Abandoned to the Prodigal - Mary Lancaster Page 0,45
if you’re—”
“How dare you compare the two?” Juliet said furiously. “Dan is the one who—”
“No, he’s right, Juliet,” Dan said ruefully. It felt like a slap in the face. “I always knew it was wrong. It just seemed the lesser of two evils for you at the time. Now, it isn’t. We’ve had a good run of luck, but it’s time to change games before we’re caught by someone who could hurt you with gossip. I’ll call like the gentleman I’m supposed to be.”
“That would be best,” Ferdy said, though he spoiled it almost immediately by asking, “Did Juliet show you the cave?”
“We nearly ended in the river several times.”
The rest of the walk home passed in pleasant chatter, leaving Juliet baffled and hurt that Dan had given in so easily. He had kissed her—kissed her in such a way—and now he was shuffling her off. Did he imagine he would be forced to marry her?
And dear God, what had she been thinking of to allow such intimacy? To kiss someone she had no intention of marrying… But that line of thought seemed far too confusing.
“Join us for breakfast?” Ferdy offered, having apparently forgotten his original ire. Had that been Dan’s plan all along?
“Thanks, no, I won’t. I want to see the Myerly steward, and I need to take my dog for a run if he’ll still acknowledge me.” And with that and an amiable bow to her and Kitty, he trudged back the other way, kicking up mud and puddle water as he went.
She turned resolutely away in the other direction. “Why were you looking for me in the first place?” she asked her siblings.
They glanced at each other.
Reluctantly, Kitty said, “I saw you go out early yesterday morning and the one before. You always veered off the drive to the woods. Then I saw you with Mr. Stewart yesterday, and it seemed to me you were friendlier than acquaintances who had met on a dull stagecoach journey. And then this morning, you weren’t in your room, and it was bucketing with rain. So, I woke Ferdy and made him come and help me look for you.”
“Oh, dash it, Kitty!” she exclaimed and broke off to take a deep breath. “I know you meant it well, and it is just your good nature. But this…this whole situation stifles me. It’s as if I have no control over anything anymore, and Papa is as likely to marry me off to the weasel after all as to send me to a nunnery or lock me in the attic!”
Ferdy grinned. “He won’t lock you in the attic. You’d make a shocking row.”
His sisters ignored him.
“So, Mr. Stewart is your way of controlling your life? Is he not a little…erratic for such purposes?”
“Entirely,” Juliet said helplessly. “He is simply fun. And he may not be rich, but he is a gentleman.” A gentleman who kissed me in the rain, and dear God, I want him to do it again. She swallowed. “But thank you for looking after me.”
“Then you won’t do it anymore?” Kitty asked anxiously.
She shook her head. He would not be there anymore. She wanted to cry.
They entered the house by the side door and went their separate ways to change out of their wet clothes. Clean and dry at last, Juliet made her way down to the breakfast parlor, where she almost bumped into her father coming out.
He was frowning over a letter while he walked but pulled up short at her murmured apology. Unexpectedly, his brow cleared. “Ah, Juliet, just the person I was looking for. Come into the library for a moment.”
It was something of a relief that he didn’t appear to be angry with her. After all, he had been so since she’d come home.
“This letter is confusing me,” he said, closing the library door behind them. “Perhaps you can shed some light on it.”
“Oh, dear, it’s not from the Alfords again, is it?” she asked apprehensively.
“What? Oh, no. They will come tomorrow when they said they would. This is from Lord Barden. Are you acquainted with him?”
“Very slightly. He had some place in the Prince Regent’s household, and he occasionally carried messages to Her Highness when I was there.”
“Did he show any special interest in you?”
“No, I don’t believe so. In fact, I rather thought he disliked me for some reason. But I never paid him much attention, and then the princess refused to receive him because he’d shown too much interest in Ha…one of the