Page 59 of The Secret of the Dashing Detective
Matthew was unsure about what had transpired the previous day between Juliana and Lord Hemingway, but the earl obviously was not happy. He hadn’t been able to set aside his breeding, for he had still helped Lady Juliana down from his phaeton, but he hadn’t seemed particularly pleased about it, and after she was inside the house he stormed off without speaking to anyone else.
Matthew didn’t hear any more of it, of course, until he arrived the next day to accompany Juliana on the errand she had requested him for. Jameson allowed him entrance with a somewhat uneasy expression, the reason for which Matthew soon discovered.
As he entered the foyer, he could hear the dowager duchess’ voice ringing through the halls. He took Jameson’s suggestion to wait in the foyer until Juliana was ready, but she and her mother must have been conversing in the front parlor, for he could hear each word very clearly.
“Do you know how much shame you are bringing upon us? Why, I wonder if Lady Hemingway will ever speak to me again. How could you, Juliana?”
“Mother, I do not love him. I could not marry him, and it was better that I told him as soon as I knew rather than waiting any longer.”
“It already went on long enough!”
“Yes, but I didn’t know then that I needed love for a marriage.”
“Since when?”
“Since… I’m not sure, I suppose since I realized that I would never be able to love Lord Hemingway.”
“He would have been good to you, Juliana.” Her mother said, her voice losing its edge and becoming defeated. “No one is ever going to marry you now.”
“You don’t know that.”
There was a pause, and Matthew knew that he should likely leave, that it was not his place to listen to their conversation. But he couldn’t make his feet move.
“There is someone who will marry me. I know there is.”
“I hope you don’t believe it is that man.”
“What man?” Juliana asked in a measured tone.
“The detective,” her mother said, scorn in her voice. “I’ve seen the way you look at him, Juliana, the way he pines for you. I told Giles that he needed to find someone else to watch over you, but he assured me that Mr. Archibald was the utmost professional and that I was being ridiculous. Am I? Am I, Juliana?”
There was another pause, and Matthew wished he could see Juliana in this moment.
“I love him, Mother,” she said quietly, and Matthew’s heart swelled even as he knew Juliana had likely just destroyed any chance they ever had.
He waited for the dowager duchess to become upset all over again, but instead she took a different tactic.
“You think you love him, Juliana,” she said, so softly that Matthew nearly didn’t hear the words. “But it is simply an infatuation. The love will fade, and what then? You will be left taking care of a house that is half the size of this parlor, likely with four or five children, and no one to help you. Is that the life you want? Of wife and housemaid yourself? Love sounds all well and good, but would you give up all of this for a man? Do you know how many people would do anything to be in your place, Juliana? I’ll tell you – all of England would. Think about that. Think long and hard.”
Footsteps sounded in the hall, and Matthew inched around the wall to ensure that the dowager duchess would not see him. That was the last thing he needed.
It seemed, however, he had not been surreptitious enough.
“Mr. Archibald?”
He let out a breath as he stepped around the corner to face the woman who was half his size but, as much as he hated to admit it, twice as powerful.
“Yes, Your Grace?”
She eyed him with a piercing stare. “You know as well as I do that this will never work. Do not allow her to ruin her life. Do the right thing.”
With a whirl of skirts, she was gone with a flourish, and Matthew stared after her as Juliana appeared in the hall.
“Matthew!” she cried, running to him without censure, throwing herself in his arms, and he instinctively wrapped them around her, covering her hair with his hand.
“Jules,” he whispered into her ear, even as his heart broke slightly at the truth of what the dowager duchess had said. There was no right answer in all of this, that he knew. He just wasn’t certain whether or not he could give Juliana up.
“Can we go?” she asked.
