Page 28 of Unmasking a Wicked Marquess
I cannot believe they are one and the same person.
He’d held Juliet once when she was a baby on that visit. He’d even played with her, showing her a wooden horse tie that she had promptly put in her mouth, thinking it was some sort of teething rattle.
“You can pretend everything is as well until you are blue in the face.” Jane encouraged her horse to trot forward until she drew level with Edward. “But I know something is bothering you. What is it?”
Edward adjusted himself in the saddle. He was eager for advice but couldn’t bear the thought of speaking aloud of exactly who Juliet was.
Perhaps there is a way to get some advice without speaking of everything.
“There may be a lady involved,” Edward began slowly.
“Is she with child?”
“Jane!” He rounded on her to see her struggling to hold back a smile.
“Well, I had to ask.” She shrugged. “A lot of men who go to the continent, shall we say are a little … wayward.”
“I am not having that sort of discussion with my little sister.”
“Hardly little anymore, brother.”
“I know.” He looked at her pointedly. “You and dear Freddie did go missing the other night at that ball.”
“Shh.” She waved a hand at him and looked around at the trees as if they would come to life and start whispering to one another behind raised branches of scandal. “So, this lady you speak of, she’s not with child.”
“No.” He shook his head with finality and looked towards the distant skyline of London once more. “But she might be completely unsuitable. I am not sure our parents would approve if I were to consider pursuing her.”
“Ah, I see.” Jane’s horse moved a little beneath her, and she patted him on the neck, trying to calm him. “And do you think you’d be happy marrying someone purely out of duty? Someone selected by our mother and father in a scandal sheet because she was eminently suitable with a large dowry, indeed? Oh, she’d be the perfect lady.”
She adopted a comically haughty tone. “She’d stand on your arm like the perfect ornament, beautiful, wealthy, and … dull.”
“Ha! I did not expect you to say that.”
“What I’m trying to point out is that marrying for duty will not necessarily make you happy. Forever is a long time, Edward. Agreeing to pledge your heart to someone forever is a staggering commitment.”
She whistled as she, too, looked at the skyline. Evidently, she had thought seriously before she accepted Freddie’s proposal. “Do not marry just for duty, Edward. You have a responsibility to your own heart to look after yourself as well as our parents’ expectations of you.”
He looked at her, so curious at her choice of words that he smiled a little.
“What’s that look for?” She nodded at him.
“Perhaps you’re not as little as you were when I left for the continent. You sounded almost wise, little sister.”
“Almost!?” she spluttered then laughed. “Well, from you, that is a compliment indeed.”
“It is.” He nodded firmly. What she had said cut deep, and now Edward’s mind was running mad. Could he imagine going to events of the ton and crossing paths with Juliet but pretending he did not know her? Could he bear it if another man started pursuing her, courting her, took her hand, and kissed her? The thought of another man’s lips upon hers made a white-hot rage spike through him.
I barely know her, yet she has this effect on me already.
“Thank you, Jane,” he said eventually. “Perhaps you are right. Perhaps … I should at least consider her a little more.”
“Excellent. Now that the matter is sorted out, come on, let’s have a race. I want to see if you have got any better at racing me down this hill in your time on the continent.”
“I always used to give you a head start anyway – oi!” Yet at his words, she was gone already, streaking down the hill. He laughed and hurried to catch up with her.
***
Juliet peered at her reflection in the mirror before her. There was still some light left in the sky as it was late evening, and the yellow light fell on her features. For some reason, Juliet was spending far longer on her reflection tonight than she normally did.
