Duke Looks Like a Groomsman - Valerie Bowman Page 0,73
probably should have told you this long before now.”
Julianna’s heart thumped so fast it hurt. “Tell me what?”
“Well, for one thing, I wasn’t actually interested in riding lessons at Lord Clayton’s house party.”
Julianna shook her head. “Mary, you woke me up at one o’clock in the morning to tell me you didn’t really want to take riding lessons at a house party we left over a month ago?”
This time Mary bit her lip. “Yes. I wasn’t particularly interested in Lord Mixton, either.”
Julianna shook her head. “I suppose that explains why he hasn’t been around since.” She rubbed a hand across her forehead. “Mary, dear, are you feeling all right?”
Mary took a deep breath. “I’m not doing a particularly good job at admitting to something, Anna, but the truth is that I always knew Mr. Worthy the groomsman was really the Duke of Worthington.”
Julianna’s head spun as if she’d been thrown from a horse. “What?” She’d heard each of her sister’s words, but somehow, they didn’t seem to make sense.
Mary nodded. “Yes, I knew it was him, and I invented excuses like going to look at flowers on the far side of the lake and needing to take riding lessons in order for you to have reasons to spend more time with him.”
Julianna felt as if the wind had been knocked from her chest. “What? How did you know?”
Mary bit her lip. “While it’s true that I never formally met the duke,” she continued, “the truth is that little sisters tend to do things like sneak to the top of the staircase and peer into the foyer when older sisters’ beaux come courting. I heard Stratham call him by name.”
Julianna pressed her fingers to her temples. Wait? You saw Worthington from atop the staircase well over a year ago and you remembered him when he was pretending to be a groomsman at a house party?”
Mary shrugged and a coy smile popped to her lips. “He’s ever so handsome, Anna. Not exactly someone whose countenance one forgets.”
Julianna’s mouth formed a wide O. “If you knew, why did you never ask me why he was pretending to be a groomsman?”
Mary shrugged again. “You both obviously had your reasons for pretending. Far be it from me to ruin the charade. In fact, I continued to pretend even just now when Papa was fighting him in the corridor.”
“What!” Julianna bolted upright.
Mary folded her hands together calmly. “Yes, well, that is more precisely the reason I’ve come. The Duke of Worthington just arrived to declare his love for you and Papa had him tossed out into the street.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
“There’s no help for it,” Kendall said, hoisting himself up into his carriage. “Perhaps you can write her a letter.”
Rhys gave the earl a glowering stare. “You can’t be serious?” Limping, he’d retreated across the road to Kendall’s carriage, but he’d yet to climb inside. Instead, he was still staring up at Montlake’s town house. “There has to be some way for me to scale the wall,” he muttered.
“You can’t be serious?” Kendall retorted.
“Aren’t you the one who told me that Julianna wanted a man who’d climb onto a sideboard for her?”
“A sideboard, yes, a second-story window? That’s risking death.”
Rhys glowered again. “Are you saying you wouldn’t try to scale the wall if Frances was up there and you had no other way of getting to her?”
Kendall cursed under his breath. “Damn it. You’re right.” He jumped back down to help Rhys contemplate the wall.
The two of them were staring at the sheer flatness of the thing, their heads cocked in opposite directions, when a noise to their left caught their attention.
“Rhys,” Julianna’s voice rang out.
He swiveled around, at first doubting his sight. But Julianna was there. She had on a dressing gown and was wearing slippers. “What are you doing out here?” Rhys asked. “Did you hear us fighting in the corridor?”
“No.” Julianna shook her head. “Mary woke me. She said I had a visitor and I’d better hurry because Papa had thrown him out.”
Rhys threw back his head and laughed. “Remind me to buy Mary a hothouse full of buttercups.”
Tears sparkled in Julianna’s eyes. She took a step closer to him. “Why are you here, Rhys?”
Rhys limped over to her and took her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs across her knuckles. His gaze caught hers. “I may not have had the chance to climb up on a sideboard, but I came to tell you I love you, Julianna. I know I should have said it