by Matilda Hart
“I will do my best to be present, Mama,” he assured his parent, taking a roll and spreading it lavishly with butter and marmalade.
Juliana watched, fascinated, as he bit into the roll, and licked the excess marmalade off his lips. She lowered her eyes at the way the sight made her body burn. Taking another heartening sip of tea, she kept her eyes glued to her plate, and though she had lost her appetite, she forced herself to finish the roll, and to take some oatmeal with sweet cream, the most she felt she could handle. Spooning the creamy porridge into her mouth gave her a reason not to look anywhere but at her bowl, until she was addressed.
“Juliana, will you accompany me on a walk after breakfast? I am expecting a caller in the early afternoon,” Deborah said, turning to her.
“Of course, Deborah,” she replied immediately, glad that she had not been caught woolgathering.
Chapter 4
Breakfast ended at last, and though the Duke was still finishing a last cup of coffee, Deborah pulled Juliana with her out into the bright midday sunshine.
“There is much I need to tell you, and I wished to do so away from the house and any unexpected listeners,” she said, taking Juliana’s arm and strolling down to the rose garden.
“Is it a secret, what you wish to tell me?”
Juliana hated secrets. They required too much effort, not just to keep them, but to pretend one did not even know about them.
“I suppose it is,” Deborah said, “because Gray doesn’t know about it.”
Juliana held her breath for a second, then let it out slowly, to calm herself. The last thing she wanted to know was secrets about Gray Wingrove. But she could not very well tell her sister so, for fear she was asked why she cared, and had to provide an answer. She had a feeling Deborah would not be pleased to know about her reactions to the duke. She kept a prudent silence, and waited for her sister to continue.
“Lady Eleanor wishes Gray to marry,” Deborah began, “and so far, he has not been receptive to any of the women to whom she has introduced him.” She paused for a moment, as though she were deciding what next to reveal, and then she continued. “I was not pleased that she did not immediately suggest me to him, but then recently, she asked me if I could bear to be married to the younger son, after having enjoyed the older one. I was thrilled.”
Juliana cringed at the squeal of delight that Deborah let loose in her ear.
“So, you are to marry the Duke of Pennyton, again?” she asked, being careful to keep her tone neutral.
“That is my plan, one with which his mother is in complete agreement. But there is a catch.”
Juliana asked the question. “And what is that?”
“He doesn’t wish to marry anyone. And he has shown no interest in me whatsoever. It is driving his mother mad!”
“Not to mention you, I have no doubt,” Juliana said dryly.
Deborah cast her a sharp glance. “Don’t be snide, Juliana. It doesn’t suit you! Of course it is driving me mad! And this is why I will need your help.”
Juliana tensed, though she kept walking. She did not like where the conversation was going, but she would wait until Deborah had shown all her cards before refusing, as she knew she should.
“Go on. I’m listening,” she said.
Deborah pouted. “You are being difficult, Juliana, and I cannot understand why.”
“How am I being difficult, Sister?” Juliana asked. “I have just asked you to go ahead and tell me this plan.”
“I fear you are secretly mocking me,” Deborah complained. “You think yourself above the marriage mart, and superior to women like me who want a husband. I know it well. You yourself have no interest in or desire to marry. If Mama and Papa but knew…”
“Stop, please,” Juliana said mildly, though her heart rate had quickened. She had had no idea that her sister knew her secret. “Just tell me what the plan is. I am listening, and not mocking you.”
Seeming mollified, Deborah began again. “Well, originally, we had wanted to use my pregnancy as a way to get him to agree to marry me,” she said, “but…”
Juliana interrupted. “Pregnancy? What pregnancy? You are not with child, Sister!”
Deborah rolled her eyes. “Obviously not! And it became too late to play that card when he refused at first to even come for a visit, after he had spent the whole first month of mourning with us here. So we have devised a new plan, that involves the concert you heard talk of at breakfast, and Lord Edgar Wingrove.”
Juliana took a fortifying breath, feeling more and more uneasy as her sister spoke.
“I take it this gentleman is the Duke’s cousin. Is he also to be privy to the plan to use him to entrap the Duke into marriage?”
“Really, Juliana, must you be so negative?” Deborah groused, releasing her arm and walking a little away from her. “You may not care for marriage, and want to remain an independent spinster,” she spat out the last word as though it were poison, “but why can’t you at least support me in my desire for it? It’s not as though you have any reason to care what happens to either the Duke of his cousin…”
“You’re planning to use the own Duke’s blood relation against him!” Juliana couldn’t help exclaiming, scandalized. She studiously ignored the jab her sister had made at her not being of interest to any man, least of all the two she and her mother-in-law were seeking to manipulate.
Deborah had the grace to blush at that. “Well, I’m not the one who came up with the idea,” she protested weakly.
