The Rake's Redemption(34)

She forced herself to the wash stand where she poured cool water from  the earthen pitcher over her wrists. Then she splashed water on her hot  face and throat, hoping to still the sickness waiting to overcome her.  It was little help. She flung herself onto the twisted covers and buried  her face in the pillow. How easily she had fallen under his spell. He  had brought other women to the paradise he had offered her, she realized  that, but she had been foolish enough to believe there would be no  other after her.                       
       
           



       

Oh, yes, my lord marquis, your charm is lethal, indeed.

She lay there letting her misery utterly overwhelm her. Her bedchamber door handle rattled slightly but didn't open.

"Juliana, please let me in!" It was Aunt Sophia. "Please dear, just for a moment. I want to talk to you," she called softly.

Scrambling off the bed, Juliana nearly tripped in her eagerness to reach  the door. Sophia would help her as she always had in the past. Juliana  knew she could count on Sophia. Maybe at last, she would discover what  this miserable family secret was all about.

She knew by the look of her aunt's face that her own stumbling and sobbing flight up the staircase had not gone unobserved.

But Sophia offered no false assurances and her face was grave.

She sat on the bed and Juliana ran to her, kneeling at her feet.

"Please tell me what is wrong with Dominic. What did Lady Grenville mean  in the coach? And the Duchess?" Juliana grasped her aunt's hands. "I  heard you both talking in the library. Please help me to understand."

"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry." Sophia shook her head, her lips tight, the  skin on her cheeks drawn tautly over the bones. "Come sit beside me,"  she said gently, pulling Juliana up and urging her onto the bed. "I can  only tell you it has something to do with Dominic's mother. Rodney  confided in me weeks ago about Dominic and his parents. It is a painful  memory for all of them to bear. I think  …  Rodney was upset with himself  for telling me. But I promised the story would go no farther."

"I assumed his parents were dead. What is it?" Blinking back fresh  tears, Juliana leaned closer to her aunt. "I love Dominic. I would never  do or say anything to harm him. You know that."

Sophia stood and paced to the window, staring out for several moments  before striding quickly back to where Juliana waited. Nodding, she took a  deep breath. "I know that I can place this in your keeping, my dear. I  will tell you what I know."

"No, Sophia, I shall tell her."

Neither of them had noticed they had left the door slightly ajar and now  the Comte de Saville stood there, a stern twist on his thin lips.

"Rod told you only what is known to the family. They do not know the  whole truth. I do. For I was there," he said, entering the room and  shutting the door behind him. "Now, at last, it is time to put away the  past."

Juliana looked at him, her breath suspended in her chest. She had said  those exact words when she had put Will's locket away forever.

"I want to speak with Juliana alone, Sophia," Jules insisted.

Sophia hesitated, narrowing her eyes as she studied Jules's stern face.  "I once told Juliana that if ever I met anyone she should be protected  from, I would descend upon them like a dragon."

Jules lifted one dark eyebrow and his mouth quirked up at the corner in a smile painfully reminiscent of his younger brother.

Sophia nodded. "I will go to my room to fetch a shawl and then I will  take a short walk in the rose garden before I return." Stopping only to  drop a kiss upon Juliana's head, she was gone.

Jules placed his hands on the mantel and stood studying his fingertips a  moment before looking at her. "You are in love with my brother." His  straightforward announcement left no room for missishness.

"Yes, I love Dominic," she replied in a whisper. Although her feelings  were numbed, she experienced surprise at the look of relief on Jules's  thin face.

"I saw your flight across the terrace and into the stable yard. And I  saw you return. You have been hurt by Dominic. But I know he loves you."

"No, he does not!" The pain of saying it aloud was too much to bear and she dropped her head into her hands.

"Juliana, I was there when you went thundering out of the yard on  Bucephalus. He was like a madman. It was the fear of a man for the woman  he loves. I saw love clearly on his face  …  just as I did in London at  Vauxhall. And last night."

At that she blinked away her tears and looked up. "Yes  …  I had thought … "  Stopping, she bit her lip, taking a deep breath into her chest. She  searched Jules's face for answers to the questions whirling through her  mind.

He sat onto the bed, close to her but not touching her. "May I tell you a  story?" His voice softened. "Not a pretty one. But perhaps  …  together  …   we can make it have a happy ending."

This was a Jules she had never guessed existed. Jules possessed his  brother's charm. She had seen him weave his spell in London, but she had  not witnessed this side of him-gentleness, concern-that was what she  saw on his face now. His eyebrow lifted again and she nodded, forcing  herself to give him an encouraging small smile.                       
       
           



       

"It started before Dominic was born. When his father, Charles, met Leticia. My mother."

The note in his voice was identical to Dominic's when he had spoken of  their mother. So, at least they shared something, these two who always  seemed at odds.

"I was a young child when they were married and we came to live at the  Towers." His fingers flexed involuntarily. "I was happy here. And  Leticia appeared to be happy. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. Dominic  was born within a year of the marriage. And after his birth she moved  to the west tower and took me with her. She left Dominic in the nursery  with a wet nurse. And she left Charles. Never again did they live as  husband and wife. But my mother did not lack for companionship. Her  lovers were legion."

Jules rose slowly, going to the window. She could sense how difficult  this was for him, heard pain in every word. As his hesitation  lengthened, she went to him and touched his arm. "Would you rather not  go on?"

"No, it must be told!" he said so firmly she dropped her hand and  stepped back from him. But he stopped her retreat, gripping her  shoulders and pulling her directly in front on him. "I have come back to  help Dominic understand what happened the night his father and our  mother died. I have tried to tell him before, but he would never listen.  Are you brave enough to hear it, Juliana?"

Suddenly she was afraid. She didn't want to know. What she learned would change her life forever.

She had to know.

"Yes, I am brave enough, Comte," she answered at last.

Breathing deeply, he nodded. "Dominic was eighteen and home for a visit  from Cambridge. Charles had been drinking heavily. His habit had  worsened over the years. And Leticia had also consumed too much wine. A  new habit for her. But, her beauty was fading and this was her way of  forgetfulness. After dinner Charles insisted on showing Dominic the  dueling pistols he would present to him on his next birthday. I had  finished at Oxford and was eager to go on an extended tour of Greece,  the only place left to me. Being French I could not go to the Continent  with Napoleon on the march. Leticia insisted she wanted to be alone with  me. I could sense Dominic's hurt that, as always, his mother had no  time for him. But I had very few nights left with her, so we went to our  suite in the west tower."

Jules stopped and Juliana could see a large vein throbbing in his neck.  She started to speak but he shook his head. "Dominic went to his  father's bedchamber and watched him load the pistols. They were Mantons:  superb workmanship, excellent balance. Perhaps Charles had already gone  mad, for he placed the pistols under his arm, grabbed Dominic's arm,  and pulled him along to the west tower. Charles beat on our apartment  door, but Leticia and I were so engrossed in  …  a discussion that we  hardly noticed until he forced the door."

The hard profile Jules turned to her could have been his brother's; the  pain she had seen before in Dominic's eyes. So long a time passed that  she thought he would not go on, but finally his words fell into the  silence as stones onto a still pond.

"Charles thought he saw something  …  something he misunderstood. It  …  it  robbed him of all reason. He went mad and shot Leticia. And he would  have killed me had Dominic not knocked his hand aside. That is how I  lost my eye."