Page 62 of Lord Trafford's Folly
The countess played several arias, then announced it was time for their beds after such long travels. Rising to walk with her new kin into the hall and up the stairs, Audrey parted ways in the family hall and made for her bedchamber with a heavy heart.
Julius had not appeared, and she wondered where he was yet did not feel comfortable enough to question his family. She had not seen him since the morning, when they had reached their unsatisfactory agreement, and it had been a long day. What with having to meet with the earl, trying to finish reading chapter two of the curst German memoirs, and fighting with exhaustion from her sleepless night.
Despite her wish to speak with Julius, she was relieved to head to bed so she might lay her weary head on her pillow.
Sleep claimed her quickly, pulling her into its dark embrace. Sadly, it was as belligerent in its affection as Julius had been. It presented her with disturbing outcomes to her future. Her alone in Stirling, searching through the empty rooms. Before flittering to her as a silent witness in Lady Astley’s home, overhearing the lateston ditsabout that disgraceful bit of muslin, Miss Gideon. Audrey had just found herself standing in the earl’s study preparing to be lambasted for the social crisis she had created, when the one person never physically present in her dreams called her name.
“Audrey?”
She looked about the study in her dreams, but she could not find Julius anywhere. It was a common theme in all the dreams—that he was absent while she yearned to find him. To hold him and find out where he had been, all the while struggling with the impending doom that when she located him, he would be in the seductive arms of a trollop who had stolen his adoration.
“Audrey?”
She walked out of the study amid the earl’s stern lecture to look about the hall outside, but still she could not find him.
Hesitating for a second, Audrey set off down the hall, racing up the staircase to fling open doors in the family hall. He must be here somewhere! Surely he would have informed her if he was to abandon her to her fate?
“Audrey?”
Slowly, Audrey’s eyelids flickered open to discover she was in her bed and a candle must have been lit because the room was not shrouded in the shadows of the night. She blinked in a daze, her eyeballs dry and grainy. Rolling to lie on her back, she turned her head to find the source of the light, letting out a low shriek when she found Julius’s face peering at hers from mere inches away.
“Good! You are awake.” He rose to his feet, still dressed as she had seen him for breakfast.
“I am now. What are you doing in my room?”
He pressed his lips together, frowning. “You do not wish to see me?”
Audrey scrambled into a seated position, pressing the covers against her night rail in the manner of a proper miss. Realizing what she was doing, she released the bedding. “I … wish to see you. I am just surprised.”
“I know the hour is late, but I wish to speak with you without anyone about. I have news.”
Audrey’s spirits plummeted. He had found some other solution than to wed her! He was here to cancel their betrothal! How she wished they had never left Aunty Gertrude’s. She had been so happy there.
Her eyes misted. She needed time to read Casanova so she might work out a strategy to win him! It was horribly unfair to spring this on her?—
“Your father’s journals. I have found a solution.”
It was as she thought! He was here to inform her?—
“My father’s journals?” she echoed in bewilderment. Julius did not wish to retract their arrangement?
“The guild would not budge. I used leverage on several members, but I could not make them agree.”
“A-agree?” Audrey wondered if perhaps she was still asleep and this was some new hellish dream.
“To approve your membership.”
She ran her hands over her plaited hair, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Julius had been pacing, but he froze at her question before hastily returning to the side of the bed and sinking to his knees. “Never! I was thinking about how much you wanted to publish your father’s works to help people better understand their health. I was hoping I could help, but it was to no avail. Father says he will see what he can do on your behalf, but he does not know anyone at the guild, so he must find a connection that can help.”
“I … see.” She did not understand, but it seemed Julius wished to help her with her goals. Perhaps he wished to balance the scales after what she had done for him? But she did not want his gratitude. She wanted his love.
“When I failed to make progress, I reconsidered the problem. You can treat people if you wish. No one will stop you from doing so. But that did not solve the problem of your father’s journals—that you wish to publish his works. Father gave me the names of physicians he had been researching. Men who share similar philosophies on treatment with your father. He wishes to tempt one of them to reside in Stirling in your father’s place. I met with all four men this evening and found one!”
Audrey nibbled on her lip, attempting to follow what he was saying, but she was still half asleep. With a bleary head, she noted that Julius was no longer referring to the earl asLord Snarling. Did that mean they had reconciled some of their differences?
“One of the doctors is willing to move to Stirling?”