“But you are the one who is eagerly planning to follow through on whatever plan your mother-in-law conjures up for you,” Juliana retorted. “Why can’t being the widowed Duchess be enough for you? Are you being thrown out by Her Grace?”
“Of course not! Don’t be silly,” she said. “But Lady Eleanor is keen to keep the family’s wealth in her husband’s line, which means Gray will have no choice but to marry and bear her grandchildren who will carry it on.”
Juliana sighed. “And you are keen to remain mistress of the manor,” she commented dryly. When Deborah did not deny it, she added, “The Duke does not appear to me to be the sort of person who is without choices in matters like this.”
At Deborah’s puzzled frown, she caught herself. She didn’t really know him, and her sister was not to know, nor would Juliana ever tell her, that they had had an unexpected meeting earlier. Nor would it be wise for her to share her observations of him at breakfast, for fear her sister wondered why she had been so closely perusing his features. No one else needed to know of her strange attraction to him. She hastened to provide an explanation that Deborah would not be suspicious of.
“He is an extraordinarily large man,” she said, “and doesn’t look the sort to brook trouble from anyone.”
Deborah giggled girlishly, as though the Duke himself were present to see her fatuous response to Juliana’s description.
“You have well observed, Juliana,” she said conspiratorially, resuming her place next to her sister, and taking her arm again. “Can you imagine how it must be to be held by him?”
Juliana could suddenly very clearly imagine it, and her pulse quickened, a circumstance that annoyed her because it was not what she had expected of herself. She was immune to the allure of men...or she had been until that morning when Gray Wingrove had turned to greet her. To distract herself from the unsettling realization, and to avoid answering the question, she asked,
“What is this plan?”
“Lady Eleanor has invited His Lordship for a visit while Gray is here. Lady Eleanor plans to suggest that he is here to court me,” Deborah replied.
“And how will this push the Duke into your arms?” Juliana asked, hating the very idea of her sister and Gray together, though she could not imagine why it should upset her so.
“Gray is a dutiful son. Lady Eleanor hopes to use his cousin’s supposed courtship to persuade Gray to marry me to ensure that his father’s line, not his uncle’s, is continued.”
“Have
you considered the fact that what you are planning is heavily discouraged by the Church of England, Sister?” Juliana asked gravely.
To marry one’s late husband’s brother was tantamount to incest. How could Deborah even consider it? Was she that desperate to continue in her present station, probably at the cost of her reputation, and that of an innocent man? The thought distressed Juliana greatly. She couldn’t imagine how their parents would live down the embarrassment of such a connection.
“And what of any woman whom the Duke might prefer to you, Deborah?” she continued, as she tried to talk her sister out of that ruinous plan. “Have you and Lady Eleanor considered that he may not choose to marry you because he is interested in someone else?”
Deborah laughed merrily. “You obviously do not know Gray at all, Juliana. He has no interest in any woman. His mother has been trying these last nine months to interest him in some of the most eligible women, and he has steadfastly refused to be caught.” She stopped walking and turned to her sister, leaning in and whispering, “I sometimes wonder if he…” she hesitated and looked around, as though she feared being overheard. “I sometimes wonder if he likes women at all!”
Juliana disentangled herself from her sister, suddenly more distraught and nauseated than she could remember ever having been. Deborah had always been self-centered and prideful, but Juliana had never known her to be willfully unkind.
“I hope you do not voice that sentiment to Lady Eleanor,” she advised her sister coldly. “I am almost certain that it will not go over well if you do. I recommend that you put such a thought right out of your mind if you wish to secure Gray’s hand in marriage.”
Juliana hated how the thought of Gray Wingrove marrying his sister made breathing difficult. She could not account for the unusual reaction, and chalked it up to the knowledge that he was going to be manipulated into marrying against his will by two scheming women. She felt for him sincerely, as she herself could not imagine being made to do anything she did not wish to do.
“The heat of the sun is getting fiercer,” she said, needing to get away from her sister. “Let us return to the house. I would like to see the library.”
“Juliana, you cannot say anything to anyone about this,” Deborah warned her, suddenly very serious. “And you must promise to support me in everything I may say or do.”
Juliana turned a look of disgust on her sister. She understood very clearly what Deborah was asking of her. But she needed it to be clear that she knew, so she said,
“In other words, you want me to lie for you if you need me to do so.”
Deborah paused, as though she were thinking of denying it. Then, instead of responding directly to Juliana’s statement, she said,
“I beg of you, if you love me, Sister, to help me. It would make me happy.”
Juliana closed her eyes briefly. There were times when she hated that she was loyal to a fault, and that she loved her family, even when they made her most angry, as Deborah had done with her tale of a treacherous plan to deprive a man of his freedom. Everything in her screamed that she should refuse to be a party to such a deception, but she realized, as she prepared to do just that, that if the plan were to succeed, she would not need to remain at Coulby Hall for three long months. In the interests of self-preservation, then, and with a prayer that Gray Wingrove would never know her complicity in the matter, she nodded.
