “for the harvest.”
    And for his smile, and for the way—
    She took a deep breath. Apparently her heart, not content to reject a perfectly good man, was determined to set itself on precisely the wrong one. Perhaps she was going mad.
    “Clara, you know I would help with the