Page 56 of The Secret of the Dashing Detective
“Yes,” Lewis said. “Do you mind showing me where they live?”
* * *
Juliana wasboth surprised and pleased when Lady Maria called upon her the day after she had been with Matthew.
“How lovely to see you!” she said, before nodding at Lady Bennington, who followed in behind her. Of course, Lady Maria would always travel properly chaperoned – although, so too did most young women of theton. Juliana chastised herself, reminding herself that shelikedLady Maria, and she should no longer be thinking any ill of her.
“It is good to see you are recovered, Lady Juliana,” Lady Bennington said.
Juliana murmured a brief “of course,” before catching Lady Maria’s gaze.
As Juliana’s mother, Emma, and Prudence welcomed Lady Bennington, Juliana drew Lady Maria to the side of the room.
“Was everything well last night?” she asked her softly.
“Yes, for the most part,” Lady Maria whispered back. “Your mother did appear and asked after you, but I told her you had left with a headache. My mother seemed most interested in where you had been, but I quickly distracted her. We just must make sure that they do not speak in detail on the subject, or it will be difficult to maintain the lie. My mother was insistent on accompanying me to visit today.”
“That is just fine,” Juliana said, although her heartbeat had kicked up a notch. “Thank you so much for your assistance in all of this.”
“Of course,” Lady Maria said with a wide, pretty smile. “I am happy to help.”
They took a seat on one side of the drawing room near Prudence and Emma, while Lady Remington and the dowager duchess were on the other side, near the tea service.
“Now, do tell me about last night,” Lady Maria said quietly in her ear, her eyes shining, and Lady Juliana tried to think of a plausible explanation besides that last night had been the greatest experience of her life, but just then the butler, Jameson, entered the room.
“Your Grace,” he said, to Lady Emma, “you have another visitor.”
He crossed the room and passed her a card.
Lady Emma’s eyes widened, and she looked up, meeting Juliana’s eyes before flicking them to Juliana’s mother with some hesitancy.
All in the room were now staring at her, and she stood, walking to the door. “If you shall excuse me for one moment,” she said, as Jameson followed her out.
After a short, awkward silence, conversation resumed, although it was quickly overwhelmed by activity in the hall.
“Your Grace, the drawing room is already occupied, perhaps you might want to enter the parlor—”
“Is Lady Juliana here?” Oh dear. The ‘Your Grace’ in question was Giles. This couldn’t be good.
“She is in the drawing room as well. Your Grace, you have visitors—”
But Giles, apparently, didn’t overly care. He was the duke, yes, but he also did not contain as much regard for social niceties as he should have.
“Juliana?” he said, standing in the door, Emma behind him, tugging on his elbow.
“Yes?”
“I believe you have some explaining to do.”
And there, caught in the light of the hall, was a man Juliana recognized all too well.
Her other brother.
CHAPTER20
Matthew had a feeling that this exchange was not going to end well – not when the dowager duchess was in the house and especially not when she had company.
Upon his arrival with Lewis, Jameson had left them waiting in the foyer while he sought out the duchess. In the meantime, the duke had arrived home and demanded an explanation for how Lewis knew about their family, which Matthew had offered as best he could, although he wished he could have done so without Lewis present, for now he was basically admitting his sins twice before the man. He omitted Juliana’s role in his explanation, but Lewis had made it clear that he had already met her, prompting the expected questions from the duke.
