Page 25 of Unmasking a Wicked Marquess
Yet the betrothal had been so long ago, the scandal of the late end of the engagement brushed under the carpet so many years past, that it was a conversation their father rarely ever had with anyone.
“If our father could not bear giving his sister to one of the Duke of Lantham’s family, what do you reckon he would make of it if he knew I had a liking for the Duke of Lantham’s son?” Juliet pointed out. She thought she heard Meg squeak across the room, but when she looked around, Meg was getting into more of a ravel with the bed sheets.
Juliet stood and went to help her, laying the sheets out flat. “Let’s face it, Vi. No matter what has passed between Lord Ashton and I, we are as divided as the sun and the moon. Our families would never approve.”
“Juliet.” Violet stood and hurried to the other side of the bed, attempting to catch her eye. “Do you not hear yourself talking?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that after so few meetings, you liked this man so much that you have actually considered marriage. Marriage! Does that not show this is something special indeed?”
Juliet didn’t answer but tucked the sheets under the bed, finishing helping Meg before she returned to her seat with Violet following her. She had no desire to tell her sister that she had considered many things when it came to Lord Ashton. She had even spent a happy, wild daydream wondering what it would be like to be the marquess’ lover.
He would surely be a passionate lover. She knew that just from the way he talked to her, how he flirted, how he rode his horse with wild abandon, urging her to grip him tighter as they sped through the streets of London.
Or marry him …
Either way, all of her imaginings ended up with the pair of them in a bed. She turned her head down to her teacup, hoping that Violet misunderstood her sudden blush as being caused by the heat of the tea rather than her own thoughts.
“No wonder you have been hiding in this room,” Violet said as she sank heavily down into the window seat beside her. “You have been debating how you could possibly see him again.”
“No. I have been dwelling on misery.”
“Unlike you.”
“Perhaps.” Juliet sat taller. “I shall be well again. I simply have to come to terms with the fact that the one man who I have ever truly liked at a ball, the only man I have ever … imagined … something more with.” She briefly saw an image of Lord Ashton again. She saw him offering his hand to her, pulling her out of the wreckage of the carriage. “He is off limits to me. I … I need to accept that.”
She drank her tea so distractedly that she burnt her tongue and winced.
“Well, what a cheery day.”
“Isn’t it just?” Juliet matched her sister’s wryness.
“Well, I am not going to let you dwell on misery for any longer.” Violet blew on her tea and took a big gulp. “Have your bath and come downstairs. I shall seek to distract you for the rest of the day and make you smile. You simply have to come down and try to forget about the attractive man you have not been able to stop thinking of for the last two days.”
“Oh, yes. An easy task indeed.”
“We’re done being sarcastic now.”
“Are we?” Juliet asked, taking another sip of her tea and being in no humour to smile. “I do not remember agreeing to that.”
“Bathe. Come downstairs, and I’ll find a way to see you smile.” Violet stood up, clearly not willing to take no for an answer.
“As you wish.” Juliet nodded. “Though I’ll be impressed if you manage to make me smile at all.”
***
Juliet sat very still at the card table as Violet played another card and won the next round of cribbage.
“You are not concentrating,” Violet accused as she gathered the cards together again.
“No. I know I’m not.” Juliet sighed heavily, rested her chin in her hands, and turned her head to look at her mother and father by the fire.
Robert and Cecily sat close together, hand in hand, as they whispered under their breaths. The two plainly still so much in love that she ached as she looked at them, both happy and now feeling a little jealousy. She could hazard a good guess that when those two met, there was no obstacle to them getting to know one another better.
“Play again.” Violet dealt out the cards. “This time, try to concentrate.”
Juliet did as her sister asked but with some difficulty. By the time she had sorted out the cards in her hand, her mind was dwelling on the bath she’d had earlier that day. Hovering under the water, brushing her skin with soap, her mind had wandered to what it would be like to have Lord Ashton’s hands touching her skin rather than her own.
