Page 78 of My Deceitful Duchess
Not literally, unfortunately. But she thought that Nerissa would rather death before transportation—so perhaps there was a justice in that, too. That she would live out the rest of her miserable days far away from whatever friends she had once claimed, consigned to a miserable life where her name was worthless, and nobody caredwhosesister she was. Towork, as she had never had to before, for whatever sort of miserable living she would be able to eke out.
But Julian—Julian she had wanted to see. It wasJulian’sface which had haunted her nightmares for the last decade. Julian who had consigned her to a life of terror, of secrecy. Her last glimpse of him had been that night so many years ago; his gaunt face carved into a sneering mask of disdain through the flickering flames of the fire that had raged between them.
Now he was only a distant figure in her unpleasant past; without the means to cause any further harm. Caught in the selfsame trap he had once meant for her.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes. I want this. Is he here?”
“Unfortunately, yes. I tried to convince them to send him to prison to await judgment, but—”
“He’s still a duke.” She was not surprised. The title had saved her from a similar fate. Though she comforted herself with the fact that even to be held here was nocomfortablesituation. Probably Julian, long accustomed to every material advantage, was furious about his abrupt change in circumstances.
They crossed paths with Mr. Beckett in the reception area, and he goggled at them, an incredulous gleam in his eye, and with an uncomfortable twitch of his mustache. “Why,” he asked, tightly, “have you brought adoginto the Magistrates’ Court?” The tenor of his voice implied that he thoughtdogfar too generous an appellation for the scrappy little mutt that had placed himself by Jenny’s feet.
Sebastian’s voice lowered to a distinctly warning tone. “Because theduchessprefers his company. And this office ought to make allowances, given what it owes her.” The resolution oftwomurders, she supposed he meant.
Mr. Beckett heaved a sigh, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “Come along, then. And keep that—thatdogin line.”
“He’s well-behaved,” she said. Mostly. When he wished to be. Which was likely somewhat less often than she suspected Mr. Beckett would have preferred. A suspicion that was confirmed when Charlie crept forward and jammed his nose into the seat of Mr. Beckett’s trousers the moment he had turned his back, which produced an unnaturally shrill sound of surprise from the man.
It was an effort to arrange her face into an expression of placid serenity when Mr. Beckett glared at her once more, when there was a full-throated laugh caught in her throat.
He gave a sharp, rueful shake of his head, sidling away from Charlie, who cocked his head inquisitively, wholly unaware that he had done something impolite. “End of the hall,” he said, gesturing with one hand, apparently no longer quite so eager to escort them. “You know the room.”
She did. She’d seen the inside of it too many times herself. Only this time, she was in a far different position than once she had been. And Sebastian was at her side, her fingers clasped firmly in his own.
They heard Julian before they saw him. He was the complaining sort; she had sorted that much out about him in their brief acquaintance so many years ago. The kind of man who felt the world owed him more than that which he had received, and he had never been shy about making his feelings to that effect known.
“Take these damned thingsoff,” she heard him rail even through the thick wood of the door. “Do you know who Iam?”
And when Sebastian opened the door, she saw Julian had been forced into a chair at that same scarred little table at which she had once sat. Except thathehad been clapped in irons, and there were two officers within the room, stolidly ignoring his incessant demands.
His face went blank as she slipped through the door with Charlie on her heels. Blank for just a moment, his thin, gaunt face falling into a passive sort of shock—as if every thought had been sheered from his mind with it. But it lasted too short a time, and then there was a wash of red that swept up his pale throat, mottling his complexion.
“You.”
There was a wealth of menace in it. He had tried to rise, perhaps the better to threaten her—but just as easily those two guards shoved him straight back down.
“Take your hands off of me,” he snarled to the one on the right. “Do you know who—”
“Everyone knows who you are, Julian.” That washervoice, so calm and steady. So bereft of the emotion she had thought to feel. “Everyone knowswhatyou are.” A murderer. Avillain.
A sneer curled his lip beneath a scraggly growth of beard. “Have you come to gloat? The little French whore, no better than she ought to be?”
He had seemed so much larger a decade ago; so much more frightening. She had been so young then—a world away from who she was now. A lifetime. And now he was just—pitiful. A ruined man, desperate and furious.
“No,” she said. “Not really. I have no need to gloat.” Charlie had pressed himself up against her calf beneath the table, where he had hidden himself away beneath her chair. “I just came to tell you that I am done thinking of you. That after today, I do not intend ever to spare you another thought. That in time, you will be forgotten entirely. By everyone.”
Buthewould never forget. For as long as he lived, he would remember her—the woman he had failed to conquer. The woman whom he had striven to beat, and who had beatenhiminstead.
“I won’t.” It was a furious snarl, and he yanked at his chains, which remained unmoved. “I won’t—I am aduke; I am not without resources!”
“In fact, he is.” Sebastian said this toherrather than to Julian, as if he wished to spare the man none of his attention. “Quite without them.”
“The hell you say! I have money—I have property!”
“He has nothing.” Sebastian’s hand curled over her shoulder; warm, solid. “The truth of it is that all that remained after his ill-gotten gains had been confiscated belongs toyou.”
“What?” She startled, unsettled by the revelation. “What do you mean by that?”