“Very well, Deborah. But let me be very clear. I do not condone such behavior. It is treacherous, and if the Duke were to discover it, I cannot imagine how badly things will go for us, and especially for me, who am not a part of his family.”
Turning away, she walked back toward the house, unwilling to remain any longer in her sister’s company. Her first day as a companion had not gotten off to a good start.
Chapter 5
“Mama, why can’t we wait until Michaelmas to have this concert? Why must it be midsummer?”
Gray felt his impatience with his mother rising as he sat in his study listening to her plans. The twelve-month period of mourning would just barely have been satisfied before she was planning to host an elaborate concert in the manor. Because of his aversion to public attention, Gray was especially unhappy with the plans because they required him to host a party in his home, and allow an invasion of his privacy that he did not wish to encourage. Family get-togethers and holidays balls were one thing, but this concert seemed to be almost a celebration of the end of the mourning period, as though his mother and his late brother’s flighty wife were tired of the restraints placed on them by it. It was unseemly, in his view, but he knew his mother well...once she had set her mind on a course of action, nothing would derail her plans. Her response seemed to confirm his thoughts.
“It will be a gay way to re-enter the social world, Gray,” she said. “As I grow older, I find myself made more and more severely melancholy by mourning, and I merely wish to dispel the doldrums as quickly as possible. Is that too much to ask?”
Her tone implied that he was being unfeeling, and Gray sighed. His mother was in one of her moods, and he knew it would be better all round just to humor her. She had not taken her husband’s death well, and Gray knew she still missed his father greatly.
“No, Mama, it is not too much to ask,” he agreed.
He stood up and went to the sideboard to pour himself a drink.
“Would you like a drink?” he asked, turning to her.
“A small sherry, my dear,” she replied, adjusting her skirts. “Have you seen Juliana?”
“Not since breakfast,” he answered, handing her her drink. “She went outdoors with Deborah, did she not? I overheard Deborah ask her to go for a stroll in the gardens.”
He found himself unwilling to talk about his sister-in-law’s younger sister. He had worked hard all afternoon to avoid thinking about her, or the moments that had passed between them. He was not a man given to flights of fancy, but he could have sworn, as they spoke to each other, that something more than words had passed between them, something electric, something vital, something he had no clue how to handle. It was outside of his experience, and he sincerely hoped that it would not make a re-appearance. He thought it best to avoid thinking about her, and if he could, he would avoid her company as much as he could, until he found a way to deal with the way she was making him feel.
“She’s a very bold girl, isn’t she?” his mother said, sniffing disapprovingly. “I noted her behavior at her sister’s wedding, and I cannot imagine that her mother approves of her headstrong ways. And see how long it has taken her to heed her sister’s request to be a companion to her in this time.”
Gray couldn’t imagine that Juliana Lockhart would particularly care what his mother thought of her behavior, but he wished her well against a woman he knew could be a formidable force.
“Hardly a girl, Mama,” he commented. “Anyway, she is here now,” he said, trying to smooth her ruffled feathers. “Let us hope she will please you better now.”
“I highly doubt it,” she said. “Deborah tells me she steadfastly refuses to marry anyone. And at her age, to be still unmarried...it’s unheard of!”
His mother was clearly scandalized, but Gray found himself strangely pleased at the news that she was unattached, and clearly not looking to be. Perhaps he didn’t need to avoid her after all. Perhaps she would ignore him as she had any other man before him. He was safe from any desire for marriage coming from her.
The door opened, admitting the butler.
“What is it, Hudson?” his mother asked.
“Begging your pardon, Your Grace, but Lady Deborah’s caller has arrived,” the man said.
“Escort her to the drawing room. I will be there shortly. And fetch Her Grace,” she ordered him.
“As you wish, Your Grace,” Hudson said, withdrawing.
Gray heaved a relieved sigh. He had been spared any further time in his mother’s company. He had some correspondence to finish, and needed peace and quiet to do so. And it gave him a respite f
rom thoughts of the feisty young woman of whom his mother obviously disapproved. At least he could be sure Juliana would not be offered up to him as a sacrificial lamb in the marriage mart. She was clearly not interested in advancing socially by marrying a peer. He was grateful for that, as it said something positive about her character. And yet there was a lingering sense of disappointment that he could not explain. Taking a deep breath, he ruthlessly pushed her out of his mind and set about finishing his correspondence.
He was done before dinner, and having no desire to meet any of the women before then, he took himself off for some shooting, not returning until it was almost time for the evening meal. His valet was waiting to help him clean up and dress, and he managed to make it down with barely a minute to spare before his mother appeared. The two sisters followed her in, and as they were seated, he could not help but notice the way Juliana filled out her plain brown dress. Although she was not herself in mourning, she chose to wear muted colors in deference to the other two ladies, who were still wearing mostly wear black and gray.
