The Heart of a Duke(53)

“If she was totally averse to you, we would not be sitting here in the first place, having this particular conversation, would we?” Taunton gave him a wry look.

Heat climbed Daniel’s neck. Taunton had a point. He refused to believe Julia would have kissed him with so much passion if she had not felt something for him.

“Edmund has agreed to wait a fortnight before announcing the broken engagement. Those were my terms if he wanted me to forgive his debts to me and forfeit Julia’s dowry. One more thing, Daniel. There is no money for another dowry. I am—”

“Julia’s hand in marriage is payment enough.”

“On the bright side, after last night and today, Edmund is no longer your problem. However, on the dark side, the obstacle you need to breach will be my lovely daughter’s sheer stubbornness. Just remember that Julia is all about family.” His voice lowered to a quiet murmur. “She deserves one of her own.”



JULIA PACED THE library, her heart so heavy it weighed down her steps. She searched for a book to occupy her during the journey to London. She needed an escape, preferably a wrenching saga of war and mayhem. A scene of carnage to rival her own. She bypassed the volumes of Shakespeare, for her life already embodied a Shakespearian tragedy, complete with mistaken identity, mixed twins, and star-crossed lovers. She paused, the latter notion discomfiting.

She did not love Edmund. She blinked back the moisture in her eyes. Last night in Emily’s arms, she had shed enough tears, but none over the loss of her Damn Duke. The tears were shed over her own youthful folly.

She shuddered at how close she had come to paying a price for being young and besotted. She had almost been tethered to a man she not only could not love, but could never respect. That would have been a far too grievous price to pay. People survived loveless marriages, the ton being full of them, and she would have survived hers. But not without respect.

She rested her head against a bookshelf, the cool cherrywood soothing against her aching temple.

Had she ever loved Edmund?

She recalled their whirlwind courtship. Edmund had been a larger-than-life figure in her childhood. She had not been able to believe he deigned to smile at her, let alone single her out for his attentions and offer for her hand. Handsome, charming, and dashing, what woman could resist Beautiful Bedford? And then he was hers. Only he never really had been. After she had postponed their wedding twice for her family’s sake, Edmund’s visits had become as rare as rain during a drought, their relations becoming distant and cordial.

She never knew what Edmund had thought of her. He had never said. She feared neither of them had glanced beyond the surface, like settling for icing on a cake. After his father’s death and Daniel’s departure, she believed Edmund had needed her. She was wrong. He only had need of a wife to adorn his arm and bear him heirs, while she wanted someone to relieve her aching loneliness. To make her feel all those things she yearned to feel. But he was not a man she could love, and she had been a fool to think otherwise.

Now she was paying the price for her mistake. Would be paying for it forever.

One did not break a betrothal contract with a duke without suffering repercussions that would reverberate for years. She had a fortnight before the storm broke.

She lifted her head and pressed her hand to her forehead.

“Julia.”

She whirled, stunned to see Daniel standing inside the library. So lost in her thoughts, she had not heard the door open and close behind him.

His expression was solemn, his eyes dark, and he had a mean swelling on his cheek. She wondered if it was compliments of her father or Edmund. The bruising only added to his rakish appeal, for he still looked unbearably handsome. Her traitorous heart leapt, but then it crashed down. She had made a grave mistake in accepting Edmund’s suit all those years ago, but she had youthful folly to blame for her actions then. She had no such excuse for her reckless behavior with Daniel.

And all that it would cost her family.

“You need to leave. You have done quite enough.” She stepped back from the bookcase and curled her arms around her waist, cursing her shaking voice.

“Julia, please listen to me,” he implored. “I know about Edmund and your severed betrothal. I have spoken to your father—”

“Please,” she cut him off, not wanting to hear more. “There is nothing you can say or do that can alter my situation.” She had to pause as her voice hitched. She lifted her chin, blinking furiously. “It is not possible to avoid the scandal that is going to engulf my family. After all they have been through—”

“Julia, I have come to make it right. I have asked—”