"Ten o'clock. Don't be late."
Juliana slipped out before Lady Grenville could corner her. The tall clock was chiming softly in the hall as she mounted the steps to her chamber. Never before had she felt so many conflicting emotions. Glorious, wonderful delight! He had kissed her again. It was really quite simple. She loved him, when he was with her all was perfect. And he had invited her to ride with him alone. Maybe here at his home, away from the city, he would tell her what had been troubling him. Maybe tomorrow they could resolve all that stood between them. She felt no shame that she desired him so, so much that there in the garden she would have been willing to lie with him among the flowers, if he had asked her. Whatever fear or convention had stopped her at Vauxhall would not stop her again. She was sure of it, sure at last of the rightness of her love for Dominic.
Drifting off to sleep, she remembered Mrs. Forbes. I'm doing it … I'm following my heart … where will it all lead?
The hall clock chimed twelve times and, sighing, Dominic turned away from the windows. Why had he asked her to ride alone with him? Was he trying to prove that he could do the decent thing? That he could be a congenial host. In the daylight it would be easier to be with her-to explain that his high regard for her would remain just that. It could lead to nothing else a gently bred lady might expect. He could not reach out to Will Grenville's young wife.
Regret for the last ten years darkened his thoughts. Regret for what he had allowed himself to become. Jules, at least, had been right in that.
His hand holding the candlesnuffer shook slightly and he laid it down, the candle still burning. Jules. The brother he had once loved above all others and trusted above all others, until the night he had discovered just how corrupt his family had become. Oh yes, he had tried to eradicate the memory with his own shocking behavior. Jules had called him a fool. Perhaps he had been a young fool, but at eighteen there had seemed to be no other course open to him. Now it was too late.
His course had been chosen. His mind was made up. The pain he felt when he looked at Juliana was nothing to the pain he'd endured for years. His grandparents would have to be disappointed. He found he couldn't offer for any chit just to please them. Juliana's softness, her sweet response in the garden pulled at the pain in him and suddenly he wasn't so sure which pain was the greater.
He was a fool to think that she could overlook the dark secrets of his past, the whispers that would follow her about his reputation. Yet, strangely, he couldn't bring himself to say the words that would push her away from him forever.
The candle had sputtered out on its own and the room was now dark. Dominic walked through the library doors and confidently shut them behind him.
Fool he might have been. But he was not fool enough to ride alone with Juliana. Tomorrow a groom would accompany them.
Chapter 10
Juliana woke early. The sweet anticipation of her ride with Dominic led her to avoid the breakfast room and wander out into the kitchen garden. The day was full of promise: sunshine already overrode the remaining clouds of dawn. She strolled through the neat rows of vegetables and marveled at the difference she felt within her. Dominic had kissed her again! And, although he had seemed a bit distracted afterwards, he had asked her to ride with him. She was not feeling alone now.
"Juliana," a voice cried out from behind her.
She looked back to the house. George and Charlotte walked purposefully toward her.
"You're up awfully early m'dear." George smiled happily at her. "Like to join us?"
"Yes do," Charlotte offered impulsively. "We're going to visit the succession houses this morning. Then later we're going to tour the home farm and have a picnic lunch."
"I'm sorry but I have other plans." Juliana shook her head, she knew they would rather be alone anyway.
She watched them walk away. Charlotte pointed at a huge rhubarb plant and gently placed her hand on George's arm. He laughed at her enthusiasm, then took her hand in his and they walked off companionably.
Juliana smiled to herself, satisfied that all was right with her world. No one would be alone-Rodney and Aunt Sophia, herself and Dominic, and now it looked very much like George and Charlotte.
Sophia and her future mother-in-law were seated next to one another on the periwinkle blue damask sofa in the library of the Towers. Sophia felt very much like the early Christians must have before they faced the lions. The duchess had such a sweet smile but what a tongue! Sophia had actually felt herself blush with embarrassment three times already, but this time Rodney's mother had gone too far!
"Your Grace," Sophia said softly, forcing herself to remain calm. "The question of my producing an heir for Rodney has never been discussed between us."
"It should have been!" the duchess declared. "All I want to know is … is it possible?"
"Yes." Sophia snapped, completely flustered. "But … "
The duchess held up her hand. "I have said my final word on the subject. Only wanted to know if I'm at last going to have another grandchild. Been quite awhile you know. Dominic is twenty-nine."
"I should think, Your Grace, that you might be setting your sights on becoming a great-grandmother," Sophia said brightly, happy to turn the subject elsewhere.
"I have been giving it a great deal of my attention. I thought Charlotte would do. Family connection and all, even if her mother is a horror. Was wrong though," said the Duchess with a decisive sniff. "Charlotte obviously isn't interested."
"And Dominic?" Sophia asked eagerly, curious to know if the duchess was as shrewd as she appeared.
Sophia felt absurdly young when the duchess eyed her sternly. "You know as well as I do where his interests lie. They were both glowing when they came back from the gardens. Haven't seen Dominic look like that since before … "
Shaking her head, the duchess suddenly looked every one of her seventy years. "I have been quite concerned about Dominic's matrimonial prospects. He could have had any chit in the ton with a snap of his fingers when he was younger. Now … well … I still have some influence. But he's never shown the slightest inclination. Until this."
The duchess's fingers shook ever so slightly when she lifted the gold-edged teacup to her lips and sipped deeply. Sighing, she continued, "Juliana would be a suitable match. Fine family. Beautiful young widow, but it won't do. Charles saw to that. Soiled goods, that is what Charles would have called her. Disgusting phrase, I know, but one on which Dominic was brought up. His father and mother ruined him for her. God forgive them."
Juliana pressed herself against the roughness of the stone wall outside the open French doors to the library, her hands clenched to her stomach. She had not meant to eavesdrop, but when she had walked onto the stone terrace, her aunt's voice linking her name to Dominic's had drawn her. She had never dreamed that what she learned would drive away the brightness of the sun and the beauty of the day. She was filled with a cold emptiness. Just this morning she had thought this emptiness gone forever, remembering all that had happened in the garden. It had been a miracle-believing Dominic felt something real for her. And now this.
How could his grandmother say this? Soiled goods? Ruined? He was ruined-for Juliana or for any woman? He couldn't be ruined. They wanted him in the House of Lords. Juliana had seen all the lures cast him in London. So it wasn't Dominic's fault. Then it must be hers. Confused beyond bearing, she pushed herself away from the wall and stumbled across the terrace, eager to put distance between herself and the hateful words she had overheard.
Bucephalus pawed restlessly upon the cobbled stable yard when Juliana arrived. Dominic, holding the reins of an ebony mare with a white blaze across her forehead, was turned away speaking to the groom and did not even see her.
Miserable and near tears, the duchess's words ringing in her ears, something broke inside her. Snatching Bucephalus's reins from the startled stable boy, Juliana threw herself onto the nervous horse and thundered out of the yard before anyone could stop her. She heard shouts but didn't let up in the slightest, instead she urged the magnificent stallion out into the Kent countryside.
Bucephalus broke into a crisp, steady gallop that loosened her curls to stream out behind her.